Saturday

The Irish have their day... so do my Italians!!

We will be celebrating "St Pattys Day" soon and being half Irish and half Italian I felt the need to celebrate my Italian heritage by going to my favorite Italian store... I mean they have 'good stuff' there...  "Mazzaro's Italian Market" here in St. Petersburg, Fl... is the next best thing south of the Bronx! 
                              The front of the store does not tell the story of what is inside... so come on in and smell the food.. feel the atmosphere, listen to the talk of the Italians .......
             The religion greets you when you enter... although they don't push their thoughts on their customers they do celebrate their feelings on the subject.... 
 
Then you enter the world of the "Food"... raw, cooked, spiced, boxed... so much food!


This is the worlds largest "Provolone".. yes this is a 1200lb chunk of cheese! They can't cut it for another  year.. it's got to age more!

There is also two refrigerated cases of cheese... imported cheeses from all over the world.


Walk around the corner and you will smell your way to the bread ovens.. they make every kind of bread my Italian ancestors love... 


Then we come to the "Sweets"... and the one that has me doing a dance for is the "Rum Balls"... 
I could just eat one of each sweet in this case!
But knowing it's going to lay on my hips at a very fast rate I was so good and ordered a Ciabatta, with butter and a really good cup of coffee.


Being the good Italian that I am I had to order a bit of Gelato... Spumoni to be exact! My will power just went out the window.. but it was so worth it!


 
My sister and I spent about two hours in this wonderful store.. we were good and did not eat alot.. we did spend a bit of time checking out the bread baking area.. it had many people working there and it was fun to watch... I did try to 'pan' the photo...not too bad! I hope it posts here on my blog for all to see.. (no it was cut in half, sorry).


Time to say good by to this wonderful store... I celebrated my Italian heritage this day.. so now I can say "Happy St Patricks Day" with out guilt!
 
Ok...Ok... had to share one more photo.... The Pepperoni... how can we leave without the Pepperoni?
Bye Italian store... bye .......


  
For the Irish in me and for the Italian in me!!
And to all of you, celebrate your heritage in style!

7 comments:

The Muse said...

zowie!
i don't think you would ever get me out of that place...lol
good heaven's that looks fabulous!
lol
well now i have italian cravings galore! lol...oh my :)

PS...i did not know about all your heart issues..goodness, what a trooper! i will keep you in prayer...that this battle will be won :)

what a delightful post!

Becky@Beyond The Picket Fence said...

Oh my--that place could be dangerous. I could gnaw on one of those ciabattas right now. That is funny about the feet--I tell my hubby that I breath through my feet and I suffocate if they are under the covers--he sleeps with socks on.

Blue Creek Home said...

Yummy! I have a niece in Clearwater and another in St. Petersburg. I will have to ask if they know this market.
Rhonda

Unknown said...

Oh, Sandy, that store takes me back many years. My 1st husband was italian/polish (father was italian). Took me a while to even pronounce my new name, much less spell it - DiGirolamo.
Thanks for visiting Sunday. Your comments were wonderful. I was so pleasantly surprised at the support I received. Truly a gift. Thank you.

Nielson Shmielson said...

I'm not Irish but St. Patty's day is my anniversary! That food looks so yummy. Thanks for being the first follower on my blog that isn't family hahah!

Kami at Ada Brown

Kathy said...

Sandy - what a wonderful place...and the baked treasures - yum (and the cheese, and...)!!! I'll have to tell my daughter (she's in Tampa) - she'd love it.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and entering my giveaway! So nice to "meet" you!

Good luck, Kathy

P.S. AND - Lucky you...you can take a walk in the sand - we've just snow in Ohio right now! :)

Fawnda@Fireflies and Jellybeans said...

Thanks for sharing at little part of you! That was very cool! : )