Genoa, the culinary capital of the region of Liguria in Italy, has one of the most colorful indoor food markets that I have ever been to - Mercato Orientale. Some of the narrow cobblestone streets surrounding the market are permeated by a smell of fresh focaccia bread. As you enter the market, you'll notice various cheese stalls, meat stalls, and bakeries that border the market. In the center, there are produce stalls with some of the brightest fruits and vegetables that I have ever seen.

The produce display is gorgeous and informative. Each item has a sign explaining where in Italy it's from. The vendors are more than willing to explain what makes their produce unique and the best way to eat it. If you speak even minimal Italian, I encourage you to interact with these friendly vendors. For me the highlight of the market was the produce.

If you live in a large city in the U.S., you can find nearly any kind of produce, but often it's in questionable condition. Either it's way too under ripe or the quality is just horrendous. At the Mercato Orientale, I was overwhelmed by the incredible quality of nearly every vegetable and fruit. If you're going to be in Genoa, I highly suggest you visit this market located at the corner of Via 20 Settembre and Via Galata.

On Saturdays, when you enter the bright colored 17th-century colonial town of San Angel, a suburb of Mexico City, there is an outdoor crafts market in the Plaza San Jacinto. Not only can you find a large selection of handicrafts, but you will also see vendors selling rich sweet candied fruits and fresh fruits with chili seasonings. The highlight of any culinary trip to San Angel is the enclosed food market just around the corner from the square.

Upon entering this market, you'll notice the aroma of fresh tacos and the smell of salty pork rinds being fried and seasoned with chili pepper. Taquerias and butchers border the market. The middle is full of poultry stands, produce vendors, and incredible vendors of chilies and moles.

I highly suggest checking out Don Felix for all things related to chilies and moles. If you speak and understand Spanish, I encourage you to talk with Felix about his different products. I purchased two different kinds of chili peppers: arbol and ancho. He explained that chilies arboles are hotter while the ancho are more mild. Finally, he explained how to prepare them in making salsas and other Mexican dishes. His mole almendrado was extremely delicious cooked with chicken. Check out the gallery below and see the market for yourself.

Marion Nestle says that when she talks to people, she hears "this phenomenal sense of despair about their inability to do anything about climate change, or the disparity between rich and poor." A despair that she says is alleviated by a trip to the grocery store where "they can make decisions about what they are buying and send a very clear message." Perhaps people really do express these sentiments to her, but unless specifically directed, it seems unlikely that most people make the connection between relieving their feeling of despair over the "disparity between rich and poor" and shopping for groceries - in this case, probably organic ones.

But it is true that consumers have the power to change the marketplace and that they are doing it every day with the decisions they make at the grocery store, as The Economist mentioned in a recent article. The organic food industry is growing by leaps and bounds and there is an ever-increasing call for higher-quality food, held to higher standards, whether they are organic, local, fair-trade, hormone-free, etc.

Food safety inspectors in New York have their hands full regulating the sale of illegal meats. And they're not talking about foie gras. Markets all over the city carry exotic meats to cater to immigrants who are used to fare beyond chicken and beef. Inspectors have found everything from armadillos to cow lungs to gorilla meat and a lot of it is illegal.

The issue is not necessarily about which animals are being eaten - although it is illegal to eat endangered or threatened species (like gorillas) - but is instead about the lack of regulation of these meats. Neither the shopkeepers nor the customers necessarily know about food safety, and when the shopkeepers don't uphold the state and federal standards, anyone who purchases from them could be at risk. Unprocessed meats or meat prepared outside of a certified and inspected facility can contain potentially dangerous bacteria, like salmonella or botulism. Some of these "exotic" meats are perfectly permissible - turtles, frogs, iguana and armadillos - if they come from a licensed facility, although they rarely do.

One of the primary issues is that inspectors find the food being sold in heavily immigrant neighborhoods, where language can be a barrier between food safety guidelines and those selling the food. The city health department supports ordering business owners to take state-approved food safety courses that teach about hygiene and cross contamination in an effort to continue their goal of preventing food-related sickness or epidemics.

