The Italian Store

(posted by ange)

I finally made my way to the Italian Store today. This is not actually the name of a store, but rather what my nana and great aunty refer to as the place they go to buy their Italian foods – whole salamis, cheeses, pastas and such. As a child the Italian Store always held a sort of mystery for me. Where was this place? Why couldn’t you get the salami and cheese Nana served up anywhere else? Why didn’t we have an Italian store? Why wasn’t I ever taken to the Italian Store? I always had this picture of a little store filled with whole salamis hanging from the ceiling, big rounds of parmesan, pastas I never saw in Safeway, and old Italian men behind the counter, ready to cut up meat. I’m not sure from where I pulled together this image, but this was it. As I grew older, I became aware that the Italian Store was not one specific store called the Italian Store, but rather a few Italian delis frequented by my Nana and Aunty Eda on Commercial Drive. Any real Italian food purchases would be made at one of these places and to this day I believe my aunty still makes regular trips to the Drive to stock up. And I’m pretty sure Nana goes with her sometimes.

I love it when Nana has been to the Italian Store for one main reason: the whole salami. This is the freshest salami, the tastiest salami and makes the best spaghetti sauce. I am frequently lucky enough to be passed a whole or huge chunk of this salami to take home for myself. I’m also lucky to sometimes be passed an extra bag of pasta or parmesan skins (something that only those who love the skins of the parmesan will appreciate!)However, I realize that I cannot rely forever on Nana to be making these runs out to the Drive! I really should be making these runs and bringing things back for her!

Anyways…to get to the point of this rambling short story…Dave and I headed out today in search of some of the deli items we so much enjoyed in Portugal. While we didn’t find a Portuguese deli, we did come across an Italian Store or two and so I had my first taste of picking out a whole salami, choosing my piece of parmesan (not pre-packaged), picking some pasta and on and on. When I realized that the entire salami was the same price as a little sliver at Safeway I almost fell over and became instantly converted to the Italian Store. Dave and I look forward to making forays to the Drive more regularly to shop for our deli treats. And I look forward to telling Nana all about my trip to the Italian Store!