DC Wholesale Food District

[Nadya]

Tooling along Florida Ave. from Trinidad toward downtown, there's a rather gritty, warehouse-ish space of several soccer fields teeming with trucks, concrete two-storied boxes and food sale signs. (Think Notting Hill before Hugh Grant's floppy-haired charms and the subsequent invasion of expense account dwellers. ) The rumor is this is the place to go for all kinds of produce, meats and freaky items like salmon cheeks.

Does anyone have any experiences to share? I've recently moved to the area and have been meaning to investigate, but you know how that goes. So, any particular stall I should check out or miss? When to go? What to get?

[crackers]

any particular stall I should check out or miss? When to go? What to get?

Our own Kanishka wrote something for DCist about the market about a year ago in this article, that also links to the frozen tropics blog. There are a bunch of nice photos from the market ---> here.

[Nadya]

Our own Kanishka wrote something for DCist about the market about a year ago in this article, that also links to the frozen tropics blog. There are a bunch of nice photos from the market ---> here.

Thanks

[Saycheese]

Litteri's is in that area -- off Florida at 5th or so -- for anything Italian, including Illy coffee, 100's of varieties of pasta, olive oils, vinegar, etc.

[cjsadler]

I've been a couple of times to the market there that's open to the public (it's surrounded by a bunch of wholesale operations). I found it disappointing, especially with produce (and the old, industrial building is kinda depressing). I'd much rather take a trip to one of the Asian supermarkets in the 'burbs.

I've heard that outside the main public market building there's a few other places, besides Litteri, that sell to the public, that are better bets. The restaurant supply store will sell to you without a license, but the selection is not so great.

[crackers]

Very informative article in WaPo today describes some of the interesting items to be found at the Capital City Market, including “hard chicken,” smoked turkey neck, cow feet and oxtail at the African grocery Obeng International Food. Other finds: rice noodles and moo shu pancakes at Far East Noodle; Indian and Pakistani seasoning mixes and halal goat meat at Caribbean Crescent; Argentine- and Mexican-style sausages at Don Pepe's Cash & Carry; mangoes, Key limes, and agave leaves at Mexican Fruit; Asian greens and fruits at Sam Wang; Korean food (like hot beef and seafood soup) at Young's Deli & Carryout; kitchen gear from Best Equipment, (including a choice of 150 kinds of Libbey glassware, sold by the glass). At the nearby DC Farmers Market on Neal Place, they note the bargain price meats to be had from the five butchers who have stalls there.