Our 10 Best: Food Shops
One of travel's greatest pleasures is wandering in food shops frequented by locals--whether it's a supermarket, a cheese shop, or a spice merchant.
A busy market is a reprieve from the tourist's whirlwind of restaurant-eating, where you can catch a glimpse of people's everyday food lives.
Plus, the foods you buy to bring back with you (or smuggle back with you, as the case may be) extends the vacation into your kitchen.
Sahadi's is great, but will it make the cut?
In New York, we're lucky that we don't have to leave town to wander aisles like a tourist. We have Chinese markets the size of suburban Stop and Shops, and Middle Eastern market selling every conceivable sort of nut. We can find the same spicy potato chips that teenagers munch on in Delhi; buy the exact Italian bean, or shade of miso called for in a recipe.
We've limited our list to what might roughly be called grocery or specialty food shops--leaving dedicated cheese, fish and meat purveyors for another day and another list. We were thinking of limiting our picks to establishments that only exist in New York City--but then we realized that that criteria would eliminate places like Patel Brothers and H Mart. Nevertheless, we were extra-discerning when it came to chains. We also confined ourselves to the five boroughs--New Jersey requires a whole separate list.
Click through to find out which places scored a spot among the runners up.
Runners up, in rough order of preference:
Kalustyan's isn't a runner up--will it make our top 10?
Fei Long Market (6301 Eighth Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-680-0118)
Hong Kong Markets (Various locations, including: 157 Hester Street, 212-966-4943; 3711 Main Street, Flushing, Queens, 718-539-6868)
Han-Ah-Reum (25 West 32nd Street, 212-695-3283)
Bangkok Center Grocery (104 Mosco Street, 212-349-1979)
Nisha Indian Market (26725 Hillside Avenue, Floral Park, Queens, 718-962-1180)
Myers of Keswick (634 Hudson Street, 212-691-4194)
Holy Land Market (122 St Marks Place, 212-477-4440)
Udom Thai-Indonesian Grocery (81 Bayard Street, 212-349-7662)
Commodities Natural Market (165 First Avenue, 212-260-2600)
Pomegranate (1507 Coney Island Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-951-7112)
Citarella (2135 Broadway, 212-874-0383; other locations on UES, Harlem, and Greenwich Village)
But what about Patel Brothers?
Ikea's food market (1 Beard St, Brooklyn, 718-246-4532)
Domino Market (1824 Kings Highway, Brooklyn, 718-627-4008)
Nordic Delicacies, Inc (6909 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-748-1874)
Golan Gourmet Imports (1348 Coney Island Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-338-1040)
Click through to find out which establishments made the top 10 list...
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