How I found Fabulous Foods

Being born and raised in the city with a family full of cooks, I didn’t even think about all the foods I would dearly miss when I moved to a small town, but it didn’t take me long to start yearning for the easy access I had to all the things I loved. The Italian specialty foods, the luxury French gourmet foods, the fish that was so fresh it was still swimming in the tank when I picked it out.

I had access to all the exotic and unusual gourmet foods I wanted. I used to get them just by driving down to a local purveyor of whatever food I wanted. For Christmas a Cajun stuffed turkey or a Crown roast of lamb or maybe even a Porchetta. Two to four pound live Maine lobsters with a couple of pounds of clam's and mussels for a 4th of July clam bake by the lake.

I missed the scrumptious Italian sausages, freshly made with bit’s of parsley and a hint of Romano cheese, the imported soprasettas and hand made salamis hanging from racks in the Italian delis. German pork hocks, smoked and sprinkled with fennel seed and sea salt, that came into the deli still warm from the smoker every Wednesday afternoon. The belly lox, cod and incredible pastrami glistening with a hint of fat. The fresh rye bread, crispy on the outside and soft like butter on the inside. The incredible cookies and Italian rum cakes I could get for a special event or party or just because I wanted them.

There were three markets where I moved, but none of them carried such exotic fare. Cappicola? never heard of it, Mortadella? What's that? The Pastrami was, and still is, like cardboard, in taste and texture. The Lox is packaged, oily, mushy and basically uneatable. Baked goods, forget them. I made everything from scratch, even my breads. Chocolates, it was either the market or drug store. And sometimes one of the local barbers carried a dozen or so boxes of See’s candies that you could buy. The only cheesecake available in town that wasn’t frozen was from my kitchen.

After about two years of listening to me whine about all the foods I missed and deli’s we didn’t have, a friend of mine gave me a Mail Order Food Catalog. I was ordering from it with some success. But now, with the Internet, I can see exactly what I’m ordering and I can get any and everything I want to satisfy my cravings. Overnight! I’ve ordered exotic meats, Florida stone crabs, tamales, cookie basket’s, hand made gourmet chocolates and pastries, cracked olives steeped with garlic, true German Bratwurst, Cajun food from Louisiana, fresh delivered Chicago deep dish pizza, I’ve even had prepared gourmet meals delivered right to my door. And so much more.

I no longer make that 4 hour round trip drive into the city to get all of the foods I miss, because I can now have all of the wonderful foods I love delivered to my door.

Hi, I'm Sharon Quinn. Having lived in California, New York, Hawaii and Florida, I was used to having wonderful food at my fingertips. I started this guide for all of the people like me that have moved into small towns across America and don't have access to all of the foods they love. So click around, have some fun and see what you've been living without.