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.
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.
2585 California St
Mountain View CA 94040
Phone 650.941.2505
Fax 650.941.2103
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