Best of 2001: Best Place To Find "Gourmet" Items Your Supermarket Discontinued

Cost Plus World Market
372 Fourth Avenue,
Gaslamp Quarter
619-236-1737
8657 Villa La Jolla Drive, La Jolla
858-455-8210
5500 Grossmont Center Drive,
La Mesa
619-466-2991

What are you gonna do when your grocery store turns its back and leaves you with acres of house-brand cans, pink plastic picnic sets, and turquoise mini-TVs? Where'd the real food go? Those handy Italian tubes of condensed tomato paste that let you squeeze out squiggles or gobs -- kaput! The kalamata olives that are already pitted so you don't have to spend an extra half hour prepping (or breaking teeth) on your pasta puttanesca -- vanished! The Busha Brown's jerk marinade that makes your barbecued chicken taste Jamaican -- disappeared! You may recover your losses by driving all over town to comb the shelves of ethnic groceries, or you can explore the food section at the nearest Cost Plus, where you may just find it all. Tomato paste -- si! Pitted kalamatas -- eureka! Busha Brown's -- yah, mon! Uh oh, do you hear the siren song of Mrs. H. S. Ball's South African mango chutney? Even if you can't get everything you need, you'll always walk out with something.