Food is so tightly integrated with a culture that walking into an ethnic food shop can be like crossing a border into another country. Pittsburgh is home to dozens of such specialty shops, representing a variety of cuisines, cooking techniques and cultures.

The best of these stores are stocked well enough to satisfy members of that ethnic group while also being accessible to outsiders. If you aren't familiar with a cuisine, shopping in a specialty grocery can be exhilarating, educational and fun. But, if you have trouble understanding what things are, where to find them or how much things cost, it also can be intimidating.

Kohli's Indian Emporium (319 S. Craig St., Oakland), Vera Cruz Tienda Mexicana (413 Semple St., Oakland) and Tokyo Japanese Food Store (5855 Ellsworth Ave., Shadyside) are exceptional examples of specialty food shops that are pleasantly disorienting and welcoming to a wide range of communities.

Thanks to increased travel and food imports, Americans are now familiar with many ingredients once foreign to them: Lentils, tortillas, tofu and dried chiles don't necessarily conjure up anything out of the ordinary. But many candies and snack foods haven't crossed international borders, making displays of foreign candies particularly intriguing.

At Vera Cruz, there are hard tamarind candies and sweet, crumbly peanut mazapan (marzipan). At Kohli's, cookies and snacks with vaguely British names caught my eye, such as Britannia "Little Hearts" (heart-shaped cookies) and "Nice Time" (coconut biscuits). At Tokyo Japanese Food Market, you'll find sweet snacks, such as Pocky, biscuits dipped in chocolate and other sweet flavorings, and savory snacks including wasabi peas and rice crackers.

But what makes these stores more than just international versions of convenience stores is the amount and quality of ingredients, seasonings and condiments targeted at the home cook.

When traveling in a foreign country, the simplest kind of culinary tourism is visiting local markets and groceries. These stores can inspire the same desire to cook and to eat but in a situation where we are more likely to be able to do so.

Vera Cruz, the smallest of the three stores, had very little produce or ready-made food besides tortillas, but the room is filled with dry goods, spices and condiments. Bins on the floor hold dried chiles. There are neatly stacked cans of beans, bags of masa for tortillas and tamales, with bags of dried corn husks just below.

At Tokyo Japanese Food Store the variety and quality of products was impressive, including Japanese pumpkin, Napa cabbage, bok choi, Daikon, shiso leaf, and shimeji, enoki and shitake mushrooms. Continue along the wall and you'll see beautifully prepared pieces of fish for sushi and a wide range of tofu products. Neatly arranged on shelves are bags of tiny dried fish, a dozen kinds of udon and soba noodles, packages of nori (sheets of dried seaweed for sushi) and panko, for frying.

Kohli's Indian Emporium's location appeals to students, and the store's inventory is divided between ingredients for experienced cooks and a wide variety of ready-to-eat Indian meals. Sacks of rice and atta flour for making chapatis and other kinds of bread are stacked on the floor. Small bins hold coconuts, onions and potatoes; above them shelves hold large containers of vegetable oil. In contrast to true convenience stores, these items are offered in larger but affordable sizes, not overpriced small containers. Whole walls are covered with bags of dried grains and legumes and tons and tons of spices.

At the other end of the spectrum, walls and freezers are filled with packaged Indian meals that need only to be reheated in the oven or microwave. According to owner Sonni Kohli, frozen Indian breads, which he keeps right at the front of the store, are one of the most popular items.

Shopping at these stores is like a treasure hunt -- you never know what exciting ingredient or food you'll discover. At Kohli's I found a trove of rose, mango and saffron-pistachio ice cream. At Vera Cruz, I went home with a box of chocolate disks for making Mexican-style drinking chocolate, as well as packets of Mexican oregano, which is stronger than the European variety.

International aisles at grocery stores have been growing in recent years, but those aisles will never compare to the choices and quality of ingredients available at these small shops.

Exploring these goods in the store and in your kitchen is a pleasurable reminder of how much we benefit from the diverse culinary cultures that influence and interact with American cuisine.