Grocery Stores around the country.....

[shroomgirl]

My idea of a good time is to walk through grocery stores when I'm traveling....(farmers markets, bakeries, etc) after this last visit to KY I bought some Morton's sugar rub for hams, pickling salts, various cornmeals.....funky sorghum/cane/honey mixed....

When I visit NO it's Community dk roast coffee, andouille, red beans, olive salad, ham bones from Mothers, pecan rice or Stansil's rice

When I'm in NYC it's breads, teas, cheeses.....

So I'm sure if someone came to STL they'd want something we have here that's hard to find elsewhere....what do you find in other cities' stores?

[Cheri]

Spices, in ethnic markets, I visit them everywhere I go, I just left SF where I visited Rainbow and purchased the best Bahrat seasoning ever. In Vegas I purchased Kabob seasoning and white pepper 6 oz for .99! I love that Turkish kabob seasoning and cannot wait to get back there. With the internet I can buy anything, but I love the thrill of the hunt. If you ever get to LA let's take a field trip together, you sound fun!

[Tango]

Here in Eastern Washington we have a multitude of fresh produce. This region is well known for apples. We have the famous Walla Walla sweet onions. Also we have a growing microbrew industry and many wine producers. Be sure to tour them when you visit the Columbia basin and Yakima valley.

[SGMChef]

Hey shroomgirl,

I am right there with you! Travel and grocery stores are the only way to go! Here in Virginia it is a store called Ukrop’s. They are primarily in the Richmond area, but have a few others in the state also, less than thirty total.

Ukrop's has their own peanuts packaged for them from one of the VA plantations. If you haven’t had plantation style #1 peanuts, you haven’t had real peanuts! Planter’s doesn’t count as real peanuts if you have had the real thing. You can order them on-line from most of the plantation operations here in VA. I was one of those that thought that peanuts were peanuts until… Well you just have to try them. Just do a search for VA peanuts or you could just go here if you choose http://www.plantationpeanuts.net/ as my sister and friends really like them and get the 22oz Gourmet tins regularly. My friends and relatives back in Wisconsin all order them all the time now, as will I when I relocate to the Badger state!

I was stationed in Europe for over ten years total and I definitely visited grocery stores in every city of every country I went to. My sister loaded up on “Microwave Spotted Dick” in England!

GOOD TOPIC!
Regards
SGMChef

[Ishbel]

This is one of my most favourite shops in my home city of Edinburgh
Valvona & Crolla - Welcome
If any of you get over here, put it on your itinerary!

Travelling around the UK I try to pick up locally produced goods - good cheddar from Somerset, saffron bread/cake and Cornish pasties from Cornwall. Ayrshire bacon (IMO the best in the world) when I brave the west coast of Scotland! Heather honey from the gates of small cottages in the highlands of Scotland. The list goes on......

[Suzanne]

I'll bet you guys think that here in NYC, I can get just about anything. Well, you'd be wrong! Sure, I can get a lot of stuff, but boy, would I have to pay a lot for it. So I love checking out groceries when I travel. One thing I'm always on the lookout for is hot sauces. And items that my local stores have carried but don't any more, like pure cranberry concentrate. (Those are both why I wear red so much when I travel -- in case a bottle breaks in my bag. ) And even if I can't bring anything home, I love to just look.

When I was in Dallas a couple of years ago, I brought back a bag of Mexican limes, some beef jerky from a butcher in the Deep Ellum neighborhood, a can of salsa verde (that I make, but I like to compare mine to commercial ones and get pointers) -- stuff like that. From London last fall: dried mushrooms from a stand at Borough Market. From Seattle: porcini powder from the Italian grocery at Pike Place.

I still remember that on a trip to Columbus, Ohio, 30+ years ago, when my parents and I had to kill time, we headed across the street to a supermarket (see where I get it from? ). For those of you who don't know, Columbus is one of the premier test markets in the country -- if it's a new product, they see how well it does in Columbus first (NYC is about the LAST place to get anything new, and if it doesn't sell with a boom, it's gone soon. ). What do I remember seeing that I'd never seen before? Red leaf lettuce!

