Who would have guessed it – a Portuguese café and food shop in Chard? But then again, who would have guessed that there was also a Portuguese community there?

Big things come in small packages, an aphorism as true for gifts as it is for the diminutive Polish Delicatessen in Weymouth. Located opposite the train station, the Tardis-like shop sells thousands of Polish foods and drinks in an area the size of a large living room, and though a visit to the shop may not be the same as going to Poland, it is certainly the next best thing.

Viewed from the front, the terraced house of Goyas and Safna Miah in Dorchester looks ordinary enough: car in the drive, neatly-trimmed grass and pots of flowers for decoration. But looks can be deceiving, and a check around the back tells an extraordinary story about their efforts to create a garden flourishing with the vegetables of their native Bangladesh.

South Somerset is not a multicultural hotspot, but that didn’t prevent Pheeraya Hill from moving there. Leaving Thailand in 1992, she first went to Haselbury Plucknett before settling in Merriott, where she and her husband, Jerry, now live.