Balsamic Portobello Mushroom Caps

Homegrown Foodie

Balsamic Portobello Mushroom Caps.

Ingredients & Directions:

• Portobello Mushroom Caps – baked in the oven at 350 F for 25 minutes
  • olive oil drizzle
  • seasoned with salt, paprika, black pepper, garlic, onion powder, oregano, thyme, & cayenne pepper
• Prosciutto placed on top of mushroom caps and crisped for 5 minutes in the oven
• Arugula, Goat Cheese, and Sauteed Mushrooms placed on top of the caps and warmed in the oven until the arugula begins to wilt
• Balsamic Glaze drizzled on top after removing from the oven
  • reduced balsamic vinegar with coconut sugar

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Chicken Teriyaki Bowl

Homegrown Foodie

Chicken Teriyaki Bowl.

Ingredients:

• Grilled Chicken
• Sauteed Veggies (Broccoli, Carrots, Zucchini)
• Sesame Seeds
• Brown Rice
• Homemade Spicy Teriyaki Sauce (Low-sodium Soy, Coconut Sugar, Garlic, Ginger, Water, Corn Starch, Rice Vinegar, Sriracha)

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New Location

The first Yummy Market location opened up in Toronto at the Finch and Bathurst St. intersection in 2002. The store then up-sized and relocated to Finch and Dufferin St. in 2005. In 2013 a second Yummy Market location opened in Vaughan at the Major Mackenzie and Dufferin St. intersection.

 

The new Yummy Market location differs significantly from the older, first location. Firstly, compared to the old location, the new location has much less of a Russian influence. More employees speak English and there are also more Canadian shoppers in the grocery store. There is also a wider variety of products, more brands, and other European cultures more equally represented in the new store.

 

The new store is also much bigger than the first, and is comparable to a main chain grocery store, such as Loblaws or Sobey’s. This store is friendlier for Canadian shoppers because of the larger presence of English-speaking staff and a larger selection of non-Russian products.

The new store is a great asset to the Yummy Market chain, as it has brought in a lot more Canadian customers. The new location is making Yummy Market a household grocery store name and has benefited the chain immensely. I suspect that many more Yummy Market locations will be opening up in the future.

Canadian Perspective

Shopping at Yummy Market is a unique experience for the average Canadian shopper. Yummy Market advertises their supermarket as a European experience, however, upon entering the store, you begin to notice that one European culture dominates all others, and this culture is Russian. Most of the employees speak Russian, most of the product is Russian delicacy and the store labels are written in Russian. With everything in the store centering around Russia, it is hardly fair for the store to claim that they are offering shoppers a European food experience, it is rather a Russian food experience.

 

Canadian shoppers might feel uncomfortable and excluded when they enter and begin to shop in the store, if they do not speak Russian or come from a Russian background. One Canadian customer was interviewed after her first time shopping at Yummy Market and she said:

 

“ I didn’t realize how strong the Russian influence was in this grocery store. I overheard most of the employees speaking Russian to each other and to other customers. It made me feel a little bit excluded and I just wished that the grocery store represented other European cultures just as well as it represented Russia.”

Russian perspective

 

Yummy Market is a great atmosphere for those who are from Russia. Most of the employees are Russian and Ukrainian speaking, and a lot of the store labels are written in Russian. The strong Russian presence in the grocery store makes newcomers from Russia feel more at home. Those who are not very confident in their ability to speak English can feel comfortable approaching the staff and asking questions about products, as the employees will be able to speak to them in their native tongue.

Yummy Market also helps keep the Russian culture alive in Canada for those who are from Russia. The store is a great way for people to find Russian foods that may be hard to find in other, more mainstream grocery stores, and in this way people can continue to pass on their culture and traditions to the younger generations in their families.

Yummy Market is overall a great way to keep the Russian culture thriving and alive in Canada. It is a great way to bring the Russian community together in an environment where everybody can feel comfortable and at home.

10 year anniversary of Yummy Market

The video is in Russian, however most importantly the supermarket’s interior and features can be seen. The organization of the various food departments and other products is differently set up in comparison to a North American supermarkets, this can be appreciated. Also noteworthy is that mostly everything is written in Russian and Ukrainian. This accommodates the vast Russian-Ukrainian speaking population of shoppers, which also defines the stores real identity, rather than it being more multicultural and having customers from various backgrounds shopping at the supermarket.

First Impression

View from the front.

Yummy market is a unique European food experience as the subscript following the main title on the front of the store says. Precisely speaking, located on Dufferin St. just south of Finch Ave., it is a European cuisine filled supermarket with baked and already prepared goods, along with a more traditional North American style supermarket setup. The most unique feature of the place is the atmosphere. Russian and Ukrainian conversation can be heard throughout the store, as approximately 90% of the clientele is Russian-Ukrainian speaking. Therefore, most of the employees are also of the same background and many of them are new to Canada, which gives the store its authenticity of the European culture and cuisine, or does it?. Location of the supermarket makes it easier for customers of Russian-Ukrainian descent to flood the store in large numbers since this part of Toronto is home to those specific backgrounds. As a result many returning customers visit the supermarket weekly, even daily. Even though advertising is slanted towards attracting customers based on their European food offerings, the supermarket is not evenly distributed in terms of its products originating from a variety of different countries in Europe.

The owners are aiming to attract a diverse population of clients to come in for that bite of a variety of authentic European cuisines as a result of advertising that steers potential consumers to believe the store is a full on European experience. The expectation is that customers from different European backgrounds are going to flock in by masses. This is true, minus the diversity of the crowd. Out of the 50,000 mostly satisfied shoppers every month the Dufferin and Finch location receives a majority which consists mainly of Russian-Ukrainian speaking customers. By no means this is a negative statistic. Having consumer awareness about the intentions of a store like Yummy market about the ways of selling their product can identify a deceptive technique bestowed upon potential shoppers by the owners that want to market their products in such way to lure people to buy them. Having this awareness will serve as a piece of mind to recognize that what you are buying is not authentic as the advertisements otherwise suggest.