I thought it was just in my neck of the woods that small ethnic grocery stores were the place to go for the hard to find supplies I need for my multicultural cooking and lifestyle. It seems that all over the country, folks are traveling to seek out small markets to find Sriracha sauce, real leaf lard, weird and tasty candy, black chickens, exotic produce, interesting spices, and Asian condiments. This is the exact opposite of one trend I reported recently where some neighborhood grocery stores are tailoring their wares to fit the local cultural profile. These are stores that focus on specific products, and people seek them out for what they consider traditional foods or for items that are difficult to come by in the more generic supermarkets.

I have a few places I go to and they aren't just smaller places like my local New Golden Village in Scarsdale and Meiji-Ya in Hartsdale, NY. There is Kam Sen Asian Market with locations in Flushing and White Plains, NY and the large, if not enormous purveyor of ethnic foods like Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater, NJ, one of nine locations in three states, primarily CA. So, do you have specialized ethnic markets that you seek out in your area?

We're not talking about the many farmers' markets that occur everyday all over southern California. The Farmers' Market in LA is a permanent fixture on Fairfax Avenue between Third and Beverly.

The beauty of the Farmers' Market is that though there are shops that sell produce, there are far more stalls in the marketplace that serve food, with everything from pizza to frozen yogurt to Korean barbecue to Cajun gumbo. It's somewhat like a mall food court, since it is in the same block as the Grove (in fact, the Farmers' Market was there long before the Grove was even a twinkle in a developer's eye), but so much better. I don't think there's a Hot Dog on a Stick within a mile of the place.

Lots of LA local foodbloggers have written up posts about many of the "restaurants" in the Farmers' Market:

1. Bob's Coffee and Doughnuts: la.foodblogging likes the "Kitty" doughnut
2. French Crepe Company: All Forces
3. The Gumbo Pot: Eating LA, Daily Gluttony
4. LA Korea: Eating LA
5. Loteria Grill: Eating LA and Franklin Avenue
6. Monsieur Marcel: Colleen Cuisine
7. Singapore's Banana Leaf: Santos on vacation from The Scent of Green Bananas, is at Meet Me at the Corner of Third and Fairfax, Eating LA's Pat Saperstein kicks off her occasional series on the Farmers Market here
8. Ulysses Voyage: (technically, might not be a part of the Farmers' Market, but close enough) LA Food Crazy

There are so many food issues to think about when you hit the market to do grocery shopping.  Store brand versus national brand. Sale versus regular. Organic vs conventional. Locally grown vs imported. Every company is promoting at least one thing (sometimes all things) at a time.With organics going mainstream, and organic farms getting larger and more efficient/industrial, more community and eco-conscious people are turning towards supporting local growers and patronizing farmers markets, rather than blindly opting for organics of unknown origin.

Following this trend and keeping itself ahead of the curve, Whole Foods has just pledged to spend an additional $10 million each year to further support locally grown foods. John Mackey one of the co-founders of Whole Foods said that some stores "would use parts of their parking lots on Sundays to host open-air markets for nearby farms and [all] would redouble efforts to buy from local producers."

The question is, will this move encourage you to shop at Whole Foods, knowing that you are more likely to be supporting local growers/producers that you might not otherwise have access to?

Though Disney is ending their partnership with McDonalds and their toys will not be appearing in kids' meals, their brand will still reach its young, target audience. Disney has signed a deal with the supermarket chain Tesco to have Disney-branded fruit appear in all its stores in the UK and Europe. The goal of the campaign is, of course, marketing, though the companies say that encouraging healthy eating is important to them, too. Right now, Tesco is carrying satsuma oranges with special collectible stickers that feature characters like Winnie the Pooh. Apples and bananas will soon follow.

Disney isn't limiting this promotion to work with the British chain. It has branded baby tomatoes in France and mini bananas in Germany. There are plans to follow suit in the US over the next month or so, as well.

 

In a move that should boost London's Borough Market plans are afoot to establish a food school, a Food Centre of Excellence.

It is planned that the Centre will promote healthy eating and offer courses for children on how to cook at home using seasonal foods. Borough Market is soon to be twinned with the wounderful La Boqueria Market in Barcelona which has its own food school. The one in Southwark would be self financing with a café and a boookshop but the Borough Market Trust, a registered charity, aims to raise £250,000 to refurbish a building occupying 1 Cathedral Street to create the Food School in.

