Yesterday I went to Messob for dinner, on Piedmont Ave. in Oakland, and we happened to park just in from of Euromix Deli, a small, tidy store carrying products from all over Europe, but specializing in Eastern Europe. I've been here several times before, ever since my friends Victoria and Penelope bought me a huge assortment of food items from there, but I don't think I've blogged about the place yet. I won't now either, :-), but I promise to go back to the place and tell you more about what they carry.

One thing they do carry, and that Victoria & Penelope had included in their gift, are Russian spice mixes. They come in little green envelopes good for one meal and they have them for rice, kebabs, roasts, fish and other things I couldn't really tell what they were. I've tried the ones for the rice, the kebabs and the roasts and they are excellent.

I made a tri-tip roast in the rotisserie with the roast spice mixture for election night, and the results were great. The meat was super tender and very flavorful. I let it sit at room temperature with the rub for almost an hour before cooking, and I'd recommend you do the same. I've made the kebabs before, and they also rock. You marinate the chunks of beef or lamb in some red wine mixed with the spices and then grill. Yumm.

But I think my favorite mix is the one for the rice (pilau). I've made it a few times last year and the results are great - very satisfying.

Alas, the packages of these mixtures are in Russian, so I can't tell you even what they're call. They are distributed by West Coast Trade in Newark, and, as I said, available for sale at Euromix.

This time they didn't have the roast spice mixture, so I bought several packages of the ones for kebabs ($1.40) and rice ($1). The former consists of: sweet paprika, salt, coriander seeds, onion, MSG, garlic, red hot pepper, sugar, basil leaves, black pepper, mustard, turmeric, cumin and nutmeg. The latter includes: salt, sweet paprika, turmeric, barberry,curry,coriander seeds, cumin and ground marjoram. Of course, they smell divine.

I was just in the Alameda Safeway doing some shopping, and decided to see if there were any wine bargains to be had. Last year I got a wine for over 50% off which ended up being pretty good - so I thought I'd try my luck again. I found a deal almost as good - the 2005 Hawk Crest Cabernet Sauvignon was on sale for $10, $15 off the regular price of $25. So I bought it.

I come home to find out that all retailers sell this wine for about $10 - so either Safeway sells all its wines at 2 1/2 times regular retail prices, or just ups the prices of those it wants to put in sale, to make them look like a better bargain. Yes, I feel foolish - but I learned my lesson. I will never buy wine from Safeway again. I hope the wine is at least good.

I just came back from a shopping expedition to Santos, a sort of Indian supermarket in San Leandro. Santos is a distributor of Indian spices and other foods, but its store is open to the public. Here you can find (almost) all kinds of spices, in particular those used in Indian cuisine. They have a large variety of lentils, flours and teas - and pretty much anything you'd need to cook Indian food. What they did not have is black cumin - which is strange as that's a very common spice in Indian cuisine - and one I need for the recipes I plan to make this week. Well, perhaps I can find it at Mangal's. But in all, I love Santos.

In this shopping expedition I got some Indian yogurt and pistachio ice cream - and bags of almonds, cardamon pods, fenugreek seeds and sumak, as well as a big box of Twinings Tea (50 bags for $4.50!) and a jar of ghee.

Santos Spice Products
1188 Montague St
San Leandro, CA 94577
(510) 357-0277

The Oakville Grocery store seems to have a much larger local reputation than it size would imply. I had heard of it (no idea how), even though I'd never been to Healdsburg before. Still, I decided to go there to get pic-nic supplies for our canoe trip down the Russian River.

The little store sells mostly high-end gourmet products. They have a very nice selection of cheeses and charcouterie, a deli with expensive prepared food, a small bakery, and somewhat random choices of other gourmet delicacies. They didn't have packaged cookies, however!

We ordered a couple of roast beef sandwiches to take with us. They were very nice and large, well balanced and had a lot of meat. I think they were around $8-9. I'd order one again.

Oakville Grocery
124 Matheson Street
Healdsburg, CA
Tel: (707) 433-3200
8:00am - 6:00pm Daily

The International Food Market opened on the little outside mall where Prince Dim Sum House is located, a few months ago. I went to visit it a couple of weeks ago after having lunch at Prince.

The store is not very big but has big intentions. It sells Greek, Asian, Middle Eastern and Mexican products. You can find Indian spices and Mexican spices (not on the same isle), cheap avocados and fresh eggs, lots of boxes of Greek products and so forth. Their inventory is pretty eclectic and you really need to drop by (or, more conveniently, call) to see if they sell something in particular. I think the market will be most useful for Greek and Middle Eastern products, as there are plenty of stores specializing on Asian and Mexican products in town. I don't know how big the market is for what they do offer, and I'm concerned that the store may not survive. The woman who runs it, Eleni, is very nice and I'd like to see it succeed.

Now a note to my readers: please let me know of specific markets in San Leandro (and vicinities) that deserve to be visited and mentioned in this blog.

