Favorite food websites

[Alz]

Instead of going to stores, I find myself buying more and more food products on line. It saves time...it saves gas...and I often find more of a variety to choose from. Do you have a favorite website? Here are some of my favorites:

Burger’s Smokehouse: A great selection of smoked meats. I like the fact that they give you the whole price, shipping included, up front. Nothing worse than thinking you’re getting a bargain and then getting nailed with shipping costs. I get the thick-sliced original country bacon 12 lbs at time. (I’m not kidding!) www.smokehouse.com


www.earthy.com: Another great website full of hard-to-find products for chefs and those of us who like to play chefs in our own kitchens. What makes this website especially cool is that they sell fresh fiddleheads (shoots from the ostrich fern,) and a wide variety of dried and fresh mushrooms...some that you will not find in any local store.

La Tienda: If you like Spanish food, this is the website. I’m surprised how hard it used to be to find Serrano ham (basically a Spanish prosciutto) in Providence, given the large Hispanic community here. But you can get it at this website. Many other tasty things, too. www.latienda.com

Cajun Grocer.com: This is where I buy all my food for my annual Mardi Gras party. Andouille sausage, alligator, Tur-duc-hens, King cakes, even live crawfish…it’s all here. www.cajungrocer.com

Caffe Chicco D’Oro: Really tasty espresso roast coffee that we had at an Autogrill rest area in Switzerland, near the Italian border. It was so good, I searched the internet for the US importer and now I buy loads of it online. I buy it in 12 kilo shipments. We use it for iced coffee and it’s awesome! www.chiccodoro-usa.com

www.penzeys.com: A great website for all spices, they’ve only recently started selling salt. Excellent service and an informative website. I get all my spices through these guys because I know that they will be fresh. You never know how long spices have been sitting on a supermarket shelf before you came along. And don’t ever buy spices from Job Lot! Ugh!

www.seasalt.com: a huge website with all kinds of salt to choose from. If you can afford to buy bulk, you save tremendous amounts of money. You get to see just how much those gourmet sites and stores overcharge for tiny tins of salt.

Tallgrass Beef: Grass fed beef tastes better than any beef you've ever had. Plus it's better for you: less sat fat, more omega-3's. Cows USED to eat grass before we humans decided to shove grain down their throats, along with antibiotics and steroids. None of that is found in grass-fed beef. It costs more, but it's worth every penny. www.tallgrassbeef.com

Woodprairie Farm: A great source of organic flour, cheese, nuts, beans, dried fruits, and vegetables, especially root vegetables: beets, garlic, onions, parsnips, etc. If you know someone that’s a potato nut, give them a membership to the Maine Potato Sampler of the Month Club. You can sign them up for as little as one month and up to eight months. This is also the place for gardeners to get organic seed and organic seed potatoes...no GMO's! I’ve been buying my seed potatoes from this family for over 10 years. They take their organic farm seriously. www.woodprairie.com

[Mr. Ritz]

I've order from LaTienda.com many times. It's not cheap, but they even have Jamon Iberico. Yummm!

Reminds me of my recent trip to Philadelphia where I dined

here -- one of my favorite dinners.

[Tony]

These five sites are great for stocking up on unusual or hard to find provisions. Good luck.

www.markys.com/
www.thespicetrader.ca/
www.importfood.com/
www.thespicehouse.com/
www.gourmetfoodstore.com/