A trip to Russo's

I often complain about Boston not being a "food city" and nowhere is this more apparent than when I try to go grocery shopping. The supermarket landscape is dominated by three major players: the first is Trader Joe's, which I think is incredible for snacks and quick, gourmet frozen meals in a fix but the produce is never very good and I hate buying it in those weird plastic wrapped packages; the second is large, conventional supermarkets like Shaw's and Stop n' Shop (see syn. Safeway, Albertson's, Vons, etc.), and the third is Whole Foods, which I like but still not the kind of specialty grocery store like D'agostino's or Citarella that get me really excited. Checking listings for the two local farmers' markets yielded really disappointing results - The Copley Farmers' Market doesn't start until May 20 and the Coolidge Corner one doesn't start until July!

I went to Russo's yesterday, which describes itself as "the food lover's food store" and was blown away because this was exactly the type of grocery store that we are lacking in Boston. I think a lot of the food is seasonal and as locally grown as possible and there is also much more variety in their produce. We walked away with a lot of somewhat interesting vegetables and fruits like lemon plums, which I think is a type of plucot, and a red pomelo, with promises to live more dangerously next week.

What I especially couldn't resist is Russo's amazing prepared foods section, as well as their meats and charcuterie. When I saw the really fantastic looking prosciutto di parma, I knew that I had to do an antipasti platter.

Here are the fruits of our (not really) labor.

We got the prosciutto di parma that inspired it all, spicy soppressata, and dry Italian salami and grilled asparagus, eggplant, peppers, onions, and zucchini. Also, Tom Thumb tomatoes sprinkled with fleur de sel and cracked black pepper, some dried figs, mixed marinated olives and Sicilian green olives stuffed with bleu cheese, roasted tomatoes and the best Gouda I have ever had (it's a two year old Dutch Gouda).

I made a chickory and frisee salad with a lemon-shallot vinagrette and with shaved Parmigiano and a fried egg on top and had a bottle of Pinot Black, a 2007 pinot noir from Chile, my new favorite red wine.