oh, I have to mention, the sun-dried suncrest peaches from frog hollow, it is better than any candy, sweet but not too sweet, and texture is soft, I actually don’t like the fresh suncrest peach, they are a bit mushy, not as juicy as cal red, probably my least favorite fresh peach from frog hollow, but in the dry version, they have that volumn feeling from the mushiness.
they are about $20/lb, I buy them in farmer’s market, it is also in frog hollow website, they generally are available starting mid July right after the ending of suncrest peach season, run until September.I just bought 3 bags (3 lbs) a week ago, save for my winter months.
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Rockridge Market Hall, Oakland
In the Pasta Shop: We Love Jam’s absolutely amazing Blenheim Apricot jam. Less sugar than any other BA jam we have tried, literally tastes like fresh pureed fruit. Very limited production, from one of the last remaining Blenheim orchards in Silicon Valley.
If you can find it - the only vendor I can find is Williams-Sonoma mail order - Creminelli in Salt Lake City makes an extremely fine American prosciutto. Some restaurants serve his charcuterie (The Barrel Room is one) which is also outstanding. He does sell by mail order.
Blanc Noir sausages: Genova Deli, 51st & Telegraph/Temescal Plaza, Oakland, sells them. Hard to find in Oakland!
I’m actually looking for jam right now since I’m out of it and started using honey on my toast. Are the other fruit jams by the same company just as good as the apricot. I prefer berry or peach jam, or passionfruit if I can find it.
Frog Hollow has very good jam/conserve, I like their apricot and meyer lemon, they have blue berry and peaches as well.
they have store in ferry building, and they do delivery as well.
I have tried Frog Hollow but it’s sweeter than the We Love Jam Blenheim. The peach was very good tho!
Felice, WLJ makes a mango-passionfruit that my spouse likes a lot. It is stiffer than the Blenheim they make, however.
All of their jams are available on their website: http://www.welovejam.com/shop.htm. Hard to find some of the smaller batch ones, however. HTH!
(just a note: WLJ has just finished processing 2015 harvest and is now shipping. Altho they will take orders year-round on their site, once they run out; it is GONE until next year’s harvest. They usually start shipping July-Sept, depending on weather.)
If you are a serious chocolate freak, you won’t find a better bargain than Trader Joe’s “The Dark Chocolate Lover’s Chocolate Bar” (85% cacao). It’s 100g of single-origin Trinatario chocolate from the Tumaco region of Colombia for $1.95. I’m almost positive that it’s a repackaging of Casa Luker’s “Luker 1906 Tumaco Extra Dark Bar.”
You’s pay about 3X this price for a comparable bar at Chocolate Covered or Fog City News.
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I will have to try We Love Jam Blenheim sometime, if there is one thing I pick on the frog hollow jam, I would want them to be a little bit less sweet.
I’m not usually a big fan of dried fruit, as I find most too sweet for me, but ever since I tried the dried persimmons at Berkeley Bowl I’ve been getting them regularly. I think they’re around $10/lb.
Persimmon is pretty sweet fresh. so the sweetness must be quite intense dried?
Hmm, I don’t find fresh persimmons to be that sweet (relative to other fruit), and the tannic nature always comes through, which I like. This dried version is sweet, but less so than apricots or peaches. I meant to clarify that these are sliced, dried persimmons (likely Fuyu), not Hoshigakis, whole dried Hachiya persimmons that I occasionally see at the Bowl for a higher price.
BTW, Berkeley Bowl had fresh Aji Amarillo today, which I rarely see.
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At first I thought you were talking about another single origin bar they carry which I have had in the past. I stopped by and it turned out this is new to me. Thank you for the reco. It can’t get too much better than that at $2. I have been eating some discounted Blanxart from Amazon as my snack chocolate (I.e. Those that I just munch on absent- mindedly while doing other stuff) so it’s nice to have another option.
Every once in a very great while, Market Hall Rockridge/The Pasta Shop, has Brie Fermier in the cheese section. If you have never tried it, it is known as the closest thing to “real” Brie eaten in France, that you can get here in the US.
It’s exquisite! My DH is the Brie fan, I prefer St. Andre, but if all Brie tasted like the Fermier, I’d switch, LOL.
Marin Sun Farms in Rockridge had several cuts of water buffalo today (I got ground–all of it looked very lean) and aged brisket for $11.99, a price that isn’t so much more than standard brisket from any market (and they were offering a whole brisket for $8.99, on par with supermarket pricing for smaller chunks of brisket).
I haven’t cooked the brisket yet, but the ground buffalo was quite tasty. It’s a bit more minerally than beef, but also a bit milder, possibly because it is leaner. I made burgers with half, and will likely make dan dan noodles with the rest.
Nice find. I will look for those in SF, but not too hopeful. The Geary GO has had a huge glut of Three Twins; the Portola GO didn’t seem to have much of it the other day.
I cashed in on the demise of Andronico’s and grabbed a bunch of bottles of Momokawa sake cheap. Also picked up a bunch of mixers I would ordinarily not splurge for. Nobody seemed to want the Small Hand Foods gum syrup at the retail price of $13, so I took a flyer on some today at 90% off!
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Wait, WHAT? Is Andronico’s closed/closing?
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Safeway bought the Andronico’s chain, and they just closed the stores to remodel them branded as some kind of “community market”. They should reopen in a couple of weeks.
That’s interesting. Our original 1958 era Safeway up here in Ashland (think Marina)became a Haggen’s in the merger with Albertson’s, then closed.
Safeway bought back its old store and is “upgrading” it. Supposed to have a Sushi bar and other unique features. Sounds like the same concept.
No Straus or Talenti at the Geary GO today. They had Tillamook ice cream, and Jack Nicklaus (!) brand.
Portola GO: 52 oz bag of assorted mini Reese’s peanut butter cups for $6. As the TJs price for these is about $4 for 16 oz, I figured it was worth a shot.
Various jams and preserves are going for $1 each.
Has anyone tried the Gallo dry salame? They are pretty large for only about $6.
So far the Geary GO seems to beat the other SF stores in terms of wine selection. Wonder if it is the owners, the closer proximity to Napa/Sonoma, or some other factor.
