Anna Roth

The deli counter at the new Bi-Rite Market on Divisadero.

Bi-Rite on 18th Street, a hot Friday afternoon, is bedlam. You'll hear conversations on beef cuts and see shoppers elbowing for real estate at the deli, standing before the wine shelves with a practiced look of helplessness in hopes of attracting an employee for help, and eye-gouging toddlers with the sharp corners of their messenger bags. As a member of society who never misses an opportunity to mock and scorn a stranger, I like to sigh with exasperation while pushing past new customers wandering the store devoid of clear intent.

See also: Bi-Rite Opens Second Location, Divisadero Will Never Be the Same
Bi-Rite Creamery's Secrets Revealed In New Book
Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food Brings More Than Recipes to the Table

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Mary Ladd

Stroll, shop, repeat: with La Fromagerie moving into the same 'hood as Mr. and Miscellaneous, Poco Dolce and Little Nib, this increasingly morphing Third Street area is becoming an easy stop for gourmet goods. It's easy to get cheesy at La Fromagerie, which is housed in a light, sweet spot. The petite sized store from French Alps native Ruben Donze offers cheese of the European and domestic variety, charcuterie, escargots, fruity jams, Firebrand artisan bread and truffle mousse ($5.99).

See also:
- Two Cheese Plates That Educate
- Frog Hollow Pears and Bellwether Carmody Cheese: Best Hostess Gift Ever?
- Watch Talking Goats Dressed as Elves Sell California Goat Cheese

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Yelp

Headed to wine country or Tahoe? Plan to stop and shop at the Meyer factory outlet in Vallejo or Fairfield for a once-a-year deep discount on pots, pans and nifty cooking gear from the likes of Rachael Ray and Paula Deen through December 10. The annual Friends of Meyer sale also runs online through December 12. Use a code of "CHEER2012" for an added 30% off plus free shipping on orders of $49.99 or more. Discount dreamers: note the online inventory is not as plentiful as the in person deals. Meyer is home to a plentiful stash of pots, pans and much more culinary gear.

See also:
- Meat Monthly: Sign Your Beloved Up for Boccalone's Salumi Society
- This Friday, Get Your Holiday Shopping Done at La Cocina's Gift Bazaar
- Where The (Cook)Books Are: Chronicle Books Sale

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New Taste Marketplace

Get an early start on your holiday shopping and support the S.F. food scene at the resurgence of the New Taste Marketplace, happening this Saturday at St. Gregory's Church on Potrero Hill. The charming market is celebrating its two-year anniversary, and after a four-month hiatus has triumphantly returned with SF Examiner food critic (and occasional SF Weekly contributor) Jesse Hirsch at the helm. Hirsch took over director duties from Michael Davidson, aka the Grilled Cheese Guy, and for his debut has curated a list of nearly 40 vendors in a mix of longtime New Taste participants as well as new ones he's picked up through his Bay Area food writing career.

See also:
- Best One-Stop Shopping for DIY Eats - New Taste Marketplace

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Heath Ceramics

Get a jump on Christmas presents or just stock your own kitchen with the annual Heath Ceramics Sample Sale, happening tomorrow (Sat., Nov. 24, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.) at the Sausalito store. The revered maker of stoneware mid-century bowls, plates, and mugs has held the sample sale for years, gathering up experimental designs and prototypes and selling them to the public. Head in for one-of-a-kind Heath products, and as a special bonus, get 20% off all in-store purchases (both samples and regular merchandise).

See also:
- Cookin': Helping You in the Kitchen Since 1981
- At Buyer's Best Friend, You Can Sample Any Food in the Store

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Christina Spittler

A couple months back we wrote about the interesting new Buyer's Best Friend specialty food shop in the Upper Haight, where customers can sample any product in the store. The owners recently announced they're expanding to a second location in North Beach, on Columbus between Green and Vallejo, which will have special emphasis on the neighborhood's Italian-American roots.