International Food Market
14624 East 14th Ave.
San Leandro, CA
510-352-1600
M-Sa 8:30 AM - 7:30 PM
Su - 10 AM - 6 PM

As I reported before, San Leandro has a new Farmers' Market, this time downtown. The downtown market is located on Parrot street, in front of The Englander and will operate throughout the summer on Wednesday evenings from 4 pm - 8 pm. The market was inaugurated yesterday, with a ribbon cutting ceremony involving the local politicos.

I think I like this farmer's market more than the one at Bayfair - which seems to be getting smaller. For one, it has more activities for children - including a stand where you can get elaborate balloon animals/characters made for only $3, another where you can get a caricature made for $10 (this was not a cheap trip to the FM) and one with face painting and so forth (which we fortunately avoided). They also have activities for adults, yesterday was cooking demonstrations (which I didn't stay for). They'll also have family entertainment, live music and wine tastings in subsequent Wednesdays.

As you would expect, there were several fruit and veggie stands - lots of ripe strawberries, cherries and even raspberries. There were a couple of bakeries, one stand selling honey, one selling Indian breads & spreads and another one a variety of dips. There was a flower stand, a fish stand and an egg stand - which means that if we miss the quail eggs on Saturday, we'll be able to get them on Wednesdays.

As far as food went, there is a tamales stand, a stand selling foot-long hot-dogs and teriyaki sticks ($6-9, I think) and The Englander has a burger stand. Unwisely, we decided to eat at The Englander instead, so we didn't get to actually taste the food from there. Next week.

I've heard rumors that Zocalo may open a stand at the farmers' market to sell its beans.

Here are some pictures of the market:

Mike (my husband) reports today in San Leandro Bytes that the city council will be voting on allowing a new farmer's market to operate in San Leandro. This market would operate downtown on Wednesday evenings from 4pm to 9pm starting on May 14, 2008, and continuing through October 22, 2008. I, for one, would really like to have it!

More information at http://www.pcfma.com/markethome.php?market_id=21

I've written here before about how much I like Joaquin Deli before. It serves the best sandwiches in San Leandro and offers a quirky assortment of Eastern European products. Its roasted pork shoulder is also to die for.

But Joaquin Deli is closing. The building is up for sale - and there is no guarantee the new owners will want to keep the deli. Indeed, the current owners seem to think not as their flyer says that the downstairs could be used as as "medical/dental office".

Apparently the business is not doing badly, but the owners are just tired of running it. Still, it can't be doing that well if they're not trying to sell the business itself. So I'm not optimistic. I'll just have to say goodbye to those delicious sandwiches :(

Our Safeway (the one on Washington Ave. in downtown San Leandro) got yuppisized last summer, and the process seems to continue. Today I found that they're selling Bhutanese Red Rice, forbidden rice and another gourmet rice which until recently I had to go to Berkeley to find. They had some cool multi-colored couscous, though no Israeli couscous yet. And they are expanding their line of organic products, they have organic ice cream now (haven't tried it yet). Stil, I couldn't find any Jerusalem artichokes there either.

I've been in San Leandro for almost 6 years now, and yet I just discovered PW Market in Castro Valley. I've received their flyers all along, but as they weren't local to me I always just tossed them in the recycle bin. Then my friend Regina mentioned she was going to go there to get some pastries for our tea last Sunday and she took me along.

PW could be described as a quasi-upscale supermarket. Most of the products it carries are those that you can find at most supermarkets, but it does have great meat and deli departments. Granted, we're only a couple of days from Thanksgiving but when we visited they had goose, pheasant and rabbit available in addition to turkeys and chickens. Their meat department features prime-grade beef (something which is hard to find at retail stores) at very reasonable prices. Their lamb offerings, however, were poorer. The two racks of lamb I saw looked sad and I couldn't see any lamb shanks. They did seem to have a large variety of seafood, however.

We were quite impressed by their cheese section, it didn't feature many local favorites like Whole Food does, but there was a wide variety and the one French brie we got was delicious.

Their deli offered plenty of pasta-style salads, and their bakery section though small is very nice. We got a couple of lemon bars, a little mocha cheesecake, some scones and an apple bread pudding and they were all delicious.

On the minus side, they didn't seem to carry much in the exotic ingredient category. I couldn't find either Jerusalem artichokes or Israeli couscous there.

for this week is FREEDEL3

(one more flyer into the recycling bin)

I just found an ad for the Crossroads World Market in Hayward. I want to throw the ad away, but I want to make sure I remember the information so I can go check it out sometime. It sells Greek and European delicacies and I definitely need to go to check it out.

