It’s often really hard to find specialty food items at affordable prices, or even find them at all. Aside from Middle Eastern and Portuguese foods, which are very accessible to me due to the area I live in, I’d have a tough time finding any other specialty market.

Now that foodies all over are becoming interested in the culinary delights of other countries, New Jersey, like a lot of other states, is welcoming more and more foreign food specialty markets all the time.

You can get a little bit of a taste of a lot of different cultures at World Market which is not far away from me, but if you really want to dive deeply into the food culture of another country, you generally have to drive a long way.

For those in the Fair Lawn area, you’re in luck. A Russian specialty market has just opened and is selling a large variety of items.

The store is Magnit Bazaar, and it will be offering traditional Russian foods, in addition to home essentials. This name is familiar to Russian natives, as this is one of the major markets throughout Russia.

NorthJersey.com reports a handful of the products are competitive with stores like CVS, but will be at a much lower price point. Customers are hoping that the prices stay this way, but the competition is unpredictable.

There are other specialty stores in this vicinity, such as a kosher grocery store, a Lebanese market and a Swiss pork store, across the street from the Radburn Plaza building.

If you are interested in exploring outside cultures and trying something new, this will be a fun place to go check out the scene.

If it were up to me, I would have spent the past couple of years traveling, so these markets are pretty exciting. They are also a good way to make a normal night of cooking dinner a little more fun.

You can head to a specialty market and whether it be a new spice or a completely new fruit, use it in a meal and see what you think.

I love expanding my horizons when it comes to food and look forward to shopping at Magnit Bazaar.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Judi Franco. Any opinions expressed are Judi Franco’s own.

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