Finding the food of home: how to order African groceries and meals where you live

Moving abroad rarely changes what you want to eat. The difficulty is finding it. The shop that stocks teff flour, sorghum, plantain, dried fish or the right spice blend is often a small family business with no website, known mostly by word of mouth.

Food is also how families pass on who they are. A child who grows up abroad learns the taste of home from what is cooked on a Sunday, at a wedding or during a festival, and that depends on being able to buy the right ingredients.

This guide explains how to find those shops and restaurants, what to look for in the aisles, and how to have it all brought to your door.

Start with the shops near you

Dimi lists local shops and restaurants that serve diaspora communities, with their products, menus and prices. Open the food or groceries section and it shows what is near your address, so you can compare shops before you leave home.

Browse groceries

Browse restaurants

What to look for in the aisles

Every kitchen has its staples. A few that diaspora shoppers often look for:

• East African kitchens: teff and sorghum flour, berbere and other spice blends, lentils, and dried okra.
• West African kitchens: plantain, cassava and yam flour, palm oil, egusi, crayfish and stockfish.
• Caribbean kitchens: scotch bonnet peppers, ackee, saltfish and green bananas.
• Latin kitchens: masa harina, dried chillies, black beans and plantain.

Fresh produce sells out quickly and arrives on particular days. If a shop is out of something, ask when its next delivery comes in.

Finding a restaurant that cooks it right

Restaurant menus on Dimi show each dish with its price and, in most cases, a photo, so you can see what you are ordering before you order. Look at the restaurant's other dishes too: a place that serves a full range from one region usually cooks for people who know that food well.

If a dish you miss is not on any menu near you, ask a restaurant you like. Many cooks will make a family dish to order for a celebration, given enough notice.

Browse by culture

In cities where it is available, Dimi groups groceries and food by where they come from, so you can go straight to the aisle you know rather than searching item by item. Salt Lake City is the first city, with more to follow.

See a culture aisle in Salt Lake City

Delivery or pickup

• Delivery: a local courier collects the order from the shop and brings it to your door. You see the delivery fee before you pay.
• Pickup: you collect the order from the shop yourself, which is often quicker for a small order.
• Shipping: some shops send non-perishable items such as flour, spices and dried goods to other cities.

Ordering ahead also helps the shop. A restaurant can start a slow-cooked dish in time, and a grocer can set aside the last bag of the flour you need.

Cooking the dishes you grew up with

Many diaspora cooks adapt family recipes to what they can find. When an ingredient is missing, the shop owner is often the best person to ask: they know which brand is closest to the one at home and how other customers use it.

Tips for your first order

• Check the weight or size in the description. Flour and grains come in very different bag sizes, and a price only makes sense alongside the weight.
• Order fresh produce early in the week, when shops usually have the most stock.
• Add a note to the order if you need something specific, such as ripe or green plantain.
• Keep the order to one shop where you can. It arrives together and you pay one delivery fee.

If you cannot find something

Small shops change their stock often. If an item you want is missing from an aisle, use the "Can't find it? Tell us" link on that page. Requests show us which shops and products to add next, and the more people ask for something, the sooner it appears.

Do you run one of these shops?

If you own a shop or restaurant that serves your community, listing it on Dimi is free, and customers searching for the food of home can find you.

Put your shop on Dimi