Supermarket - TNG

I know that many of you are getting bored with my blathering on and on about grocery stores. But I just HAVE to tell you about the store we found - Cosentino's. Mark has been whining to everyone at work that there are NO meat markets/butcher shops in the South Bay. And everyone he talks to says, "Yes, you're right". So when I mentioned it to Ron-of-across-the-street, he suggested that I check out Cosentino's, one of the oldest Italian markets in town. So, Mark and I went. And OMG! First, it has LOTS of atmosphere..... dark ceilings that aren't 30 feet overhead, beautiful flowers and fruit/veg right as you walk in so all you see is color, good smells coming from many aisles of FOOD not vitamins and pots and pans. We found very nice fresh veg and then decided to just wander a bit. As I was admiring some of the "prepared" foods (like roasted pumpkin and white cheddar tamales and wild mushroom filled gnocchi), Mark disappeared. When he returned, he was holding THREE jars of pickled watermelon rind (we have been OBSESSING over the fact that we couldn't find ANY in all of San Jose and here were THREE different brands). I gasped and ooohed and aaahed. And then, as we proceeded down the aisles, we found other amazing features...... like 20 different types/brands of capers and 21 different types/brands of anchovies - NOT including the pastes. I even found Baltic sprats - a northeastern Atlantic herring-type fish that is smoked. There were SEVEN 8-foot shelves of olive oils! And half an aisle of homemade-style crusty breads IN ADDITION to the bakery section of the store where they had Mardi Gras King cakes filled with bourbon pecan filling. And then there was the meat...... A long case filled with beautiful meat. AND they had lamb - chops, roasts, stew meat..... AND veal - chops, roasts, scallopini. And, most amazing.... ground EVERYTHING. Now, in the past, when Mark has asked for, say, ground pork or lamb, he is usually told that the store won't do that because they have to clean the grinder between each type of meat and so they only do beef. But at Cosentino's, they grind everything - lamb, beef, veal, pork, chicken, turkey..... if they can catch it, they will grind it. So we brought home lots of goodies to try. And I bought a King cake and took some of it over to Ron as a thank-you for alerting us to this delicious goldmine of palate pleasers. Yum!