EXPERT ADVICE

Exotic Foods Online

Even the greatest of grocery stores can't carry all the best artisanal products from around the world. For the delicacies you can't find at Whole Foods or Safeway, there's the vast culinary bazaar known as the internet. "The cool thing about selling over the Web," says Mark Pastore, of San Francisco's premium salami company Boccalone, "is that we can find that half a percent of the population that really digs what we do." This means Boccalone – like countless other niche producers – can stop worrying about providing for the mass market and focus on what it does best. With an online storefront, it can trust that customers will find and support it directly. So go ahead and use your computer to fill up your kitchen with products like country hams, once available only in Appalachian hollows; the French answer to cayenne; the sauce-brightening juice of underripe wine grapes; and the best grass-fed steaks on the planet. Launch Gallery >>

– Daniel Duane