Berkeley Bowl

Berkeley Bowl has to be the gold standard of super markets in the San Francisco Bay Area. When they announced a second store, many of us in San Francisco held our breaths and hoped it would be on this side of the bay; no such luck, but maybe the luck is in how close we actually are.

Can meat get any better than this? For the first time in 20 years, I made my grandmother's pasta sauce with a B.B. chuck roast from grass fed beef and it finally tasted like hers. As I forked over the money for it, I couldn't help but think that I could have purchased 2 from Costco for the same price. I could have but it would not taste the same. This says something very negative about agribusiness and their insistence on feeding cheap, subsidized corn to cattle )who cannot digest it properly), for better profit, not better animal husbandry or taste. 

The bakery department is also filled with products that are of better quality than we expect from a supermarket.

Just look at these photos for a sample of the variety of products available to a shopper for one particular item. The top left photo is just olive oil and vinegar, the top right shows the bulk olive bar. For someone who collects different types of pasta, this store makes it easy to purchase something new. And tomato sauce; the selection is so broad, it includes my grandmother's favorite brand "6in1" that I seldom find, except in specialty markets.
 

Produce at Berkeley Bowl is so special they even have multiple varieties of each fruit, and that is not limited to 3 or 4 Apples. I once counted 8 varieties of mangoes. Vegetables I have never even heard of before are abundant, but don't let me tell you, allow me to show you. I'm putting together a photo montage on the side bar of this blog. Here are just a few examples:

Pears and Apples

Cactus Pears

Mangoes

Black Apricots

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Zabar's has....."

Zabar's! If you ever wondered why you like to shop for food, look no further. Just walking into that store reminds one how remarkable each and every morsel can be. The selection is gargantuan. How can an A list store start with the letter Z?

There were 2 aisles exclusively for cheese. Soft cheeses, hard cheeses, made from cow milk, sheep milk, and goat milk. If they had yak milk cheese I would not have been surprised. Besides prepackaged products, they also have a deli counter where you may select cheese cut to order and taste samples.

The butter diversity was no less spectacular and these photos are only the tip of the iceberg. The selection was international, from Europe (Kerrygold from Ireland) to South America and back to the USA with one of my favorite butters made by Vermont Butter & Cheese Company included. Every 5 minutes or so an employee got on the public address system to announce a new tasting somewhere in the store. "Ladies and gentlemen, it's truffle season at Zabar's. Walk to the back of the bread department for samples of truffle products from Umbria Itly." Yes, it was pronounced "it lee".

Well, how could one resist, I walked to the back and bought the Umbrian truffle oils after an in depth discussion with the vendor. I also purchased the first bottle of saba, concentrated grape must, I have found on this side of the Atlantic. Yes, my curiosity got the better of me and I also bought chocolates, one with bacon that tasted decidedly smokey and salty and utterly delicious, one with oil of bergamont, also a taste treat. Chocolates? They had different selections at the ends of each cash register aisle, again from all over the world. The photo shows only one of the brands with 7 flavors from which to choose. I would have taken more photos but didn't want to overdo it.

They were hawking a book on food sources and restaurants in NYC and offered a deeply discounted price, if customers arrived at the deli section before the author left. With 10 minutes left, the race was on. Sure enough, the book was autographed and paid for with a 45% discount.

How does one manage to miss photographing the largest deli case in the store? The truth is, there were so many people ordering food, it was almost impossible to see. Besides I was on the public address orchestrated merry-go-round, whirling my way across the store. "Ladies and gentlemen, Zabar's has a tasting of French imported olive tepanade made with green olives, capers....". The photograph above shows the Italian salami only, there were at least 2 more cases like this one outside of the main deli section. A bakery rounds out the selections on the ground floor, along with floor to ceiling shelves of condiments and preserves, some with the Zabar label.

There were also cases of oils and flavored vinegars from all over the world. I passed the tea and coffee sections briskly, while on the merry-go-round. Next I toured the upstairs to see every kind of kitchen equipment imaginable. Couldn't help but wonder how frustrated the regular customers must be to see all that and have no counter space!

http://www.zabars.com/

80th and Broadway on the Upper Weside NYC

M-F 8AM-7:30PM

Saturday 8AM-8PM Mezzanine closing at 7:30PM

Sunday 9AM-6PM

Di Palo's in Little Italy NYC

Located at 206 Grand Street in NYC's Little Italy you'll find a wonderful Italian delicatessen with a wide array of cheeses, cold cuts and condiments to please any palate. Getting into the store is a challenge as it is usually packed with customers. That's a good indicator as to the quality, but inconvenient for thoroughly scouring the shelves of offerings unless you are adept at people moving.

Do not pass go, do not collect $200 until you pick up a number at the end of the deli counter closest to the door.

Di Palo's is noted for making fresh ricotta and mozzarella for their store. As you can see by the front window, cheese reigns supreme at Di Palo's, but don't count out the imported Italian salumi, as that is also an important offering at this Little Italy institution. As small as Little Italy is becoming, it will still have presence as long as Di Palo remains in business.

The selection of imported goods is remarkable considering the small size of the store. I have found items at this store that are not frequently seen elsewhere. Among them are Star brand porcini bouillon , plain and flavored vincotto and a broad selection of vinegars. Most stores are getting hip to providing a selection of olive oils, but very few think beyond basic red wine vinegar and mass produced balsamic. I should mention that the vincotto prices are the best I've seen on both coasts and the bouillon was almost half the price I saw at another Italian specialty store in NYC.

The store also has a broad selection of canned tuna, olives, tepanades, sauces and other basics you would expect in this type store. No trip to NYC would be complete without visiting DiPalo's.

