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.

http://www.milkpail.com/

2585 California St

Mountain View CA 94040

[map + hours]

Phone 650.941.2505

Fax 650.941.2103

Porsche Designed Chroma 301 Knives

Every time someone asks about knives I have to suggest the Porsche designed Chroma Cutlery knives from Japan. I received one as a gift and ended up buying the entire set over time. It has the best ergonomic fit for my hand and the right weight. The blade sharpness has lasted longer than either my Sabatier or Henckles knives.

Besides ergonomics and weight, these are the easiest knives to wash and keep bacteria free, because there is no seam between the blade and the handle for bacteria to gather. I no longer have to worry about the handle becoming loose, or in the case of wooden handles, no worries about water logging the wood.

I think the company explains the benefit of a Chroma 301 better than I, so please check out their website. I have never seen these knives locally in San Francisco except at the shop across the street from the California Culinary Academy, where they were higher in price than offers on the Internet.

ttp://www.chroma-cutlery.com/type301.php

Buon Italia

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, Olive tepenade, Porcini mushrooms, Romano cheese, Salumi, Truffle oils and pastes, Umbrian olive oils...

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 diversity in the deli department, nor with legumes and grains. 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 deli 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 just short of 2 lbs. each. Sataro 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/

Kalustyan's

If you can't make it to a bazzar in Tangiers or Istanbul, try walking into Kalustyan's in New York City. You get the same feeling of wandering along narrow thoroughfares (aisles in this case) and knowing you are not in Kansas anymore. One step inside and you have left the city for the
Middle East, sans an airline ticket and passport.

Aisle after aisle is packed floor to ceiling with spices, flours, grains, and condiments. Every color of dal imaginable, every dried legume you ever knew about and several others you hadn't heard of, chestnut, rye, garbanzo, amaranth flours, they're all there just waiting to inspire your culinary imagination.

Having little time and being overwhelmed by the selections, I only picked up 2 items, and vowed to come back to buy more; the longest journeys start with a few steps.

http://www.kalustyans.com/

Located at 123 Lexington Ave

New York NY 10016
(212) 683-8458

Corti Brothers Market

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. 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 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 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 traveled to Wales for my Halen Mon! 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 and pasta, 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. 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 two photos above show just a small sample of the vinegars and wines available at the market. One in an 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.

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 the 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 had 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 exploring.

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. 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
Sacramento CA

Chef's Warehouse

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 bake ware 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 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 plate, also available in the store.

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. The dishes pictured below 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. There are also small selections of cookbooks, dishtowels, oven mitts, silpat, and baking supplies.
http://www.biaoutlet.com/

Di Palo Fine Foods, Inc

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.