For those who come to NYC, if you want to stay in Manhattan, you have to check out Chelsea Market (right, shroom? )for a variety of fresh foods, baked goods, and different ethnicities); the Union Square Greenmarket (best in late summer, but they're open all year); "Curry Hill" -- Lexington Avenue in the mid- to high 20s, where there are still Indian groceries including Kalustyan's which you may know from online/mail order; Chinatown, of course; and Ninth Avenue in the upper 30s to the 50s, with a few remaining ethnic places including West African. There is also part of Atlantic Avenue in downtown Brooklyn for Arab food (Sahadi in particular); a much better Little Italy in the Belmont section of the Bronx (Arthur Avenue); another Chinatown in the Sunset Park part of Brooklyn; and Pan-Asian in Flushing, Queens. There are other areas, too, but I haven't explored them yet.

[allie]

I just returned to Indiana after a week long visit to my family in southeast Georgia. I went to a local grocery store for cane syrup because I can't get it here. While there, I saw some Cheerwine which I dearly love and also can't find in this area. I also bought a can of boiled peanuts. Yes, fresh are the best BUT when it's the wrong season and you can't even get a canned one at home, you make do! lol The last one is sad, but true, I went to Walmart to get Keebler Wedding Cookies. That was my favorite from childhood and again, they aren't available in my area. That was the most disappointing! I made Mexican Wedding Cookies at Christmas that tasted much better! Now if I could just figure out how to get that hint of chocolate and coconut in my own cookies. I think Keebler has changed their formula because these just aren't the same.

If it didn't take me 15-16 hours to get back home, I would love to bring back fresh produce. We didn't have room for a cooler in the car and I didn't want anything to spoil or wilt before we got home. You just can't get good greens in Indiana! lol

[KYHeirloomer]

Sorry, Suzanne, but I have trouble working up much sympathy.

You know on those cooking shows how they're always saying, "available in any market?" Yeah, that might be true when Chelsea Market is right downstairs, and, even in a pinch, Gristedes probably has what you need.

Try the hastings, sometime, where almost everything beyond basic salt & pepper involves a major trip, because nothing is available. Seriously, the closest thing to exotic found around here is the "ethnic foods" aisle at Walmart.

When I travel I haunt the central markets and ethnic and specialty shops not just because it fun. For me it's a necessity.

And can anybody tell me where one of those newish mango slicers is really available? My markets aren't among the "any market."

[Mezzaluna]

This is one of my passions that my husband doesn't get. We were recently on a Caribbean cruise and stopped in Limon, Costa Rica. We didn't sign up for an excursion but chose instead to check out the downtown area near the dock. (We were cautioned not to roam far.) I had asked where the market was and found it easily. DH chafed while I pored over the bins of habanero and scotch bonnet chilis; chunks of sugar; plantains and bananas and all the other wonderful produce.

On a trip to France about 9 years ago I wanted to see what was new in the LeClerc near our Paris hotel. Much to my surprise I found La Preferida refried beans and taco sauce, as well as tortilla chips and ingredients for making chili- none of which I'd seen 10 years earlier. I was amazed to see how many American food labels I saw later that trip in the Tesco in London. (I will refrain from a rant about the cultural significance of these findings.)

One of the best market trips I've had was in the Mercato Centrale in Florence, Italy. The produce was like jewels and the aromas were intoxicating. I brought home porcini mushrooms, and enjoyed one of my favorite fruits, fresh figs, on the spot.

[tigerwoman]

we travel alot and markets including supermarkets are our "museum of the living" I love the markets in France, even LeClerc the supermarket is way cool. We ended up buying a whole leg of spain ham and hung it above the fireplace in the old farmhouse we stayed at for the month. Everynight we'd have some ham and port or wine yumm and it was ridiculously cheap. Too bad you cannt bring those things back home.

In Southeast Asia Bali in particular both the outdoor produce and sundries market and even the supermarkets are facinating.

