Written by Michele of Veggie Num Nums.

I used to live very close to San Francisco and I became a spoiled shopper since it was so easy to track down anything I needed. Finding an exotic ingredient was simple. I also used to love to just explore the small grocery stores that sold food from around the world. But since I moved to Central California I no longer have easy access to all those grocery stores. So, if you're like me and you don't live near a large city, or if you just enjoy “window shopping” and drooling over all the really neat foods that you've never tried before, here's a list of my favorite online “ethnic” food shops.

La Tienda specializes in Spanish food and has a huge selection-several hundred items. I would love to try their Marcona almonds and their saffron looks wonderful. They also sell some interesting Latin American products such as prickly pear marmalade and sweet potato flour.

Cuban Food Market sells such Cuban specialties like sugar cane syrup, and a whole page of guava products. I covet the guava empanadas.

Buy Lebanese has some fabulously exotic items. I'd love to order the mulberry jam and dried apricot paste. They also have a huge selection of different baklavas, and Middle Eastern sweets. The handmade olive oil soap sounds lovely.

I've ordered from Fresh Pasta before, and everything I've tried has been delicious. I especially like the raviolis and the gnocchi. Their sun-dried tomato pesto sauce is sublime.

Sweden's Finest sells lingonberry preserves and something called cloudberry preserves. They also have yummy ginger cookies is pretty tins, and gorgeous paper mobiles that are very inexpensive.

If you can't make it to Paris this summer, Saveur du Jour has some really special treats to help you experience the French joie de vivre in your own home. My favorites are the pretty tea towels, the fresh butter maker, chestnut honey, and an official French chef's Toque. For yummy French candies and gourmet ingredients try French Feast. I am loving their candied chestnuts and hand harvested sea salt.

Need a South African ingredient that your local market doesn't stock? Try African Hut. They have an extensive product list and some of the things I have my eye on are the Peri Peri sauces, the spice rubs, and the red teas.

What's the perfect treat for the foodie/pet-lover in your life? Make them a big bowl of mac and cheese using dog paw shaped pasta. The Pasta Shoppe sells all manner of creatively shaped pasta-tennis rackets, Christmas trees, bunnies, penguins, martini glasses, and on and on.

Food Ireland has some Irish favorites like currants(which I can never find locally), and Odlums flours.

The British Food Shop has an amazing selection of jams and spreads, Golden Syrup, and of course an abundance of teas. My English Pantry has a large selection of neat baking items-Bird's Custard, clotted cream, scone mixes, and something called “vegetable suet” which I just have to have. A really fun site for British goods is Jolly Grub, where you can find classics like Branston Pickle, Heinz Baked Beans (love them!), and mushy peas. They also have lots of really unusual things. I found something called “gripe water”.

I could spend a fortune at il Mercato Italiano without even breaking a sweat. They have so many things I love-organic sea salt, olive oils, farro, organic pasta, torrone, and a bunch of sweets that make me drool. Gourmet Food Express claims to be “your Italian grocery store online”. I was so excited to find that they sell real Italian“00” flour. This is the best flour for making perfect pizza crust.

Amigo Foods has products from a bunch of Latin American countries. Even if you're not planning to purchase anything, it's fun to go through this site just to see all the things you never even knew existed. I am especially curious about “pre-cooked white flour”. Pre-cooked? Flour? I've ordered from MexGrocer before and one of my favorite things that they sell is a make-your-own tamale kit. Fresh tamales are much better than those you can buy frozen from the store.

Russian delicacies are very well represented at Moscow on the Hudson. The labels may take a bit of deciphering, for example “Chak-Chak Domashniy” appears to be some type of honey nut cake. I don't even care about the ingredients, I would buy it for the name alone! The web site is a little confusing. There are actually two sites, one for local delivery in New York, and one for internet orders. Still, it's interesting to see the range of Russian products available.

Kalamala has a wonderful selection of Iranian products. I already have chickpea candy, Iranian green raisins, ready fried onions, walnut jam, dried mulberries, and Carnelian cherries on my wish list. They have a good selection of hookahs if that's something you're interested in!

Kalustyan's is one of my favorite stores ever. If you're in New York it's a great place to shop and stock up on ingredients. They have over 4000 products, and I love going through their spice selection. They have 30 types of dried chilies, and 50 types of beans-some I've never seen anywhere else. If you like tea, there are 180 varieties to choose from. The have really hard to find things like manioc flour and date molasses. This is such a fun place to shop if you're a foodie, even if all you're doing is virtual shopping.

Thai Grocery has unusual Thai/Asian ingredients. I really like their selection of sauces. They have the basics like sweet chili sauce, but I also found “stir-fry black pepper sauce”-I'm not sure what it is but it sounds interesting. KoaMart also sells Asian foods and they have a some hard to find dried ingredients.
I'm really curious about a product called “dried edible leaves”.

Zamouri Spices sells Moroccan food and some neat cookware. They have culinary argan oil, something I've wanted to try for ages, and they have a large selection of beautiful tagines.

Aussie Food Shops sells a bit of everything Australian. From souvenirs to Vegemite, and from Tasmanian honey to ginger beer. I would love to order some wattle seed; it's something I've read about but have never found here in the US.

I love Indian food, and India Blend sells over 2000 food and household items. I want to try the fried green peas and atta flour (great for Indian flat breads). The coconut oil, mustard oil, and almond oil sound like they would be fun to experiment with.

Some of my favorite online shops that sell food from all over the world are: Zabar's (a New York institution), Zingerman's which always has something new to excite me, and igourmet which sells just about everything food related, notably a huge selection of cheese from around the globe. Amazon also has a gigantic gourmet food section.

This list is by no means exhaustive. There are many more online shops that sell ingredients from just about every country you can think of. If you have suggestions for other sites that sell unusual foods and ingredients, I would love to know about them!