(212) 226-1033
200 Grand St at Mott St
New York, NY

Corti Brothers Market In Sacramento

If a picture is truly worth a thousand words, this review will be too long to read. While the store is not visually sumptuous, everything they stock seems to be and I couldn't stop recording it all with my camera. Since it was appropriate to ask for permission to take the photographs, I was able to meet Mr. Daryl Corti and have to admit that his own quote is the perfect description of the store and it's philosophy, "We don't have everything that is good, but everything we have is good." Oh, better than good, Mr. Corti, much, much better!

Originally, Corti Brothers was going to be a quick stop for guanciale, during a visit to Sacramento. Having read through their somewhat disappointing website, I knew that they stocked it and a few other things of interest including olives and an exclusive, store brand of extra virgin olive oil. That was enough of a reason to go, and the last of my disappointments with this fine market. Besides guanciale, they also stock domestic prosciutto "ends" that have always been appealing to me, for use in thicker proportions than slices can provide. I have seldom, if ever, seen them for sale.

My foodie heart skipped a beat when I saw Halen Mon, Maldon, and Fleur de Sel all sitting side by side in the spice aisle. Then my eye wandered and found Murray River salt, in two sizes, mind you, along with some Italian, Hawaiian, and Japanese salts. This store must be Mecca for any person appreciating a great diversity of finishing salts. Even at this distance from San Francisco, a trip for salt alone would be worth the time and travel expense. I don't know of a single store in the city that carries even two of these. Heck, I ordered from the source for Halen Mon because it was difficult to find, and with shipping charges paid just about the same as it was priced here. It wasn't until I edited the photos that I discovered the spice aisle was full of Penzy's spices.

A wide variety of Italian imports and pantry staples were hard to miss. Several brands of panforte were available, along with pannetone, ceci (garbanzo) and semolina flours, pine nuts, polenta, and ceci beans. the selection of imported pasta was large enough to fill an entire aisle.

But don't think this market is exclusively stocked with Italian items. it has everything you can imagine, soup to nuts. Speaking of soup, Campbell's sells in every super market in every city, but when was the last time you saw a can of Scotch Broth, Pepper Pot, or Bean and Bacon?

Most specialty stores don't even sell Burrata cheese, but Corti Brothers has two brands to choose from (click on the photo to enlarge for prices, a pleasant surprise awaits). When have you ever seen a can of Haggis in an American market? I don't even remember seeing it in Scotland! And there is even a vegetarian version.

.....
The first two photos above show just a small sample of the vinegars and wines available at the market. Oil in the etched bottle is from Sciabica Olive Oil company and I have never seen them sell it themselves at Ferry Plaza Market. It's made entirely of Arbequino olives, usually associated with Spanish olive oil. The store brand is pictured in the next photo, and is made and bottled by Sciabica. They were the same variety of olive but pressed at a different time of the year. A taste test will be absolutely necessary, to once and for all put to rest the idea that fall crushings taste better,or to confirm the fact. Either way, it's bound to be fun and educational.

Another wonderful thing about this market is their deli counter, bustling with activity all day long. Next visit should yield an entry about that alone, but there was no time to spend on it this first trip.

When asking the employee stocking wine if they had any dry, sparkling, Italian red wines, he suggested Lambrusco. Never having had a dry Lambrusco, I was surprised and told him I thought that might sweeter than I wanted. He pointed to the 3 of 7 Lambruschi that were dry, not sweet....and we were not even standing in the Italian wine section. Their wine section deserves some further exploration.

If spirits are your downfall, this is the place to pick up a Lost Weekend's worth. I have never seen so many brands of Scotch sitting in one place outside of Scotland, other than the Whiskey Store in San Francisco, one of only three such stores in the United States. They also stock more bitters than I have ever seen in one place. French aperitifs anyone?

http://www.cortibros.biz/

(916) 736-3800

5810 Folsom Bl at 58th St

Sacramento CA

Buon Italia in Chelsea Market NYC

Chelsea Market is hiding more than a few treasures and Buon Italia is one of them. This Italian deli looks more like a warehouse of imported goods. Crates and boxes of items, from olive oils and vinegars to pasta and grains, fill all possible floor space not covered by refrigerated cases and shelves. What a treasure trove of items for the Italophile in all of us.


What do you need? They have it: Anchovie flavored oil, Bottarga, Capers, Dolci, Extra virgin olive oils, Fettucine, Gorgonzola, H (sorry no h's j's or k's in Italian,but you get the idea here), Macaroni, Olives, Porcini mushrooms, Romano cheese, Salumi, Truffle oils and pastes, Umbrian olive oils, Vinegars... For those of us not fortunate enough to find fresh porcini mushrooms, they provide both dried and frozen forms at moderate prices for the American market. Their dried form of porcini is light colored, indicating freshness.

As you can see in the above photos, they do not lack selection in the deli case, nor with legumes and grains. Did you notice the quail eggs? In the back of the store there are more deli and fresh meats with butchers to help you get just the right cut. The front of the store has a deli counter where you may order sandwiches and other items to go.


Condiments are my personal benchmark for comparing a good grocer to a great grocer, when it comes to the imported inventory. Buon Italia does not fall short on quality condiments or pastas for that matter. I was thinking the pasta prices around $5.50 were not such a bargain until I noticed that the packages were 1 oz. short of 2 lbs. each. Setaro brand from Napoli is now going to be on my short list for excellent dry pasta. And I have Buon Italia to thank for bringing it to my attention.

http://www.buonitalia.com/

Chelsea Market
(212)633-9090