A bit of southern Italy in Philly
Southern Italy: a region so surreal, so sublime, so simple; water so blue that sky and sea meld together on the horizon; a land fertile enough to produce some of the world’s best cuisine.
Legend has it that when Mount Vesuvius erupted in Pompeii, Italy thousands of years ago, the fault plates beneath the rocky terrain subducted so far into the earth that they emerged on the other side of the world in a locale to which we Americans refer as “the city of brotherly love,” Philadelphia. In fact, this transfer of crust brought with it the culture and ingenuity of southern Italy in all it’s culinary glory. It’s even believed that the very fault boundary serves as the foundation for an unassuming gourmet Italian specialty store called Carlino’s Market.
Since 1983, this family-owned operation has been making food that puts native Italians to shame. Located in West Chester, Pa., the store is masqueraded as a residential home in a quaint Philadelphia neighborhood. Like the talented chefs and bakers don’t prepare enough of their own homemade breads, pastries, sandwiches, meats, pastas, cheeses, and sauces (to name a few), the interior of the store is jam-packed, floor to ceiling, with authentic, imported goods from the homeland: plump green olives, extra virgin olive oil from Lucca, handcrafted lady fingers.
The store’s best claim-to-fame, though, is its homemade pizza pies. When it comes to pizza, I prefer a cracker-thin crust; but at Carlino’s I make an exception. With a thick, fluffy, chewy focaccia-like crust, topped with fresh tomato cruda and hand-pulled mozzarella, the rectangle pizzas at Carlino’s are manna from the Roman gods. The slabs of pie are quite generously portioned, but I always find it difficult to eat only one, or even two pieces. My philosophy is that food so fresh should never go to waste, and by waste, I mean letting it go uneaten for more than a day.
But, it’s not just pizza that the chefs at Carlino’s have mastered; everything they make, and I mean everything, is out-of-this-world delicious. Other typical Italian specialties are perfected to a science, from catering trays of cheese and fruit, to pasta salad, to baked ziti, to veal parmigiana, and yes, even the Thai noodle salad is a phenomenal dish.
Though it is lengthy, the store’s motto serves as the quintessential description: “Purveyors of artisan breads, virginal olive oils, imported cheeses, sinful pastries, roasted and cured meats, homemade pastas, fish and fowl favorites, vibrant produce, olives and figs, authentic deli, Italian specialties, butcher shoppe, espresso and gelato to go…”
When in Philly, you must stop into Carlino’s for an unsurpassed Italian experience.