What do you buy in Little Italy?

My friend Julie and I had some time before I had to start my 6 hour drive home from my Personal Chef conference, so we decided to visit Little Italy in Philly. When they say little, they mean little. During the 80s, I went to Little Italy with an Italian friend of mine and I sure remember it being much bigger. Seems like a lot of the shops don't get as much business as they used to and many have either gone out of business or they are only open on the weekends. Lucky for us Claudio Specialty Food was open and I had a ball.

Julie got some this...which I thought was the most colorful pasta I have ever seen. It almost looks like that old fashioned ribbon candy you used to see at Christmas. Very pretty stuff but it had to travel back to NC on a plane in Julie's lap. I was afraid for the pasta!

I don't know if it was the fact that I was starving when we went or I was like Alice in Wonderland when I went into the store, but I could not help myself! I was so excited that I was driving home and I had remembered to bring an ice chest. So I let the implusive shopping begin! With things like this pretty pasta and these, who in their right culinary driven mind could not resist? Is this like the neatest display of olives? They had a nicest cold buffet of olives you have ever seen. I wanted one of everything!

Here is what I ended up buying.

I have never made Polenta before and I figured that this would be a good place to start.

Next since I was craving carbs, I had to buy Arborio Rice to make Risotto. I love the creaminess of risotto and have many different recipes I can use this for. So it was a must.
Then I headed for one of the most important ingredient in Italian cooking, the olive oil. I was told that this was good stuff. So why buy a little when you can buy a gallon? I am hoping that it will not go rancid before I get a chance to use all of it.

I bought this while still in a carb euphoria state. They look like this out of the bag. I hate to say this but they look like little worms. We'll see how they look after boiling. Then I bought these since I don't see them where I live either. I have not cooked any of this as of yet, but I will!
Here is what they look like on the plate.
Then I bought three different types of salami, both domestic and imported from Italy. By the time I left there I was exhausted and that olive oil was really heavy to carry!

We stepped off of one curb and on to another and right into the next place to spend more money. I bought some loose teas and these two items.

This is a combination of spice for mixing with olive oil and then doing the dunking thing. I know I could have made a mixture like this at home, but what they heck!

This is powdered spinach that you can add to any pasta dough to make it green. I didn't see anything red, but if I had you would be seeing it right now. I have a pasta machine that needs to be used so this will be the inspiration that I will use to drag it out of the cabinet and pretend I know what I am doing. The name of the store is The Spice Corner. It's cute and quaint and I just loved it. So I had a good time spending my money in Philadelphia not only at the restuarants but at the Reading Terminal Station, and in Little Italy. If you ever have a chance to visit Philadephia, go and explore and spend those culinary driven dollars!