The Market

We are so lucky to have a wonderful food market nearby. Angelo Caputo'shas been a mainstay in Chicago for many years. In the past I had to travel 40 miles to the nearest store, but recently Caputo's expanded into the outer reaches of the area. The store is a veritable exotic bazaar of fresh and imported foods. It's busy any time of the day or night and it's easy to see why. There are towers of fresh produce and lots of unusual are hard to find items including some I'm not familiar with at all. I do know that my family could eat grilled or sauteed red peppers for every meal.



There's an entire section at the front of the store that carries dried herbs and spices at incredible prices. This is just a small corner of the bread selection.



Do you like olives? They have any kind of olive you can imagine. This is just the selection in jars. There are all types of olive salads in the deli case. If you like to cure your own olives, they have freshly picked olives back in the produce section.



There are entire aisles devoted to imported foods including hispanic, asian, middle eastern, Indian and Polish. Here are some of the Polish items.



I'll have to admit that I have no idea how to cook any Middle Eastern or Indian food, but if I wanted to learn I wouldn't have far to go for the ingredients. There are large jars of ghee and many types of grain that I've never heard of.

Every time I enter the store my vow is to try something new. This time around I spotted this product:



Omigosh, this dressing is so good. I literally could eat it with a spoon. Let's see...the taste. It's thick, sweet and tangy. I love it. I've already gone through one bottle this week. We've eaten on salads and I coated a pork tenderloin with it before roasting. The pan drippings make a wonderful sauce to which I added just a bit of sour cream. Very yummy!

Here's a close up of the label.



It would probably be available in specialty stores or fresh markets. You can order online if you're interested.

Matsos Greek Dressing
I'm having trouble with the link, if you are too just go to www.matsosgreekdressing.com

Unfortunately the minimum online order is for 6 bottles. As for me, I'd have no trouble polishing off six bottles!

There's another aspect of this beautiful, clean market I'd like to address. The farmer and I have traveled in the third world and seen the poverty and difficulties regarding food faced by the locals. I never, ever walk into Caputo's without feeling thankful for all the bounty it represents. My friend took a woman who had just arrived from Eastern Europe shopping with her. Shortly after the woman entered the store she bolted for the door. My friend was concerned and followed. The woman was standing outside sobbing at the sight of all the food so readily available. So, just a gentle reminder of how lucky we are. As for me I'm also thankful for Matsos Sweet Greek Dressing!!

Tomorrow we're going to talk about my sad addiction to fancy cake pans. Yep, I'm Jonesing for a new cake pan!