I would say we have been to markets and supermarkets in Greece, Turkey, Israel, France, Spain, Portugal, Bali, Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Java, Lombok, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica to name a few... Yeah we love to travel on our stomaches.

Living in New York there is a pleuthra of great sources. Besides the many that Suzanne mentioned - and we use the green market at Union Square and Chelsea Market extensively for the catering business, there are some great areas and markets in the outer boros. In fact I often take vistors and even local NY friends on what I call a food safari.


Since Suzanne covered alot of Manhattan, I'll do Queens

I live in Queens, Forest Hills to be exact, and in my hood there are alot of Russian, Uzbeki, and Israeli Stores that sell great stuff from deli items - lots of pork products, cheeses, capanata in jars, korean carrot salad (a hold over from the soviet days I guess when the communists were all buddies)

A great find has been the Russian Candies - interesting flavors and gorgeous wrappings and graphics on individual chocolate and filled candies sold loose by the pound between 4-6#. There's a fabulous store that sells alot of Israeli products, as well as salmon caviar, fresh pita, prepared hummous as well as their own, fresh roasted coffee, nuts and dried fruit, spices by the pound so you can just get a small amount.

Then if you go to Elmhurst there are numerous Asian stores, restaurants and supermarkets with so many different ingredients I wish I had a translater sometimes. We've even found an Indonesian store and they sell this amazing dried block that becomes a good peanut sauce with lots of flavorings including a very distict lemongrass. I've used it as a coating on grilled shrimp, since it crumbles to a powder (which you are supposed to mix with water to make peanut sauce) The asian in general are into alot of packaged foods and seasonings. Funny enuf, there was a vendor at the weekly market in the south of France selling some of the same items we had brought with us for my niece like chili jam, peking duck seasoning, hoisin etc - down to the same brand even.

Then there is the Patel Brothers chain of supermarkets. I believe they have stores across the country. The biggest one in NY is in Jackson Heights which is a very multi ethnic community with Indian, Pakistani, Pan Latino, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian (the store I mentioned) and more....

Then there is the Flushing Chinatown, which covers many asian cultures and on the fringes of it there are many pakistani supermarkets and bodegas. The food choices are boggling. But if you want good BBQ NY isn't really the place to be...and good BBQ is an art form unto itself. Then of course you have the carribean neighborhoods of Queens, with everything from Jamacian Jerk and Patties to Trini Roti and Curries. And the fruits, vegetables and spices change again. There is a chain of supermarkets called Western Beef - in fact there's one across the street from Chelsea market, but mostly they are in very ethnic neighborhoods and cater to whatever groups lives closest - so when you need hard to source produce and canned goods/spices they are another source to check out. They don't carry the same thing in each store.

Parts of Eastern Queens that border with Long Island have become very Indian and you find restaurants and shops and bakeries all over the place.

Astoria has middle eastern foods - there's a fabulous bakery called Laziza's of NY, also well known for Greek Food, Titan Foods is a fun store to visit with 10-15 different kinds of olives 6 kinds of feta, etc. Best find there has been a 1 kilo tub of total greek yogurt for $6.25 man I love that stuff especially with some of the phillipino honey lime stuff drizzled over the top.

That's a cool product we found in the Asian supermarket. It's a special Phillipino lime probably similar to key lime from the smell called Kalamansi Lime
mixed with a honey - it's a concentrate to make a drink but we use it in lots ofthings from crab coleslaw to fruit preparations as well as a drink if you aren't feeling that great.

It's fun to have so many choices in your own backyard. Of course I cann't go pick Meyer Lemons off the tree like my friend Ron does but hey, I can have pizza at Nick's or DiFara's.

[tigerwoman]

Originally Posted by Mezzaluna

This is one of my passions that my husband doesn't get. We were recently on a Caribbean cruise and stopped in Limon, Costa Rica.

I loved the market in Limon even though the town was kind of run down- and the whole of the Carribean coast of Costa Rica - I was there with my son when he was in middle school and we did alot of cooking which was fun. I like the way they incorporate coconut into their cooking like the black beans and rice with coconut in the beans.

