$40 at the Pacific Beach Certified Farmers’ Market
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Market Explorer: Primo Foods in Tierrasanta is the Ideal Neighborhood Market
Exploring the markets of San Diego County is a great way to get to know the wonderfully diverse county we call home. This week we bring you highlights from Primo Foods in Tierrasanta.
The Market: Primo Foods Tierrasanta
Location: 5950 Santo Road, Tierrasanta, San Diego
Hours: Daily, 8am-9pm
Specialties: Eclectic mix of Middle Eastern, Asian, and Hispianc staples, Hispanic prepared foods, and lots of local artisan products
Primo Foods Market has been offering local produce from area farms in Oceanside, Vista, and, more recently in Tierrasanta, for over 20 years. In addition to farmer-to-market produce, the family owned business provides an amazingly eclectic hodge-podge of local artisan foods and drinks, the likes of Bitchin' Sauce and Boochcraft, to global staples like date syrup, habanero hot sauces, Persian dried limes, and organic cans of Goya beans. The prepared foods counter skews more Latino, with homemade salsas, tortas, carne asada, carnitas, barbecued ribs, a really good ceviche, and an infamous 69-cent taco Tuesday deal. It is the kind of market you can rely on to have whatever essentials (even the more obscure) that you need for a weeknight dinner, or a place to wander up and down the aisles when you really just need some culinary inspiration.
What to Look for at Primo Foods
Fallbrook Honey
Avocado, orange, or wildflower, they have all the local honey you could possibly need, directly sourced from the Fallbrook beekeeper.
Asian Pantry Staples
From Chinese oyster sauce to Thai chili paste, they have all the Asian essentials covered.
Local Produce
We love the farmers market, but the prices for the produce at Primos, all of which is grown by area farms, made us gasp. Oh yeah, we'll take 6 local lemons for a buck and a 59-cent mango.
Dips and Sauces
Bitchin' Sauce in every variety imaginable shares room in the refridgerated section alongside Primo's homemade salsas, pickles, and guacamoles.
Bulgarian Indo-European Pickles
Pickle, achar, torshe, whatever you call them, the pickled foods game is strong here with everything from pickled eggplant and chili spreads to tangy beet pickles to mango chutney.
Oils
Olive oil, truffle oil, avocado oil, sesame oil, we searched the shelves and found pretty much every conceivable cooking and finishing oil to represent the four corners of the globe.
Global PB&J Options
We love the way this shop organizes everything by function and not country of origin. This may be most clearly represented on the shelf that houses peanut butter, jellies, date syrup, and tahini (which, when combined, make an Iraqi PB&J), Eurocream, almond butter, and Nutella.
Local Brews
The wonderland of a wall of coolers at Primo is home to beers brewed from San Diego County to Los Angeles, as well as half a dozen flavors of BoochCraft, and a few select imports.
Prepared Foods
Did we mention the ceviche was fire? Pretty much everything on offer at Primo is great, from the grab and go $10 chicken and fish dinners to the 69-cent Tuesday tacos, to the menudo and spicy barbecue.
Local Baked Goods
From sliced bread to bagels to their own house-made tostadas, these guys seem to only carry bread made within San Diego County, and we applaud that.
Mexican Candy & Dried Fruits
Sweet, sour, spicy, tangy, there is nothing quite like Mexican tamarind candies. So, we obviously were obsessed with the dedicated rack devoted to these distinctive treats. The wall of dried local fruits and nuts sealed the deal for us. This is the market we wish we had on our block.
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