Shop 30, Metro West Shopping Centre, cnr Paisley and Albert Sts, Footscray. Phone 0419 138 992.

For some reason I’ve always had Johns Nuts & Deli pegged as just another continental deli, the kind found in various other Footscray venues, in Sunshine, Carlton, Brunswick – and even in Chapel St.

The kind of delis that were a signpost of an earlier wave of migration to Australia, from Italy, Greece and continental Europe.

Well, in this case I simply hadn’t been looking hard enough. Or rather, my eyes didn’t see what wasn’t there.

Yes, there are many, many staples of your standard Melbourne-style deli – tinned tomatoes, jars of many different kinds of pickled vegetables, jams, wafer biscuits, a big range of dried fruit and nuts, stacks of sacked rice and beans and other pulses and much more.

What there is not, however, is meat in general and the many byproducts of pork in particular.

Owner George Sallama tells me his parents come from Jordan and Lebanon and that the family has run this business for 16 years.

And that Middle Eastern heritage no doubt explains a change I have been noticing at Johns – in a way that reflects the immediate changing community, the clientele is taking on a pronounced African slant.

For George, this is just simply doing smart business.

He tells me his African customers know where to head in his store for products and ingredients specific to their cooking and other needs.

These include the likes of sorghum and white cornflour for making injera.

But this new wave of customers also buys the same rice and beans and more as his other customers; they just use them differently, as we all know to our grand benefit!

Another speciality African item George stocks are what he calls mafraka.

These look like rudimentary walking sticks for persons of diminutive stature.

Wrong!

They’re actually a form hand-held beater used to help the cooking process of molokhia, the spinach-like dish found at many nearby African eateries.

George demonstrates by placing a mafraka between his hands, with the beater end downwards, and then briskly rubbing his hands together.

So simple!

My needs at Johns on this outing are simple – roasted almonds, dried apricots and white sultanas.

I include a couple of pieces of juicy baklava as an afterthought.

John’s Nuts & Deli is a living, breathing mirror to the changing face of Footscray.