1 Going to the Source Open-Air Markets . 2 Gourmet Emporiums & Specialty Shops . 20 Street Eats . 34 Cookbooks & Kitchenware . 42 Food Museums . 51 COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL Under the skylit arched nave of San Francisco’s Ferry Plaza Market. 004_287750-ch01.indd4_287750-ch01.indd 1 33/27/09/27/09 66:40:58:40:58 PPMM GOING TO THE SOURCE Open-Air Markets 1 Ostermalms Saluhall Smorgasbord Chic Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm has emerged as a culinary hot berries, it’s like one still life after another. spot only in the past few years, but its top Among the longest established tenants are gourmet market—perhaps Scandinavia’s Lisa Elmqvist (& 46/8/553-404-00) for fish best indoor food market—has been and delicatessen products, Gerdas Fisk & around since 1888. Behind the fortresslike Skaldjursrestaurang (& 46/8/553-404-40) presence of this neo-Gothic red-brick a seafood restaurant, J. E. Olsson & Söner building, today the Saluhall has an air of (& 46/8/661-31-42) for fruits and vegeta- epicurean chic that’s well suited to the bles, and Betsy Sandberg Choklad (& 46/ tony Old Town neighborhood in which it’s 8/663-63-05) for handmade chocolates. located. Expect stiff prices—this isn’t a spot where Enter through the main tower and you’ll you’d do your weekly shopping on a regular reach the large, light-filled hall, with cast- basis—but it’s worth the splurge for the iron struts supporting a glass ceiling and luxe experience. stalls handsomely framed with carved While you’re in the neighborhood, head wood pillars and fretwork canopies. Origi- up Nybrogatan to no. 55, where a stand nally there were 153 small stalls, but today named Bruno’s serves the city’s best about 20 upscale merchants set up shop, Swedish hot dogs, or korvs—a variety of each spreading out over a number of sausages grilled to tooth-snapping perfec- booths; several also operate as restau- tion and stuffed in a French bread roll. rants or cafes. Vendors earn their places through a ⁉ Nybrogatan 31 (no phone; www. competitive process, so the quality is quite saluhallen.com). high. Fish and game—cornerstones of Swedish cuisine—are prominently dis- ( Stockholm Arlanda Airport (41km/25 played; if you’ve ever hankered to try rein- miles). deer meat, now’s your chance. Between L $$$ Victory Hotel, Lilla Nygatan 5 the piled-high Swedish pastries, braided (& 46/8/506-400-00; www.victory-hotel. loaves of bread, hanging joints of meat, sil- se). $$ Clas på Hörnet, Surbrunnsgatan 20 very mounds of fish, and brilliant baskets of (& 46/8/16-51-30; www.claspahornet.se). 2 004_287750-ch01.indd4_287750-ch01.indd 2 33/27/09/27/09 66:41:00:41:00 PPMM OLD ENGLISH MARKET 2 Open-Air Markets Old English Market The Market Craic in Cork Cork, Ireland Though today it’s a sophisticated univer- since the mid-1990s, with the addition of sity town with a burgeoning restaurant several gourmet stalls alongside busi- scene, in centuries past Cork was one of nesses owned by the same families for the Irish cities most oppressed by English generations. rule, a prized harbor town kept firmly Located in the flat center of hilly Cork within the British grasp. There’s a bitter- city, the English Market (nobody in Cork sweet irony, then, in the fact that its cen- adds the “old”) announces its main tral city market—founded with a charter entrance with an ornate iron gate on the from James I in 1610, and housed in a Grand Parade, though you can also duck in stately Georgian building dating from through side gates from atmospheric adja- 1786—is still called the Old English Mar- cent lanes lined with small shops. Food ket. Originally, only loyal English settlers stands inside the vaulted two-story arcade could shop here. Nowadays it has devel- brim with meats, fish, vegetables, fruit, oped into Ireland’s best retail food market, and baked goods; among the newer arriv- especially after a 1980 fire led to a top-to- als are stalls that sell exotic imported toe refurbishment—preserving, of course, goods (handmade pastas, chocolates, and the gleaming woodwork and an elegant pastries) or specialize in organic produce. polychrome fountain near the entrance. Silvery fish gleam on beds of ice at Once considered a workaday place to O’Connell’s fish stall, and haunches and shop for produce, it has gone upscale joints of freshly slaughtered animals are The Old English Market in Cork, Ireland, has been in business for nearly 400 years. 