Category — Markets

 I spent last Saturday shopping for food. Started at the Redwood City Farmer’s Market, then Sigona’s, a local market in Redwood City and then Trader Joe’s. I later went to Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco.

The verdict? Sigona’s is one of the best markets on the Peninsula if you are looking for great value on local, organic produce. For less than $60, we got over 15 vegetables and fruits, mostly organic, mostly local, plus organic Rocky chicken (much better quality than the Trader Joe’s organic chicken) plus Strauss nonfat milk. Organic bell peppers at less than $2/lb. This was way cheaper than even conventional prices at the Redwood City farmer’s market. No crowds in the store. Friendly staff. I think the prices at Sigona’s Redwood City location is way cheaper than the one at Stanford Shopping Center. Checkout Sigona’s sometime if you’re looking for a good market on the Penisula.

The quaint seaside Peninsula town of Half Moon Bay has a brand new organic and natural food supermarket called New Leaf Community Market near the intersection of 92 and highway 1. It’s a local version of a large scale natural food market, like a Whole Foods for Half Moon Bay. This recently opened a couple months ago.

My fiance and I took a nice tour of the store-sparking new floors, clean and brightly lit, with tons of fresh organic produce. The ready made food in the deli and hot foods, soup and salad bar were a lot better than I expected for a local market. We picked up some organic raspberries, an organic fennel and pinenut salad as well as a tofu salad to go. I would definitely come back here!

Our real stop was for dinner at a restaurant in Half Moon Bay called Chez Shea. This was my second time eating at this downtown restaurant on Main Street. Almost all of the food is sourced locally and organically. The taste is extremely fresh and clean with global flavors. The first time I ate here, I tried their Indian curry and rice. In my most recent visit, I tried their chile renno with an organic beet salad to start. All of the food was fantastic! My fiance Vivek and I feel that this restaurant is a total find in the area–rated up there with some of the best organic restaurants in San Francisco. Come check it out!

Ono Gelato Company in Paia. Fresh, local organic gelato. I had a Kula country strawberry gelato. Choose from local fruits like coconut, persimmons, mango, kiwi and more.

So the highly anticipated reopening of the Whole Foods in Cupertino finally happened. I know my family who lives nearby, has been anticipating for months. The verdict?

It’s the largest Whole Foods on the West Coast. I was impressed by the sheer size and selection of produce, to toiletries to wine to olive oil and even clothing and gardening. It almost feels like a Target for the green, organic crowd being so big.

My favorite is their very large food to go selection. Choose from Indian, Chinese, Mexican, American, Japanese, pizza, and more. Plus an extra bistro on the other side of the store, and fresh Ciao Bella gelato.

This place is really great for the Cupertino area that lacks a place to meet like this. I’ve already gone back three times since the opening although I live 30 minutes away. Check it out! Whole Foods is located on 20955 Stevens Creek Boulevard in Cupertino, near the corner of Stevens Creek and Stelling.

So I finally made it to Citrine last weekend. Located in Redwood City, it’s Safeway’s venture into a new, fast, healthy friendly restaurant. Once I walked in, it felt like a cross between IKEA and Whole Foods. Even though you order at the counter, and it’s self service, the wait staff was very accommodating and asked us if we needed anything. The decor was bright, clean, modern and inviting.
Food is clearly international, with a focus on Safeway’s O Organics private food line, along with its beef and Italian private labels. What was confusing for me is that there is no mention of Safeway in the restaurant, but customers aren’t going to understand what the brand O Organics means unless they’ve shopped in Safeway. It might be better for Citrine to label things like “certified organic” or made with organic ingredients instead, because the branding is confusing.