Both the English and Spanish markets are applying for EU funding to support the twinning. They plan to mount exchange visits in which stallholders from the Catalan market would offer Spanish delicacies in Southwark and vice-versa. 

La Boqueria, is a colourful covered market which operates 6 days a week just off Las Ramblas in the heart of Barcelona. The current structure dates from 1914, but the market's history stretches back to the 13th century. 

I've been going to the Korean markets in LA a lot more often now as I explore my Korean side in the kitchen. Though I am not unfamiliar with many of the rather unusual and new food products and ingredients to be found in Asian markets, I was pretty amused on my last few visits. I am not sure if I was just never aware of certain products, or that they really are new. Clam jerky?

Now don't get me wrong. I know all about dried seafood. Dried seaweed (called "gim" in Korean and "nori" in Japanese), dried fish, and even dried squid. In fact, I used to gobble up dried squid while watching tv when I was a kid. However, I just can't imagine what clam jerky would look or even taste like. Pretty damn good if it's $4.99!

Dateline NBC, after interviewing health inspectors and touring dozens of supermarkets all over the country, compiled a list of the 10 least hygienic supermarkets in the country. From expired milk and deli meats to lack of hot water in employee bathrooms, there were many violations that were not immediately obvious to the customer's eyes, but the hidden cameras caught blatantly unhygienic practices and major health and sanitation violations, like dead insects in food products. After analyzing the data from inspections in 2005 of 1,000 stores in 27 states from the each of the top ten grocery chains, the list was final. From fewest violations to most, the least sanitary supermarket chains are:

• Food Lion
• Wal-Mart
• Save-a-Lot
• Costco
• Sam's Club
• Wynn-Dixie
• Kroger
• Publix
• Albertsons
• Safeway

According to the company responses received by Dateline, all the companies are vowing to improve in every area where a critical violation was received. They emphasize that customers who see a violation should report it to the store manager immediately so the problem can be dealt with.

This photo, it's lovely, no? And you can totally see why I had to buy this cookie. If nothing else, there was the Weissella logo, red and German and totally appealing. Plus, I have to tell you: I adore ginger cookies of all sorts. "Soft gingerbread cookies" spoke volumes to me. And look, just look at the nice chocolate coating. The bottom of the cookie looks a little odd - almost like a thin piece of white paper on the bottom of the cookie. What is that?

Trader Joe's plans to open their first store in New York City  within the next three months. The southern California-based specialty grocery chain already has several locations in New York State, but none in Manhattan. The store will definitely give New Yorkers - particularly those who for some reason do not feel the need to leave the city, ever - a chance to see what they have been missing for all these years. 

The new Trader Joe's will be in Union Square, near the huge Whole Foods Market, though its dramatically different stock and lower price points will probably not put it in direct competition with the massive, high-end grocer. Trader Joe's is famous for their generally high-quality prepared and frozen foods, as well as their low prices on specialty goods, from well-priced vanilla extract and high-end chocolates to exotically-spiced curry simmer sauces. Most of the items they carry are sold under their own brand, with some notable exceptions like Charles Shaw wine, which is lovingly referred to in California as "two-buck Chuck".

Some of Slashfood's current Trader Joe's favorites are the Milk Chocolate Calcium Supplements, Mediterranean Potato Gnocchi and Cocoa Hazelnut Spread but we may have a few new ones in the weeks to come.

It makes sense, right? I'm a food writer, and I spend an inordinate amount of time at my local Trader Joe's - it's only a few blocks away and, when my kids are restless or I just need one final ingredient for my dinner, I'll run over there with the boys in the stroller. I have my camera with me everywhere I go, and I've been known to snap a photo or two.

It hadn't occurred to me to be secretive until the whole dust-up over DC Foodie's camera phone pictures of his meal, but I suppose I have been. Because on Wednesday I was shopping for ingredients for the gardiane (neither Trader Joe's nor New Seasons had beef stew meat, btw), and as usual I had my camera. I decided to take a few photos of the organic cereal, thinking how much I could have used that as an illustration for my post. I continued snapping a few photos here and there, and pulled out my camera at the checkstand. The checker looked panicked.