The Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia
— Photo by ML
Philadelphia is a great city for foodies. Not only is there food everywhere, but there is also all kinds of food from pretty much every region and culture on this planet. More importantly, a lot of it is actually very good. There are top rated restaurants like Le Bec Fin and Parc, and (my personal favorites) Alma de Cuba and Buddakan, which are always safe (although rather expensive) choices. And at the other end of the price spectrum you'll find the ubiquitous food trucks. It's obviously a bit more hit-and-miss here, but many of them will surprise you with fast, simple, and really good food.
The spectrum of restaurants, bars, dives, coffee shops, hole-in-the-walls, and food trucks is wide, and includes everything from the real to the wannabes and outright fakes. There is the Italian Market to contrast the tourist-safe watered-down faux-Italian Olive Garden, a whole Chinatown to counter the Americanized Chinese restaurants, and there are real diners and non-touristy Philly Cheesesteak places to save you from the worst of the fast-food corporations. There is no need to visit a Red Lobster, an Applebee's, or even Starbucks, when it's so easy find good (and authentic) places to eat and drink in Philadelphia.
OK, but what about finding good places to buy groceries? Now this is a bit more challenging and depends entirely on what you're looking for and, more importantly, in what part of the city. Quite frankly, on this front, Philly has very little to brag about. Sure, there are humongous supermarkets in the wealthy suburbs, but the city itself has surprisingly little to offer. This is especially true in the poor neighborhoods of North, South, and West Philadelphia, where there are hardly any supermarkets at all. As a side note, it's interesting to note that these areas are often referred to as "less affluent" .. what a convenient and incredibly misleading euphemism for areas with so much abject poverty. Topics for future blog posts for sure.
But let's jump back to the topic at hand: shopping for food in the City of Brotherly Love. I like to cook and I cook a lot so, naturally, I spend a fair amount of time shopping for food. And being a city dweller, I prefer walking and using public transportation over driving a car. Here in the Old City section of Philadelphia there are over 100 restaurants, all within just a few city blocks. However, there is no supermarket and there are only a handful of small grocery stores. Of course, that's not a real problem since there are alternatives within walking distance (one of the benefits of living smack in the middle of the city).
Most of my food shopping is obviously done in or near Old City, but I also spend quite a bit of time in North Philly and shop for food there as well. What's interesting about buying food in different neighborhoods is that the differences can be so stark — not just in terms of selection, quality, or price, but also in terms of service provided and expected. In many places, Philly changes character from one city block to another and the stores reflect that as well.
I find it most rewarding to shop in Chinatown and at the Reading Terminal Market. In Chinatown there are tons of stores, but I usually go to the two larger ones: one on Arch Street (a two-story store with large glass doors) and another on Race Street (located in the basement with only a small staircase leading down). Both are very different, but both have huge selections. Here you can find pretty much anything that you can imagine, and many things that you cannot.
There are the obligatory fish and lobster tanks, but here you can also find eels, turtles and frogs. There are an incredible number of sauces, vinegars, and pickled anything. And noodles — so many noodles! They come in every taste, shape, and form imaginable. The quality of the food here is great and so are the prices. But note, most signs are in Chinese, so it can be quite an interesting shopping experience. Then again, this is how you find out about things like sweet potato noodles and Green Tea-flavored pumpkin seeds.
The Reading Terminal Market is maybe a block or so from Chinatown, and the food there is fantastic. You can get almost anything any foodie could ever want, and naturally it's usually packed with customers (and, of course tourists). You can also eat here, and, really .. you could live here. The meats, the fish, the cheeses, the vegetables, the fowl, the bread, the cookies, cakes and chocolates, the coffees and teas, the spices, sauces and marinades — a foodie version of nirvana?!
The nearest supermarket for me is Super Fresh in Society Hill. What a disappointment! It's expensive, and neither "super" nor "fresh." The selection of the store attempts to mirror the affluence of the neighborhood it is located in. That means you'll find a strange mix of high-end products and brand-names, while some of the basic staples and brands appear to be missing. In other words, rather than having a solid base with some high-end products added on top, this store is trying to be something it is not (perhaps a wannabe-Whole-Foods?).
Quite frankly, this store is a rip-off. The quality of the produce is often a joke (especially at these prices), and the their "specials" are often silly. For example, you may have to buy very large Costco-sized containers of something that cannot easily be frozen or stored and therefore most definitely will spoil before you can eat it, or the discount is only a hair below normal price, and so on. The only reason people shop here is because there is nothing else nearby.
Contrast that to Save-A-Lot in North Philly. The selection here is much more narrow, and the ambiance is — shall we say — "plain" (definitely no lobster tanks!). Here you will not find a great selection of Blue Cheese (actually, they have none), nor any fresh seafood (it's all frozen). No, their selection is much more basic. However, what they do have is in general pretty good. In fact, the produce here is usually much better than at Super Fresh in Society Hill (its socio-economic polar-opposite). And while you pay for the bags and also bag your own groceries, the prices are in return very reasonable.
Save-A-Lot is the only supermarket in this huge neighborhood, and the only alternatives are the so-called corner stores where pretty much everything is behind plexiglass. This is really a topic for another post, but the lack of options in the poor neighborhoods of Philadelphia — even when it comes to something as basic as food — is mind-boggling .. no, it's upsetting. This particular Save-A-Lot is fairly new to the neighborhood, and I'm sure that it already has had a huge and very positive impact.
I also shop at Trader Joe's on Market Street near 21st Street. This is a great store, and well worth a bus-ride. The prices are more reasonable than Super Fresh, and the selection is better. It's hard to judge whether they have more items, but their selection definitely makes more sense. And, of course, it's Trader Joe's, so the staff is great too.
On Pennsylvania Ave near 21st Street there is a Whole Foods store. It does have a great selection, but it's expensive and way to uppity — not so much the staff, but the customers. It's located in a yuppie community and many of the customers have the I-am-entitled-and-can-afford-to-shop-here attitude that just rubs me the wrong way. The quality of the food is fairly good, but also very much over-priced.
The small grocery stores and delis in Old City are not much to write home about. Selection is narrow and prices are high, but they may save you in a pinch. Two of the better ones are Sassafras Market on 3rd & Arch Street and the deli on 2nd & Market Street. I wouldn't recommend doing your weekly food shopping here (unless it is limited to some milk and eggs). But these stores are great for satisfying a late night craving for ice-cream, soda, or when realize you've run out of eggs for that late Sunday brunch.
So yes, there is food here in the city, and it's very good food (if you know where to look). And yes, shopping here is different and often less convenient than shopping at the super-mega-food-emporiums in the suburbs. But, honestly, places like the Reading Terminal Market and Chinatown make it well worth it.
