Alemany, the Grandfather of SF Farmers' Markets

Not knowing the exact history of this market, its year of origin is unknown to me, but my grandparents bought produce here in at least the late 1950's. It predates all other open air markets in the city in recent memory. After visiting many of the other markets, I can say with certainty that Alemany is one of the largest and one of the best. Prices are lower than Ferry Plaza because vendors who trade at both places have admitted to saving their best quality produce for the rarefied atmosphere of FPFM. The quality of the produce here is generally better than that being sold at Civic Center, but it varies from vendor to vendor, so this assessment can turn on a dime, or the date when visiting the markets. All in all, the produce at Alemany is plentiful and reasonably priced.


The selection of fruits and vegetables is broad and items other than fresh produce are also in great supply. For example, there are extra virgin olive oils from 2 and sometimes 3 vendors, honey, beeswax candles; duck, chicken and quail eggs, handmade soaps, bakery goods; Indian and Afghani condiments, spreads and flat breads; and vendors selling prepared foods. In Spring you may also find a vendor selling seedlings for your own home grown produce.


Exotic fruits like cherimoya can be found and although they are not grown locally, it's nice to have someone willing to drive them up from Southern California. Ordinary fruits like Granny Smith apples, citrus, grapes, peaches, plums and berries are carried in season, but some have been put in cold storage too, such as the grapes I saw in January. It's a good idea to ask if you want truly seasonal produce.


I've also seen Fava Beans in January, but discovered that they had been grown locally in a greenhouse. Most other vegetables are truly seasonal and ethnically diverse from Asian eggplants, mustard greens and melons to Italian specialties like cardoons, artichokes, and flat leaf parsley


As is evidenced by the photographs, this is a very colorful market and it is impossible for me to shop there without my camera. The lower right photo is of the most colorful walnuts I have ever seen. The skins of this nutmeat are reddish burgundy and the flavor is classic walnut. They are on the top of my grocery list when they appear again at Alemany Farmers' Market. Nash's Olive Oils set up the next photo for me. Besides the oils, they also sell cured olives by the pint and have agreed to sell me raw olives in November, so that I might try my hand at salt curing them. You meet the nicest people at the markets.

100 Alemany Blvd
San Francisco CA 94110-6221
Phone: (415) 647-9423

Balsamic Mid-Priced Powerhouse

Liking balsamic vinegar and wanting the best puts me on a path to try many brands, both local and international. Bariani makes one of my favorite olive oils, but until recently I resisted their vinegar. Since one of the sons mans a stand at Ferry Plaza each Saturday, I finally asked for more information about it. It is not the imported vinegar that one might assume, but a vinegar they bottle themselves. Ah ha, but traditional balsamic is made from Trebbiano grapes.

Obviously they thought of that, and their product is made from Trebbiano grapes, but they have customized it by also using Zinfandel grapes to make their proprietary blend. Delicious! It has a higher acidity than most moderately priced, imported Balsamic vinegars, but it is also sweeter than the imports, with a heavier mouth feel and a more robust taste. At $11 per 500ml, it's a good value. I believe a reduction made with this vinegar may result in a close mimic of a very expensive "traditional" Balsamic. Thank you, famiglia Bariani, for leaving Lombardy to settle in California.

http://www.barianioliveoil.com/

Speaking of European Products...

Every time when visiting a new country, I beeline to an outdoor market or grocery store to get a feel for what products the locals are consuming. Most often they are using things you might find in an American market, only the products are produced locally. Case in point, Santa fruit juices produced in Italy. On a recent trip to Italy I photographed Santa juices because they are one of my favorites in the world. These commercially produced juices are made with 40% juice as compared to our 10-15%. What a difference the higher percentage of juice makes in the intensity of taste, and as a side benefit less sugar is required to make it. I bought some of the albicoca in Venice and it was delicious on its own, but made a fine addition to the Prosecco our hotelier comped us on the day my husband rejoined me after a hiking trip in Switzerland. I only wish I could buy this locally.

Another Favorite Italian Drink

When I was a child sitting at my grandparents' dining table, I would often wonder why my grandfather was adding water to his wine. He would often offer each grandchild a small glass of water laced with red wine, to drink along with their dinner, but we recognized that pure wine was for the adults. So why did he add water to his glass? If the question was ever put to him, he most likely would have responded that he liked it that way and that would have been answer enough for a child.

