Every year brings more restaurants to the area serving international cuisines. The supermarket boom has kept pace with the population boom, and national and regional chain markets are offering ingredients generally classified as “ethnic.” The selections in the big stores are standard. But, what if you get a Vietnamese or Korean cookbook for Christmas? Where to go to get pickled mudfish and dried anchovies, or red dates for that Eight Treasure Pudding? What if you miss that cocoa drink your mom in Guatemala used to serve you after school?

This is a brief survey of four locally owned markets, each offering not only food of a certain region or country, but other goods and services.

I started at La Chalupita, in Freeport’s Olde Towne Plaza on U.S. 331. The sole employee didn’t seem to have much English, so I smiled and took pictures. Space is maximized. Shelves are utilitarian, and goods are carefully stacked and arranged. Package colors are bright. One display was loaded with powdered and dried spices, herbs and prepared seasonings. Next to it was an equally packed display of dried fruit, nuts, sweets and savory snacks, as colorful as Mardi Gras beads.

Also in the store was a magazine rack, a selection of men’s belts, and an aisle of soaps, lotions and grooming supplies. A sign on the door advertised, in Spanish, that one could wire money from here. A few homemade posters gave notice of sales, barbecues, and church events. I left, hoping to find someone to talk to at the next stop.

I did at El Mercadito on U.S. 98, in Santa Rosa Beach. I entered the store, which is about the same size as La Chalupita, and could smell cooking. This place features a lunch counter in the back, and serves Cuban sandwiches, tamales, menudo, and other daily specials. As with Chalupita, there are rows of packaged and bottled snacks, spices, teas, salsas and processed foods. A woman introduced herself to me as Paola Barrios, of Venezuela, who co-owns Mercadito with her husband. The store has been there one year, and Paola called it a Latin “convenience store.”

In addition to buying prepared or packaged food, customers can pay bills and wire money, purchase phone cards, and keep up with the local community. Paola said that she and her husband German saw nothing of its kind in the area, and felt they could fill a need. “It’s been pretty good,” she said. The cook at the counter is preparing a pungent blended sauce from charred dried chilies “Let’s go outside,” said Paola, “my throat is burning.”

On the sidewalk, Paola went on to explain how a lot of Latin American and South American foods are similar, just differently named. She also said her customer base has been widening. “Americans are coming in and asking, ‘What is this here?’”

My next stop took me to Mary Esther, and Yiota’s International Foods and Deli, another market/restaurant serving Greek and Middle Eastern foods. Athens-born owner Yiota Louzris said she has been here for 10 1/2 years. “It started as a joke,” she said, talking and putting together sandwiches simultaneously. “I cook a lot, but couldn’t get Greek ingredients. People told me to open my own place.” More than a decade later, she is still making food and party trays to go, and selling items off the shelf like baba ghanoush, stuffed grape leaves, pickled garlic, olives and oil, Greek pastries, and a deli case filled with Greek cheeses, cold cuts, and taramasalata, a tasty dip made with fish roe.

Of all the places I visited, Yiota’s is most like a cafÈ. There are tables, some covered with newspapers. Clients, many in uniform, are greeted like old friends. “We’re short-handed today,” said Yiota, tidying up as she talks. She spends long days here, not only cooking but loading in supplies, which come frequently from New York and Chicago. Among these are the beef and lamb roasts she slices to make gyros, the house specialty. When Yiota isn’t working and cleaning, she cooks at home, and does volunteer work in the local Greek community. Business has built up to the point where she hasn’t had to advertise in years. She will also advise customers on how to prepare Greek dishes. “But I don’t give out my own recipes. I tell people I’d have to kill them.”

My last stop was Thai Market, in Fort Walton Beach. It is only one of many such places, which can be also found elsewhere in Fort Walton Beach, Crestview, Niceville, and Panama City. Co-owner Noi sat and talked to me while she ate her lunch (pizza).

Thai Market is large for its kind. The shelves are stacked with sauces, pastes, condiments, bagged dried spices and herbs, sacks of rice and boxes of noodles, canned fish, pickles, crackers, and cookware. Noi, who comes from Thailand, said that they carry goods from Thailand, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines. A look around also finds items from India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia. There are also cold storage boxes, and a produce cooler with fresh lemon grass, ginger and lotus root, and perishable meat and fish products. Noi said the clientele is mostly Asian, but one can see any number of Western faces, often military, browsing for elusive ingredients. Noi and her husband get their goods from Texas, Georgia and New Orleans, and are happy to advise customers on recipes.

Business is good. “We’re thinking of adding a snack bar,” Noi said. “Or opening a restaurant,” she laughed. They’d certainly be well stocked.

Having read this, you now know where to find not only fish sauce, but also Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce. Or soy sauce from Manila, which is different from Taiwanese. Or ready made menudo spice, if tripe stew is your dish, and baklava made by Athenian hands. These markets accomplish a neat double trick. For some, they offer a whiff of faraway places with strange-sounding names. For others, they’re a taste of home.

La Chalupita, Olde Towne Plaza, Freeport, 835-2700.

El Mercadito, 3906 U.S. 98, Santa Rosa Beach, 622-4760.

Yiota’s International Foods and Deli, 130 Miracle Strip Pkwy, Mary Esther, 302-0691.

Thai Market, 404 NE Racetrack Road, Fort Walton Beach, 863-2013.