Short trip to the Italian Market

As you can tell by my location this wasn’t a long journey for me. Actually, I live in the suburbs and haven’t lived downtown since my wife and I moved to the burbs in the early 1990s . We hadn’t been to the Italian Market in quite some time and a discussion (on the TA Rome forum) prompted me to return to the market in search of ingredients for the perfect Italian-American meal. Specifically, we were in search of bucatini pasta which isn’t stocked in suburban supermarkets and any other ingredients that caught our eye.

Philadelphia’s Italian Market runs about a dozen city blocks along 9th Street in South Philly, the Italian neighborhood made famous in the Rocky films of the 1970s. We drove downtown on a beautiful Saturday in August, the heat wave broke yesterday leaving us with a clear blue sky, bright sunshine and 70 degree temperatures. Parking was easy, we found a spot on the street at 10th and Christian Streets and headed over to 9th Street to the Market.

Our first stop was Superior Pasta (SuperiorPasta.com) and the owner was busy cutting fresh pasta as we walked in. I asked about bucatini and was told that while he didn’t make bucatini he had some other pastas we might like. He spent a great deal of time with us, a very friendly guy, and by the time we left we’d bought potato gnocchi, spinach %26amp; ricotta gnocchi, tomato %26amp; basil fettucini, hot pepper fettucini and porcini mushroom sauce… all homemade, all fresh!

We’d brought a cooler with us so we went around the corner to our car and unloaded the pastas. On our way back through the market we decided to stop at Anthony’s for cappuccino, it hit the spot since we hadn’t had coffee yet.

Crossing the street we went into Claudio’s, a wonderful little grocery with a great staff and customers (one fluently speaking Italian with the guy behind the counter for whom she%26#39;d brought the biggest bag of zucchini flowers I%26#39;ve ever seen) who looked like they shopped there regularly. We bought some of their own brand of unfiltered, first cold pressed olive oil, a couple sweet soppressata and dry sausages, some mortadella with pistachios, and taleggio and mozzarella cheeses.

There’s a meat shop across the street that had cinghiale (wild boar), coniglio (rabbit) and other specialties like oxtail and pigs feet. This wasn’t on our list but… maybe next time! Continuing down 9th Street we passed stall after stall of vegetable and seafood vendors and numerous grocery shops, none with bucatini! We window shopped at the famous Fante’s admiring their fish serving plates and cappuccino machines and purchased a large pack of garlic on our way. We found a shop (can’t remember the name) that had fresh made sausages of all varieties. We bought some sweet sausage with spinach and provolone and some chorizo sausage.

Across the street we saw Di Bruno Brothers (DiBruno.com) and headed inside to look for bucatini. Did they have it?... YES! They also had samples of several cheeses and we just had to get the stilton that we tried. While we were there the song “Dancing with Myself” came on the radio (I guess we’re NOT in Italy!) and the guy behind the counter asked the customers “who knows what band Billy Idol was in when he recorded this song?” My wife, called out “Generation X!” and, having known the correct answer, was promptly awarded a free loaf of Italian bread... I guess this is our day!

The bags were starting to get heavy so I knew we’d have to cut the trip short. We’d hardly scratched the surface but off we went stopping only to buy fresh figs from a vendor to have with the stilton cheese.

All in all it was a great time and as we drove through the city, past the Art Museum and Boat House Row, we made a promise to come into town more regularly.

www.phillyitalianmarket.com

Short trip to the Italian Market

I am going to become your neighbor !! :-)

Short trip to the Italian Market

Thanks for that great report on the Italian Market. It made me think that I%26#39;m overduee for a trip there. On your next trek visit Isgro%26#39;s Bakery (1000 block of Christian St.) for out-of-this-world desserts.

Lynn

Eternal City, I am glad to see you made the trip and it was a successful visit. It certainly is a delightful place to visit and you are very lucky to be close enough to visit regularly. I hope people will visit but.......be sure to leave something there for my next trip! I miss the place already and it%26#39;s only been a week.

Thank you all for your replies. Philladelphia has so much to offer visitors and I hope more folks add the Italian Market to their itineraries.

Lynn, I will certainly add Isgro%26#39;s Bakery to my next trip to the market.

Best,

Mike/EC1

My husband and I drove to Philadelphia in 2004 to view ';Manet %26amp; the Sea'; at your art museum in celebration of his 60th birthday. As much as we enjoyed the art, we were also delighted with our discovery of Isgro%26#39;s Bakery (stopped in because of friends back home named ';Isgro';). It was late Saturday afternoon with a long line...gave us plenty of time to chat with the locals and get their recommendation on what we should buy. Ah, the cannoli! More than three years later we speak of it wistfully.