Take an A to Z grocery store tour with chef Winston Lewis and food columnist Andrew Coppolino

As we wander the aisles at Kitchener's A to Z Variety African and Caribbean Grocery, chef Winston Lewis stops to point out the thick stems of a succulent plant in the produce section.

"You call this aloe vera, but I call it sinkle bible," says Lewis who then picks up an avocado. "And this is what we refer to simply as a pear on the island."

The names might be different but the flavours are similar, according to Lewis as he describes the produce and foods of the West Indies and Jamaica, where he was born.

Recently, new Caribbean food stores have opened in Waterloo Region, including The Yam Seller on Victoria Street Kitchener and Jamstyle in Preston Towne Centre, to name just two.

As for Caribbean restaurants, established anchors such as Rainbow Caribbean and Ellison's Bistro along with Big Jerk Catering have led the way historically and provided some inspiration for newer venues such as Kitchener's J&K Cuisine Caribbean Grill and Bar and Irie Myrie's and All Good Things Caribbean Food, Cafe and Catering in Cambridge.

At the corner of Water and Victoria streets in Kitchener, A to Z has seemed to fly under the radar, but the store has been flying the Guyanese flag for 16 years.  

Owner-operator Stan Hardayal says the store is stocked with Guyanese ingredients from a country that is culturally close to many Caribbean nations and their foods.

"We have hundreds of Caribbean foods including HTB bread, yellow yams, sweet yams, dried pigeon peas and guaymus fish," Hardayal says. "We serve a wide range of people who shop here, but now it's mostly Africans."

Near the front of the store is a small warming oven loaded with popular Michedean Jamaican patties; one shopper is queued at the cashier with a large box of the frozen versions tucked under his arm.

It's for these reasons that A to Z is a favourite shopping destination for Lewis who has cooked in the region for many years and is currently with Bella Vista Catering.

When it comes to the variety of foods we have access to, it's just a matter of trying out what you're not familiar with, Lewis says.

"A lot of African products here and primarily a lot of Caribbean products and from the island of Jamaica itself," says Lewis, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica.

"Everyone has different flavour profiles they like, but you can find the basics you need in order to produce what you want from your country of origin."

It's more than just raw ingredients like spices, Irish moss and Scotch Bonnet hot peppers, meats, grains and breads for his cooking: for Lewis, A to Z also feeds his imagination and stirs memories — even a common herb such as thyme has a certain weightiness beyond the fragrance we all recognize.