On my first trip to Italy, I discovered Lambrusco in Rome. I loved it as much as any American teenager would love Ripple (even though I was of legal drinking age), a fruity, sweet, red wine with a big plus, it fizzed! But I made no connection with that and my grandfather's preference. Then a few years ago I tasted Gutternio, a wine from Emilia Romagna that was a robust, dry, frizzante (sparkling), red wine. Bingo!!! Everything fell into place as I remembered that the water Papa had used was a sparkling water. He most certainly was trying to mimic an Italian wine that was not imported into the U.S. This wine is the one that I look for when dining in Italy, since it is still not available locally. Prior to all the hoopla about carrying liquids on planes, I used to carry back a few bottles in my purse.

No Shortage on Chocolates in the British Isles

Butler's has to be the best chocolate in Ireland. After our visit in May, I have been rationing out the few pieces of it that managed to make it back home with me. The idea of using some for small gifts didn't even occur to me once we left the Emerald Isle and my ease of purchasing it was over. The few milk chocolate bars I tried were luscious and silky on the tongue, some had caramel or ganache as fillings, but the best by far for me was this, the white chocolate and raspberry.


It compared favorably with the organic fair trade chocolates that are being marketed by the Marks and Spencer Food Halls all over Great Britain and Ireland. Of the two M&S flavors tasted, I thought the rose infused one was exotic and flavorful, but as a novelty taste, not a classic chocolate. The milk chocolate was distinct from most other good quality chocolates and excellent in flavor. You can bet I will purchase that one again, when I get the chance.

Magnani in Berkeley

This butcher shop delicatessen is not packed to the rafters with products, but is worth a mention for the quality of its poultry, including fresh Muscovy duck and rabbit as well as some red meat, and its selection of olive oils and flavored Balsamic vinegars. It's really the vinegars that attract me to this small Berkeley, Gourmet Ghetto neighborhood shop. If fig, black currant, or pomegranate suit your taste, buy their empty bottles, fill them up and expand your Balsamic horizons. You can bring the bottle back for a refill another time, or two.

1576 Hopkins St
Berkeley CA 94707
Phone: (510) 528-6370

Salt of the Earth...

While some would disagree, the texture of various salts seems more important than the actual taste. Some salts have more minerals or a higher degree of salinity, but unless they are flavored, they're pretty much the same...salty. Ah, but that's the rub, many salts are flavored and what a difference that makes, especially among the smoked salts.

Salish, the alder smoked salt of the Pacific Northwest is intense and I like its grayish brown color and small gravel like granules. Halen Mon, the Welsh oak smoked salt has a lighter smokiness with flat crystal flakes and a pale gray color. Having purchased a generic black smoked salt with fine textured crystals, I admit to that being the smokiest of them all. Even in a double bag, its aroma wafted through the kitchen for months, although it was tucked in the back of a utensil drawer, so it wouldn't affect other items like herbs and spices that would normally be stored with salt. When asked what was in it, all I could come up with was salt and carbon. I have never seen it again and I believe that is for the best, considering the description. I recently purchased a hickory flavored salt, but have yet to taste it.

Of the flavored salts I have purchased, Halen Mon Vanilla flavored flakes seems the most exotic, or perhaps an Italian truffle salt, or an hibiscus salt. But I haven't yet tried the latter two or a red pepper infused salt. Some flavored salts really fall flat, as did a sage salt and lemon salt I recently acquired. The ideas were better than the products, so a little experimentation with those combinations might be in order. I've already made my own lavender and rosemary salts with some success.

Pink salts have the most obvious mineral inclusions of iron, creating lovely coloring from the deep rust of Hawaiian Red or Alea salt to the soft pink of Real or Himalayan salt. To my palate, Real salt has the highest salinity level, and I usually refer to it as "salty salt" and reserve it for use on popcorn.

When it comes to textured salts, Murray River salt from Australia is my go to salt. I love the pink color and the flakes are just the perfect size, so as not to accidentally over salt something. Maldon salt from England comes in a strong second with light flakes of a modest size; again very easy to use without the danger of over salting foods.

Costco Italian Imports

Considering Costco is a "big box" store and is able to negotiate good prices by volume purchasing, I'm entirely surprised and delighted at the quality of its Italian imported balsamic and olive oil. I really believe it is passing along the good deal to its customers.