See also:
- At Buyer's Best Friend, You Can Sample Any Food in the Store
- Off hte Grid Adds North Beach Market
- Cookin': Helping You in the Kitchen Since 1981

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Christina Spittler

Nestled among the vintage stores and tie-dye of the Upper Haight is a new food nerd-friendly destination with a unique culinary purpose: to let you taste all of the inventory.

Operating initially as an online wholesaler and broker of gourmet and specialty products, Buyer's Best Friend Wholesale and Mercantile has now expanded its scope by adding a brick-and-mortar retail component to its business in hopes of sharing the extensive product catalog with a wider audience. And should that audience become hungry as they peruse the shelves stocked with Jade Chocolates, imported truffle flour, Saucy Mama mustard, and Stumptown coffee, shop associate Adam would be more than happy to offer samples of almost everything in the store. In fact, his unabashed enthusiasm about giving out said samples is second only to the tasty tidbits themselves.

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Christina Spittler

Glass cake pedestals and ornately decorated ceramic dishes teeter in tall stacks. A single container holds a wire nest of no fewer than 14 different kinds of whisks. Baskets full of vintage cookbooks sit on the floor. If you're looking to acquire some eclectic and time-tested cookware, the Divisadero shop Cookin' is the place. And if you have a specific recipe or item in mind, owner Judith Kaminsky, with her trusty golden Lhasa named Tank by her side, has made it her life's work to help you find what you need.

With 25 years of experience under her belt, Kaminsky just may be your greatest ally in the kitchen. Although she has never clocked any hours in a professional kitchen, Kaminsky has been an enthusiastic baker throughout her life and knows every detail -- along with the whereabouts -- of every item in her extensive and seemingly chaotic collection of blenders, cast iron skillets, and silicone molds.

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​Sunday, the Environmental Working Group released its annual Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce, with the headline-grabbing "Dirty Dozen," or list of 12 fruits and vegetables most likely to be contaminated with pesticide residue. Newly crowned the dirtiest fruit in America: apples. Pesticides were found on 98 percent of the fruit; it was followed on the list by celery and strawberries (see the full list after the jump). To come up with the report, EWG analyzed nine years' worth of USDA data measuring residues in 53 common fruits and vegetables -- all washed or peeled.

SFoodie has kept a copy of the Dirty Dozen and its opposite, the Clean Fifteen, taped to our refrigerator for years. We love the EWG's annual shoppers' guide not just for what it tells us to avoid but what it tells us not to fear. Not every conventional fruit tree or vegetable bush is smothered in toxic chemicals, and if your primary reason for choosing between organic and conventional is reducing your family's pesticide intake, the Clean Fifteen lists conventionally grown vegetables -- onions, corn, mangoes, cabbage -- least likely to test positive for pesticide residue.

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We're blessed to live in a part of the world where we have access to fresh, ripe, unadulterated fruit, plucked at local farms and brought to our very fingertips at a bevy of farmers' markets across the city. In fact, the handful of farmers' markets not open all year here is small. Now spring is springing, and those few seasonal markets such as Castro, Upper Haight, and Mission Bay are beginning to open up like the first crocuses of the season.

The last few years have seen a major proliferation of neighborhood markets, and even local hospitals have taken small markets under their wings. Consequently, the distribution is so broad it's no inconvenience to hit one up, even on a work day.

That said, note that the lion's share of markets is on weekends and midweek (pro tip: make that doctor's appointment for a Wednesday), so make sure you don't have an urgent need for stinging nettles on a Monday or Friday, lest you find yourself out of luck.

We've charted the San Francisco farmers' markets (above) for easy reference about days and locations, using a festive, Easter-esque pastel palette: pink pins for Saturday markets; purple for Sunday; yellow for Tuesday; turquoise for Wednesday; and green for Thursday.

Saturday
• Ferry Plaza: 8 a.m.-2 p.m., year round
• Noe Valley: 24th Street between Sanchez and Vicksburg, 8 a.m.-1 p.m., year round
• Fillmore: O'Farrell at Fillmore, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., year round
• Alemany: 100 Alemany, dawn to dusk, year round

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