Chefs spice up food tours

"It was very exotic," says Marcy Rizzo of Newton, Mass., one of those on the tour. "You really felt like you were in a different country when you walked into those stores. [The place] wasn't Americanized - the way of displaying things, the quality, the smells, the colors; [or] how things like brilliant pink pickled turnips and crushed red pepper paste are used in everyday cooking."

Sortun deftly moves around the store fielding questions from the group about items such as tiny bundles of dried purple eggplant that are bound with thick rubber bands. She explains how to use fresh dates, which are hard and light yellow - with little resemblance to their dried, sticky, brown cousins - by slicing them very thinly and using them atop salads.

She draws out two types of skewers and explains the difference to the group: The round shish are used for cubes of meat and vegetables. The flat shish are for ground meat. "They make it by kneading the beef or lamb until the meat becomes creamy and binds itself. This is like their meatball," says Sortun.

The next stop on the morning tour is Massis Bakery, which feels like a cross between Sevan's and Arax. Here the group is treated to warm samples of kibbeh. Since the store has many similar ingredients to the first two, the time spent here is short.

Sortun then herds the tour across another street to Town Shawarma, a halal meat market, where samples of grilled sujuk (a special spiced meat mixture, similar to sausage) and a salty yogurt drink are served. The owner, Magid Alhussein, is amiable, and brings out the samples as soon as he sees Sortun walk through the door.

Sortun ends the tour at a small local restaurant, where, among platters of falafel and dainty dishes of humus, her clients chatter about this unusual peek at an often overlooked ethnic neighborhood.

• For more information, call (617) 353-9852, e-mail cularts@bu.edu, or go to www.bu.edu/lifelong/tours/food.html.

Here's a sprinkling of chef-led tours in other parts of the country:

• Chef Kerry Sears of Cascadia Restaurant in Seattle offers market tours through Seattle's famed Pike Place Market. Mr. Sears offers insider tips on selecting seasonal ingredients and ends the program with a three-course lunch made from ingredients gleaned that morning. Cost: $65 per person. Saturdays throughout the summer. Phone: (206) 448-8884.

• Celebrity chef Rick Bayless occasionally offers tours through Chicago's venerable Maxwell Street Market - combing through mostly Mexican and Latin food stalls and shops for delicacies. For more information, e-mail his assistant, Jen Fite, at: jfite@fronteragrill.net.

• The Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, Calif., offers small-group tours of organic farms and aquaculture operations in the Monterey Bay region. Tours include cooking demonstrations and lunch. Well-known chefs participating include Rick Moonen of RM & Branzini restaurants in New York; Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger of Border Grill and Ciudad in Santa Monica, Calif., and Los Angeles; Charles Wiley of Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain in Paradise Valley, Ariz., and more. The next event is Saturday, May 21. For more information: Monterey Bay Aquarium, (831) 648-4800 or go to www.mbayaq.org.

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