A few weekends ago we happened to be downtown and stopped by a small Asian grocery shop, looking for gram flour. This is the special flour, made from a certain kind of chickpeas, that you use to make pakoras. The store did not have any and we ended up having to go all the way down to Montreal to get some--but what a delightful surprise in discovering this marvelous little épicerie.
This is Hermencita, its owner:
She sells jasmin tea in bulk, ghee, garam masala, and any number of other foods and spices difficult to find in general supermarkets or local health food stores. She also gives cooking classes in the kitchen at the back of the shop.
She invited us to look--and that's where I discovered these marvelous murals, painted the entire length of the wall opposite the sink and oven. Her brother, Herman Unso, painted them a few years ago during a visit from the Phillipines, their native country.
This is Hermencita's grandmother.
What better scenes for a kitchen mural
than highlighting where the food comes from?
than highlighting where the food comes from?
Carrot, anyone?
Joy, in the everyday work of life
Riding in the rice fields
What a pleasant surprise that hot, busy afternoon -- to have stumbled onto and been invited into a private, hidden art gallery in someone's downtown kitchen.
Hermencita has kindly given me permission to show these paintings here on my Jottings blog. If you are ever in Trois-Rivières, the name of her épicerie d'Asiatique is "Feng Shui".
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