The first European explorers set sail with hopes of finding new, exotic spices to placate the palates of epicurious monarchs, but all they found were heaps of inedible gold. Pick up where they left off by broadening your mouth’s horizons with today’s Groupon to Messina Market and Catering in East Norwich. Choose between the following options:

• For $15, you get $30 worth of prepared lunch or dinner fare.
• For $45, you get $100 worth of catering.
  
  

Drawing on 30 years of catering experience, the seasoned chefs at Messina Market and Catering dish out a menu of freshly prepared comfort fare. From a 20-foot display case packed with pastas, meats, fruits, and veggies, customers pick out main courses and sides, which they may enjoy in the market’s upscale café and cappuccino bar or bring home to devour in the comfort of their footie pajamas. Patrons placate hunger pangs with a half-pound of the renowned chicken dumplings in peanut sauce ($4.99), a yogurt-crusted chicken breast speckled with dried cranberry ($5.49), or quarts of homemade soups ($10.99)

To feed a large party of friends and family or two medium-size walruses, customers can order platters and trays of catered cuisine. A deli platter ($10.99/person) attires bread with two varieties of meats, two types of cheeses, and condiments; a kids’ party package ($8.99/person) appeases youthful appetites with helpings of mac ‘n’ cheese, chicken fingers, mini pizzas, and mini cupcakes. A dozen assorted mini quiches ($25) take up less table space than large quiches, leaving upscale cocktail parties with more surface area for rounds of wine-pong.