For very fair prices, they sell the best balsamic I have yet tried outside of Italy, and it has been aged for 15 years, not the typical 5 or occasional 10 years that are readily available in the US. Even compared to the equally inexpensive Trader Joe's 10 year balsamic, Costco has the superior product.

The olio nuovo is just what you might expect from a new Tuscan olive oil, grassy with a spicy finish. It's a steal at just under $12. Be sure to look for it this coming winter.

Monterey Market in Berkeley

If unkempt store appearance or cosmetic flaws on produce are of upmost importance for you to avoid, this is not the market for you. I can understand the chaotic appearance of the store based on the shear volume of business being done at this Berkeley institution, but cleanliness is another matter. The floors on my last visit were sticky, heaven only knows what they had mopped up, and there was a need to crop out the edges of the refrigerated cases in the following photos, to avoid showing how dirty they were. That being said, I can deal with it; we have to wash everything anyway. Why? Because the prices are dirt cheap, excuse the pun, and they are an incredible resource for unusual products.


Case in point, the Bergamont sour oranges and Seville oranges pictured above. I have never seen these oranges for sale San Francisco. The Bergamont oranges were 79 cents per pound, and make the best marmalade with their classic "Earl Gray" aroma. The Seville oranges were also that same low price and are the classic marmalade orange. Navel oranges, the size of baseballs, could be had for 29 cents per pound. Granted, I had to forage through boxes of all three to find pieces of fruit in mint condition, but it was an adventure.


Their selections of fruits and vegetables are broader than most stores twice their size and I repeat, the prices are cheap by any standard. Click on a photo to enlarge it to better see the price. Monterey Market also has a fine selection of olive oils, vinegars, fresh mushrooms and condiments for a variety of ethnic recipes. The wine and bakery sections do not disappoint either.



http://www.montereymarket.com/


1550 Hopkins St
Berkeley CA 94707
510-526-6042
9:00 AM - 7:00 PM Monday - Friday
8:30 AM - 6:00 PM Saturday
Closed - Sunday

Say Cheese...

Every time I enter The Milk Pail Market I feel like I'm transported to a rural countryside open air market. Boxes and boxes of fruit and vegetables are stacked as high as they can be to still allow customers to reach the contents, creating small lanes to traverse with their very narrow shopping carts. Bright colored umbrellas shade the produce and customers, cocooning them into an exotic atmosphere. But that is not the primary reason one travels out of San Francisco and halfway down the peninsula to shop....it's the cheese.


Four very long refrigerated cases hold the best selection of imported cheeses I have ever seen. For over 8 months I checked out all my local stores for Cabot Horseradish Cheddar, a cheese I love to use in grilled sandwiches. Milk Pail had it along with a chive horseradish Havarti I intend to try. They carry Italian, Dutch, English, Irish, Swiss, Swedish and Canadian cheeses and many other imports, but their French cheese list is the jewel in this crown. They sell more French cheese than any other store in this country and the turnover is at lightening speed. Best of all, most of it is ready to eat and fully ripe.



I can't even consider having a party without going to this cheese Mecca.The small green refrigerated case pictured above is their holiest of holys...the sale case! On this last trip it was loaded with English Stilton, chevre, Blue D'Auvergne, Roquefort, Norwegian Jarlsberg and smoked Rambol to name but a few, all for $1.99 - $5.99 per pound; absolutely rock bottom prices.


That's not all; their bread, roll, and cracker department is fully stocked and their condiment section is excellent. I buy all my chocolate and extracts for baking here too, since the Guittard is $3.09 per pound and the extracts are $3.45 - $3.99 per bottle. A supermarket extract could easily cost the same at 1/3 the size.


Recently, I've noticed their nuts which also are sold at a lower price than most stores would have. Milk Pail also carries a good selection of pates and other meat products like smoked duck breast and duck salami, that would appeal to the francophile in most of us.


An honorable mention should go to their butter case. Again, there imported selection is broad and includes one of my favorite butters, Delitia made from milk produced in the Parma area of Italy. French yogurts can also be found here. Oh, those beautiful yellow onions pictured at the top of this post... 20 cents per pound.

http://www.milkpail.com/

2585 California St
Mountain View CA 94040
[map + hours]
Phone 650.941.2505
Fax 650.941.2103