Oh and I forgot the markets in Morocco which was my most recent trip. The produce especially the oranges were incredibly sweet and juicy and Fresh. and the look of the spices and the way things are displayed makes me so excited. Food porn really. Turkey too has these incredible spice markets with pyramids of gorgeous colors and aromas.

And watching the tortilla factory in a small town in the Yucatan - going to the market in Teotitlan outside of Oaxaca with our hostess, a rugmaker, who was teaching us cooking and we taught her how to make lasagna, since her husband who often sold their rugs in San Migel loved it.

I had a bizarre experience in the Atlas Mts in Maroc - it was right before a major holiday called Eid (pronounced aid) where every family is basically obligated to buy a sheep to slaughter and eat. This outdoor market was 97% male and I was not very comfortable walking around taking photos and got many dirty looks. The following day I saw someone in Marakesh loading a sheep into the trunk of a taxi outside of the big supermarket. That's what makes it the musuem of the living.

I am very keen to take a long trip in India - both to eat and experience the cultural and markets there.

The world can be our oyster - food represents so much in so many cultures.

[Cheri]

My husband is right up there with me, he goes for coffee and hot sauce.

[shroomgirl]

I always knew Cheftalk was "my people"......my family thought I was a nut for years, who takes an hour+ to go through an out of town grocery store.
And thinks that a really good day is bopping from market to market with several bakeries thrown in for good measure.
And does it on vacation.

Allie, don't let alittle journey stop you from shopping at a farmer's market.....shoot, I've shopped at Ferry Plaza and brought produce/honey/cheese etc home on the plane, funny how the airport personnel did not realize what was in their own town. I've loaded down with produce and killer raspberry jam from Santa Fe's market....wanted to bring home some of the heirloom chickens...next time. Or Union Market, hauling all kinds of products through Manhatten with my cheftalk buddies....the unfiltered unpasturized apple cider sure got heavy (that was prior to crocs)...I picked up fun shtuff at the Italian market in Chelsea...ferrotto, dried fish roe, some squid ink, some peppers....Shoot I've even bought bigger luggage across from Murrays to be able to haul more shtuff home. There was a phenominal Italian market that had housemade mozz that was a dream, scazmora, several types of parmesan (fall/spring), aged basalmic cheap, various olive oils.

I've hauled coolers back and forth, mainly New Orleans and yeah CBD market is on the list....meyer limons, creole cheese, real butter, seafood, cane syrup...the real deal.....sausages, oh man Schnexyders andouille is wonderful as is most of their product....sigh......

By hook or crook it gets home, I've started packing post boxes with set rate and postage so I can easily ship shtuff from wherever I am.

Stocking up on White Lily for biscuits whenever I get close to the south.

I spoke at a farm conference in Col. Mo last Nov and hit the farmer's market prior to going to the conference. Loaded up on wintersquash, pecans, apples.

Food is a common denominator....and it's so fun to explore and play with. Oh yeah the word just came out Morels are in season and they are plentiful. I saw 2 gls a couple of days ago. Just had a shroomer e-mail for my morels and cream recipe, every year I swear they want to know how to make morels and cream.......um that would be morels and cream. That's why they love me so much, I can cook.

[KYHeirloomer]

and pretty soon you get to know everyone.

Thus: "I spoke at a farm conference in Col. Mo last Nov"

If that was the Small Farm Conference & Trade Show, Shroom, I spoke at the same event. Did a whole thing on growing heirlooms for the market.

[kuan]

Other than independent small ethnic grocers, I like Joseph's market in Crystal Lake IL. They have an aisle for everything there! I'd describe it as an independent melting pot large enough store. They always have a good discount produce cart! The avocados are always ripe, the figs just perfect, fantastic selection of good cheeses without fancy prices, onsite bakery, great deli meats, authentic Italian/Spanish/Basque/French/German/American cured meats, great butcher that does Chinese/Mexican/American rib cuts to order, etc. You get the picture. I go shopping there everytime I'm visiting the inlaws.