Crossroads World Market
230 Jackson St. (at Soto next to DMV)
Hayward
510.582.2231
M-Sa 9-7, Su 10-5

free shipping with a 50 minimun order: FREEDEL2

La Plaza Market AKA La Cubana is a Latin market in the San Fernando Valley. My father shops there for Argentine meat cuts for their weekly asado, and they have a plethora of other products imported from all over Latin America. From Argentina they have several brands of cookies, dulce de leche, yerba mate, and even things such as flour (why?). It's pretty cool and I recommend it to anyone in the Valley.

La Plaza Market
19239 Roscoe
Northridge, CA
818-701-5005

Casa Lucas Market (Number 2, the first one is in San Francisco) is a pretty cool Latin American market on East 14th in San Leandro. As you would expect they have a large selection of Mexican products, but they also carry an eclectic selection of other Latin American products. It's a relatively small store, so their selection /is/ limited.

I usually go there to buy empanada shells (tapas para empanadas), they also have a nice selection of yerba mate (including in little bags) and a few canned jams and Savora mustard, for some reason. They only have small jars of dulce de leche, though. They did have Havana alfajores (no habannets, though), at $1.60 each they are expensive (about 3Xs what they cost in Argentina) but ooooh, so good.

Anyway, in today's trip I was able to find cassava (manioc) flour which I need for my Bahian meal (they also have white & yellow corn flour, rice flour and even banana flour) and guaraná soda, a very typical Brazilian soda. They didn't have malagueta peppers, however, so it's a good thing that I got these in LA. I also don't think they have palm oil, but I didn't look closely.

I did find ají amarillo sauce, an essential ingredient of Andean cuisine. I'd already bought some in LA, but it's good to know it's available here. They had a few other Andean sauces.

They also have Colombian sodas, Venezuelan arepas and Central American products. They have a good variety of (cheap) fruit and vegetables.

Casa Lucas Market
16684 East 14th St.
San Leandro, CA 94578
510-317-5750/51

Oh, for those who care, the owners seem to be religious. Their business card says "Christ Saves" and they were playing Christian radio (in Spanish) in the store.

We threw a birthday party for our 3 yo last weekend, and I was too lazy (or busy), to prepare the food myself. As per someone's suggestion I just went to Costco and got a platter of veggies, one of cut fruit and one of rolled sandwiches. I algo got a couple of big bags of chips and a birthday cake. The prices of everything were significantly cheaper than at the supermarket - though I didn't compare sizes. In any case, we had about twice as much food as we needed for a party of 7 children and about ten adults.

The quality of the produce was generally good. I didn't care for the papaya, but the sweet pineapple was delicious. The sandwiches went over well, though I would have liked them more with baby spinach or arugula instead of lettuce. The most disappointing part (for me) was the birthday cake. The white cake tasted like that from a mix, the chocolate mousse had virtually no chocolate taste, though the cream-cheese frosting wasn't bad. Mike and others liked it but I wouldn't buy one from there again. At about $15 for a huge cake, it was a VERY good deal.

I haven't used safeway.com now but I meant to do it. Alas, when I'm ready for it, I never know where the code for free delivery is. So I'm copying it (them) here for future reference.

FREESHIPWB3
Good up to 4/30/05 - $50 minimun

The Ghirardelli chocolate factory is actually in San Leandro, not very far from where we live. I can't imagine what it would be like to live nearby, it smells like melted milk chocolate from across the street. The factory has a little factory store where they sell chocolate squares, bars, broken pieces (like at Trader Joe's), etc. at apparently lower prices than at the market. I'm not sure because I haven't actually done the price comparisons. Right now and until Saturday (Oct. 30th) they are having a sale on their chocolate squares, they are $2.50 a pound, half of what they usually are. We're planning to give them out for Halloween.

We saw Luso Mercado appear on East 14th Street, close to the Bayfair Mall, a few months ago. Apparently it relocated from some place else in San Leandro.

It makes sense to find a Portuguese deli in San Leandro, which until recently had a very large and active Portuguese community. Indeed, San Leandro's other claim to life is to be California's sausage capital. Many of these Portuguese settlers apparently opened linguiza factories .

I've been meaning to go to Luso Mercado for a while, just to check it out and see if they carry Brazilian products as well (they don't). We finally did a couple of days ago and found that Luso Mercado is, indeed, operated by Portuguese people (they were speaking Portuguese in the shop). The store concentrates on deli products and Port. They have an incredible selection of aged Port. If you're looking for a '69 port to celebrate a 35 birthday, you will likely find it here - expect to pay close to $200, however. Their selection of sherry, madeira and other fortified wines is pretty good as well. It takes us five years to go through a bottle of madeira, but next time we run out we'll certainly go there.

They had a variety of sausages (and linguiza, now we know where to find the real, real thing) and Portuguese cheeses. They also carry many, many cans of canned fish (specially cod), tons of Portuguese olive oil (I'll try some next time I run out) and assorted Portuguese products.

Luso Mercado Delicatessen
15100 E 14th St
San Leandro, CA 94578-1904
(510) 352-0163