Accidentally Stumbling into a USSR Grocery Store

I have been to 45 countries and gone to grocery stores in most of them. In fact, it’s my favorite way to get acclimated to a new place. Nowhere has felt more foreign than Craft Food in Plano, and that’s not hyperbole.

My husband and I stopped by on a whim. The window advertised a fresh deli, cheese and a bakery. From the outside, it looked like any other modern American corner store. You would have no idea you were about to step into another world entirely.

Inside, we recognized nothing. Cheese looked like stringy spaghetti. Tinned cans and mystery to-go sides were swimming in cloudy liquids like a science lab. Fish was vacuum-sealed in bags and hung up like some sort of aquatic jerky. The only clue as to what we were purchasing was on the itemized receipt. None of the labels were in English.

We asked if they made sandwiches. The owner, Anush, with her heavy accent, laughed and said, “No, but eat these; they’re better.” She pointed to a case of nondescript, flaky brown pastries. Some were baked, some fried, all stuffed with either beef, cabbage or potato. They were samsa-a savory Persian samosa-and pirozhki, Russian yeasty buns shaped like little boats. A culinary tour from Poland to the Caucasus in a doughy shell.

Confused, I asked, “What is this place?” She said it was a USSR grocery store. I wasn’t even sure that term was still PC. According to ChatGPT, it is. Continuing down the rabbit hole, of the union of 15 post-Soviet Republics that made up the USSR, and are now independent countries, Russia is the most well-known, but everything from the -stans is included at this spot.

Never one to turn down a food challenge, I told her, “I’m game. Give me your favorites.” Normally a meat girl, the cabbage was the surprise winner – the potato kind of tasted like a savory doughnut.

And then the scavenger hunt began. She ran me around the store, handing me things I had to try. Some were good, some I could’ve lived without, but all of them made for an amazing food adventure.

• Frozen mini chocolate-covered cheesecake bites. Yum.
• Meat jelly and horseradish croutons to snack on like potato chips. Random, but they grow on you.
• Georgian pear lemonade. Smash. Tarragon lemonade? Pass (unless you like that black anise licorice flavor). I thought they were liquors – the bottles looked so fancy. She laughed and said, “No, but come back and try the Armenian wine.” Noted.

The place stocks food and drink from more than 10 Eastern European countries – most of which you’ve probably never heard of, let alone tasted. You’ll find everything from honey-and-prune flavored vitamins to cult-favorite Dubai chocolate to an allegedly “very popular” Ukrainian mayonnaise I’ll let someone else try. It was the most incredible accident.

If your curiosity isn’t curbed yet, you can also head to their original outpost, CCCP Market, also in Plano, which is even more of a Cold War time warp. Na Zdorovie.

Craft Food, 8300 Preston Road (Preston Creek Shopping Center) Sunday – Saturday 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.