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GREENSBORO — Let's talk food — and a skinny can of mango juice.

It's really Louis Allen's idea. He's a criminal defense attorney, famous for his "Andy Griffith defense," who runs the Federal Public Defender office for the Middle District, or 24 counties in central North Carolina.

But I'm not here to rattle on about crime and punishment. This is about Allen's vision: the possibility of clustering all kinds of ethnic markets and restaurants on those vacant acres at South Elm and East Lee.

He first thought about it a few years ago when the Greensboro Grasshoppers' ball yard hop-scotched to the other side of downtown Greensboro, from South Elm and East Lee to Bellemeade and Eugene.

He mentioned it to me last year — and wrote an essay about it — following my series of columns about the need for Greensboro to deal with its divisions caused by distrust and fear, anger and hate.

Then came Allen's suggestion this week for an adventure: Spend an afternoon eating things I can't pronounce and visiting markets whose signs I can't even read.

For the first time, I ate Korean and swallowed chunky mango juice from a can before visiting nearly a half-dozen markets, hidden in the corners of tiny shopping centers, where in one place I found a bird, a fish or ... something.

It was smoked. I did know that.

And the whole time, there was Allen, in his $5 tie and lawyer overcoat. He smiled broadly, stood in an aisle full of sauces and said in his guttural Southern drawl, "Oh, sweet mama!"

Now, Allen lives and loves downtown. And he loves nothing better than standing over a steaming pot, mixing 20 ingredients together and following his gut in making a big batch of gumbo.

Plus, he loves the chase. He'll search for new ethnic markets in some corner of the city, and when he gets the quizzical looks, he'll volunteer without a question asked: "I'm loitering with the intent to gawk."

Allen's escapades bring home the growing diversity of our city, a place of 100 different languages, a place of 100 different cuisines, a place that makes Allen think about those empty acres at South Elm and East Lee.

But there's a message in Allen's sermon about food and possibilities.

"If you break bread with someone, how can you hate them?" he said.

The city plans to redevelop those 10 acres at South Elm and East Lee. It'll use $11 million, a mix of government loans and grants, to create a place to live, work and shop. City officials will ask for proposals this spring.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the community development group Action Greensboro will hold a meeting and ask anyone who's interested how our city can improve.

Allen comes at all this with a different perspective than many of us.

He's 54, a third-generation attorney from Burlington. He's got his grandfather's attorney shingle on his office wall and memories of telling federal juries how an episode of "The Andy Griffith Show'' relates to his case.

But he's also spent hours in jail cells, talking with hundreds of clients. There, he got to know them as people, and he realized they are just like us.

And that's what Allen sees can happen along those vacant acres at South Elm and East Lee, a meeting of cultures and a blending of our city over something universal — the need to eat.

"It's not a fix, but it's a statement of interest," he said. "It's like saying, 'Here's what we believe.' And that's exciting to imagine. Greensboro getting better, you know?"

I know.

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com