The food came out quickly; my group tried the margherita pizza, the garlic lover’s pizza, the California date blue cheese salad, the Mediterranean hummus salad, Santa Fe chicken breast panini and the thai lemongrass. I think pricing is usually around $12/entree, with salads a little less expensive. My only gripe is that the vegetarian hot entrees are not worth it–stir fried veggies for $11 seemed unreasonably high. The veggie entrees lack a protein like tofu. Other than that, we really enjoyed the surprisingly fresh and tasty blue cheese salad, and the pizzas were well cooked. The wait staff came back to refill our drinks and offer us water. I would come back here again, but I really wish they could improve the hot entree selection of vegetarian food with more substantial options (like pad thai with tofu for example instead of just stir fried veggies).

I’m not sure why, but my original post on Emerald Hills market in Redwood City / Emerald Hills ranked one of the most searched and viewed post on my blog (thanks to Google Analytics!). Because of the number of page views, I’ve added some pictures of the market, a wonderful and clean midsized store.
The deli is nicely laid out with an assortment of to go foods.
The produce selection is a mix of organic and local foods, with some conventional products. Surprisingly, the pricing is not as bad as you’d expect from a boutique store, and they have plenty of selection to choose from if you do not want to drive all the way to downtown Redwood City or San Carlos. Emerald Market is located on 3205 Oak Knoll Drive in Redwood City.

Unbelievable. The New York Times has reported that the head of Whole Foods, John Mackey is being investigated by the FTC for creating a fictitious alias on Yahoo Finance, called Rahodeb. Under his alias the last seven years, he insulted the Wild Oats Market, a natural foods retailer that Whole Foods wants to acquire, and made other very strange comments. Check out what John Mackey wrote in Yahoo Finance. If this is true, there is potential that Whole Foods can get in a lot of trouble.

Whole Foods and Trader Joes shoppers rejoice! There are some new stores in the horizon that will soon provide more options for shoppers:
Tesco, one of the biggest markets worldwide, is coming to the US, first in the Los Angeles area. Tesco is opening convenient stores with healthy, already made fresh meals to go. They are trying to brand themselves as a cross between Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. Having tried some of their food when I was in London, I was very impressed. Tesco is going for upscale, organic food, but at a price that is reasonable.

Another competitor, Safeway is entering the organic market with a new chain of restaurants called “Citrine Bistro”. It’s interesting that on the Citrine website, it doesn’t tell you that Safeway is behind the fast, healthy, world fusion food idea. This past weekend, I drove by its first location in downtown Redwood City, where I saw a brightly lit and inviting restaurant, modern and clean. I first heard about this through a coupon that was mailed to my home, $10 off Citrine. The menu includes organic ingrendients from Safeway’s organic products for entrees that are Asian, Italian, American and Mexican. I think this will be a threat to Whole Foods given their pricing.

This morning, I had the pleasure of checking out one of the Google cafeterias in Building 45 with my friend, Charles, who works there. I was delighted to see such a huge selection of organic food. Before I entered the building, I saw fresh crates of organic fruits and vegetable from Greenleaf (an organic distributor in the Bay Area) entering the kitchen. In the cafeteria, I chose some oatmeal with fresh blueberries and raspberries, and farmed organic, scrambled eggs with Morningstar veggie sausage patties. There was a lot more food displayed than what I have listed, but I have to commend Google for trying to source local, organic foods in the kitchen and providing food for free to employees.

For second and third place when it comes to corporate cafeterias, I’d have to say Genentech and Pixar are very good. They also both source organic fruits and veggies, and I’ve seen Niman Ranch meat at Genentech.

With summer in full force, check out the San Francisco Bay Area’s 90 farmers market according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The picture above shows organic carrots and other veggies being sold by Calderon Organic Farms of Hollister.

Here is a list of resources from the San Francisco Chronicle to find a farmers market.

• SFGate. www.sfgate.com/food/farmersmarkets. A list of Bay Area farmers’ markets.
• Planet Drum. www.planetdrum.org/gc_farmers_markets.htm. Information about farmers’ markets and local agriculture.
• Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture. www.cuesa.org. Information about seasonality and the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.
• California Federation of Certified Farmers’ Markets. www.cafarmersmarkets.com/search. Information about markets throughout the state.
• KQED. www.kqed.org/topics/home/cooking/farmers-markets.jsp. A market guide. =
• The Green Gate. www.nrdc.org/greengate/guides/markets.asp. National Resources Defense Council’s Bay Area guide.

