To create this map, we worked together with our colleagues from the Economy and Trade team at the city. They helped us gather a list of “exotic” shops registered in the Belgian Crossroads Bank for Enterprises. We downloaded this list in 2025.

Our two interns, Esra from Turkey and Nuria from Spain, then visited all of the shops in person. Their job was to check two things: first, whether the shop really sold ingredients from around the world (so night shops were not included), and second, whether the owners wanted to be part of the project. Because this project is focused on buying ingredients to cook your own food, restaurants and takeaways were not included either.

Some shop owners were happy to take part and even shared their stories, which you can also read on our website. Others preferred not to participate, and we respected their choice.

After this, we brought all the local shops together on the printed map, along with useful information collected by our interns, such as special products and promotions. On the digital map, we also included a few shops a little further away that we know are popular in our community.

We have gone to great lengths to make this map as fair and impartial as possible. This means we cannot recommend or promote specific shops over others. Our goal is simply to help people discover places where they can find ingredients from around the world.

If you think a shop is missing, or if you own a shop and would like to be included, please contact us through our form. We’d be happy to hear from you.