"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

Chef's Warehouse in South San Francisco

Chef's Warehouse at 447 Canal St in South San Francisco is the retail arm of BIA Cordon Bleu, a porcelain company that sells in many retail stores and outlets. Their quality is excellent and you can find bakeware of almost any size and shape. But that's not all; the store also sells cookware and kitchenware from many other vendors such as All Clad, Le Creuset, Peugeot, Cuisinart, Zylis, Oxo, Lodge and Kitchen Aid to name but a few.

Many seasonal or specialty ceramics go on sale from 40% - 60% off regular retail prices. Each time I shop here, the selection has changed a bit and more items have been moved to the 60% off table as the numbers decrease and fewer pieces of a particular color or pattern are available.

Some of my best bargains have been culled from that sale table. For example the small rimmed soup bowl pictured in red was $1.29 after the discount was applied. It came in red or cobalt blue and there were matching salad plates. All worked well with a solid white dinner plates, also available in the store at normal discounted prices.

This bakeware was all located on the 40% off table and the prices so good, it would have been smart to pick up sets as gifts. Available colors at the time were aqua, pictured above, brown, curry, mint green, yellow, and pink. I suspect that colors will be changing seasonally as fall colors were coming in on my last visit .

Besides selling individual specialty ceramics, they also sell dish sets. But not as you might imagine. You can pick the particular salad plate or soup bowl to match the dinner plate which may be round or square, so mixing and matching allows for a unique set for each individual taste. The dishes pictured above came in patterned and plain forms, round and square in both black and white.

Chef's Warehouse also carries Stonewall Kitchen pantry products at about 20% less than other retailers. They have included small selections of cookbooks, dishtowels, oven mitts, silpat, and a broad range of baking supplies.

http://www.biaoutlet.com/

447 South Canal Street

South San Francisco CA 94080

(650) 553-4155

Open Tuesday thru Saturday 9am to 5pm