Celebrating another big 30th birthday, my friend Laura rented a shuttle to Napa valley and checked out some of the wineries. Our first stop was Constantino, a family run winery. To be honest, I’m not really a wine person, more of a foodie, but I thought the atmosphere of the winery was very relaxed and intimate. It apparently is my friend Laura’s favorite winery in Napa and she bought a wine membership from them.

Our next stop was V. Sattui, another family run winery near St. Helena. Despite its beautfiul grounds with oak trees and picnic tables, the place was a mad house! We did arrive Saturday at noon, but once I walked inside the tasting room and deli, it felt like going into a squished Trader Joe’s during rush hour, with people running around everywhere. The picture above shows a very nice deli and cheese selection.
They also carried Frog Hollow Farms’ organic and locally made jams. Even better is their fresh produce (especially peaches) if you find them in the Ferry Building in San Francisco. I don’t think I would go back to V. Sattui, it was way too crowded and ruined any notion of being in Napa.
I used to live in New York, walking distance to the Dean and Deluca shop in SOHO. I was delighted to see even a larger Dean and Deluca in Napa. Above is a picture of locally sourced organic fruits. They had a wide assortment of farms nearby.

Dean and Deluca wasn’t as packed as V. Sattui, and the food options were way better, with fresh pastries, exotic teas, spices and wines. The only thing I wish Dean and Deluca could do better is to put benches or tables outside their patio so people can actually eat their food properly.

I was in Hong Kong last week and many of my friends brought me to new places in Hong Kong that carried organic and healthy foods. One of them was a market, called ThreeSixty, that was a smaller version of Whole Foods in a major mall in downtown Central called the Landmark. The selection was very impressive for a place in Hong Kong, but prices were very high.
ThreeSixty even had a nice food court on their second level, with over seven local restaurants and food stands to choose from in a nice, shiny environment. They had everything from wheatgrass juice to Italian food to pan Asian food to an actual sushi boat restaurant in the back.My friends brought me to Life for dinner, an organic, vegetarian restaurant in the streets of Hong Kong’s SOHO district. Tucked in an ally near a major escalator, the restaurant was cozy and reminded me of something you would find in the Bay Area.
Inside, the place was very crowded, with a warm color scheme.

I ordered an Asian stirfly vegetable and tofu dish on top of quinoa. The taste was very strong, but perfectly complemented the plain tasting quinoa. We also tried a lentil burger (which I highly recommend), a pumpkin soup, and a masala chai tea. After the meal, we went for a quick massage at a place called “Happy Feet”– a perfect ending to the day in Hong Kong.

With the original Pasta Shop market in Rockridge for over 25 years, I recently checked out its second trendy Fourth Street Berkeley location. The Pasta Shop is squeezed in between other great food places, like Dona Tomas’ taqueria outpost, a tea shop, a wine shop, a meat market, and more.
Of particular interest is one of the best cheese selection that I have seen (see above) at the Pasta Shop. They also have a fresh pasta section and a nice take out deli section with salads, and entrees to choose from, similar to Whole Foods. However, don’t expect too much from their produce selection. Definitely check out this place if you are in the Berkeley or Rockridge area. A lot of their products are natural, organic and locally sourced. Pasta Shop is located on 1786 Fourth Street in Berkeley or 5655 College Avenue in Oakland.

While spending a family trip in Taiwan and a quick stop in Hong Kong, I noticed a lot more healthier and organic places to eat and shop. In Taiwan there are small stores that import American USDA organic certified products and in Hong Kong, there is a big new grocery store, similar to Whole Foods, called 360, which has tons of organic and natural foods in the Central district. For dinner in Hong Kong, we went to a place called Life, which was a vegetarian, organic oriented restaurant. Pictures to be posted soon!