Friendly Foods on Center Street in Tacoma sells three or four different kinds of pirozhky.

I caught just a brief mention of pierogi on a food show a month or so ago. It was enough to get me intrigued with making that at home.

And so I launched Project Pierogi. Or Project Piroshky. Or Project Piroghi. There are a lot of ways to spell and make meat and vegetable stuffed vessels. Update alert! Until recently, ahem, I knew little about the differences between all these meat-filled vessels. Readers have told me about the difference between pierogi (boiled meat vessels, dumpling like) and piroshky (fried meat vessels, turnover like), and have given me a big list of all the versions of all kinds of Eastern European meat vessels (there are many). A dozen readers have offered me recipes for pierogi, piroshky, piroghi and __ (insert various names and variations there) and I intend to share them with you in a story. I love that when you know little about something, TNT readers line up to tell you what you need to know. And give recipes for it. Lots of recipes. I love recipes. Please send me recipes.

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Pork Tenderloin with Spicy Cranberry Glaze and Couscous. Pic by me.

I went in search of harissa this week to make a dish we published in yesterday's food section - pork tenderloin and couscous with cranberry-harissa sauce. It made for a fine New Year's Eve dinner last night.

My Tacoma harissa mission took me to two stores, both with international inventory.

My first stop was Daniah's International Market and Deli on Sixth Avenue (we wrote about Daniah's about three years ago, but I don't think we've revisited). Right there on the second shelf of the grocery section, I found the can of harissa I needed to make the pork dish. And it was bargain priced at $1.49. Harissa, in case you've never tasted it, is a spicy red sauce used in Moroccan and North African cooking.

Even though I had harissa in hand, I was curious about another store where I never have shopped. I was pretty sure they didn't carry harissa, but thought I would pay a visit to the European Deli Romka on Pacific Avenue anyway. I was right, no sign of harissa there – the inventory is centered pretty strictly on European groceries (Eastern and Central European, but no straying to Morocco). But if Ukrainian and Latvian soda pop and Russian cheese is what you seek, this is the store for you.

Click "read more" for the pork-harissa-cranberry recipe, and to see more about the groceries and takeout food I found at each store.

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