3 004_287750-ch01.indd4_287750-ch01.indd 3 33/27/09/27/09 66:41:00:41:00 PPMM GOING TO THE SOURCE hung on display at various traditional meat markets do. Business begins at a reason- and poultry stalls. But the chief attraction able 9am and closes at 5:30pm. The Farm- is the traditional Irish food products— gate Restaurant gives you a panoramic tripe (animal stomach), smoked eel, black view of the market from an open balcony pudding, soda bread, and Cork specialties one floor above the bustle. such as hot buttered eggs, crubeens (pigs’ feet), and drisheens (local blood sausage). ⁉ Grand Parade, between Patrick and Though there are a few delis and takeout Oliver Plunkett streets (no phone). sandwich stands, you could also put together a lunch from ripe French cheeses ( Cork Airport (122km/76 miles south of and pâtés at the Pig’s Back or Irish farm- Shannon International). house cheeses from Iago, accompanied L $$$ Hayfield Manor Hotel, Perrott by crusty oven-fresh bread from the Arbu- Ave. (& 800/525-4800 or 353/21/431-5600; tus Bakery. www.hayfieldmanor.ie). $$ The Gresham Closed on Sundays, the English Market Metropole, MacCurtain St., Tivoli (& 353/ doesn’t open at dawn like some wholesale 21/450-8122). Open-Air Markets 3 Borough Market Whole-Food Haven London, England If appearing in a Harry Potter movie means monarchs over the years tried in vain to you’ve made it, then London’s Borough control the market’s chaos and conges- Market finally hit the big time in 2004. This tion. For the past 250 years, however, it bustling covered market—London’s old- has been respectably settled on its cur- est and biggest—seems like a natural film rent site, just south of Southwark Cathe- location, a jumble of stalls along a maze of dral, as a wholesale fruit-and-vegetable lanes snuggled under the green girders of market run as a charity by a board of trust- a railway bridge. London’s late-20th-cen- ees whose members must live in the tury culinary renaissance has certainly neighborhood. helped to raise Borough Market’s profile Conveniently close to the river’s as the place to go in the capital for top- wharves, and later London Bridge railway quality food shopping. station, Borough Market never was just But it wasn’t always that way. Though about local produce; purveyors from all Borough Market occupied the south end over the U.K.—and several from Europe— of London Bridge for centuries—some ship their goods here. Orkney Rose, for claim it was already an established site in example, features fresh salmon, heather- Roman times—by the 13th century it was fed lamb, Angus beef, and seafood from considered a nuisance because the food the Orkney Islands—products from small stalls blocked traffic across the bridge. rural producers who individually could The south side of the river was always never afford to sell in London. The whole- more disreputable than the north bank, a sale market is open 2am to 8am nightly neighborhood of taverns and inns (Chau- except Saturday, and a retail arm of the cer’s pilgrims started their trip to Canter- market was launched with instant success bury nearby) and playhouses (including in 1999 (only open Thurs 11am–5pm; Fri Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre). Various noon–6pm; and Sat 9am–4pm), as things 4 004_287750-ch01.indd4_287750-ch01.indd 4 33/27/09/27/09 66:41:01:41:01 PPMM MARCHÉ D’ALIGRE got trendier south of the river. These retailers sell not only produce but meat, fish, baked goods, and gourmet delicacies such as chocolates, coffee, tea, and olive oil. Among the cafes, restaurants, and pubs in the Market area are Roast, known for its hearty breakfasts, and The Rake, a pub whose name recalls William Hogarth’s famous 18th-century engravings of the raffish Borough Market scene. Unfortunately, several buildings on the surrounding streets may be demolished by the construction of a major train via- duct; what this will do to the market’s character remains to be seen. The main market buildings date from the mid–19th century; the Borough High Street entrance is an Art Deco addition from 1932, and the South Portico of the Floral Hall was moved here in 2004 from the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden—an area also known for its street vendors (think Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady). It’s a bit of a hodge- podge, all right—but then, that’s what Borough Market has been all along. Borough Market under the girders of the London Bridge railway station. ⁉ 8 Southwark St. (& 44/20-7407-1002; www.boroughmarket.org.uk). in the U.S., or 44/20/7806-1000; www. ( Heathrow (24km/15 miles) or Gatwick firmdale.com). $$ B + B Belgravia, 64–66 (40km/25 miles). Ebury St., Belgravia (& 800/682-7808 in the U.S., or 44/20/7734-2353; www.bb- L $$$ Covent Garden Hotel, 10 Mon- belgravia.com). mouth St., Covent Garden (& 800/553-6674 4 Open-Air Markets Marché d’Aligre A Touch of the Souk Paris, France While most markets are shut tight on Sun- isn’t chic, the hipsters are out in full force day morning, that is the very best time of on Sunday mornings, scouring the market the week to visit Paris’s Marché d’Aligre.