Foodies love to make epicurean and farmers markets travel destinations

FOOD CATHEDRAL: San Francisco’s Ferry Terminal Building boasts not just fresh local produce three days a week, but gourmet restaurants and purveyors of other fine foods year-round.

In recent years, a new style of traveler has emerged: the food tourist. If you're not one yourself, you've probably at least met one of these culinary-obsessed creatures who think nothing of whiling away an afternoon strolling through haute grocery stores, hovering over fresh produce at farm stands and planning vacations based on nothing more than where to sample the best crab cakes or creme brulee.

Certain farmers and gourmet food markets have become bona fide tourist attractions, not to mention great places to squeeze melons with cute fellow foodies.

Here's a sampling of some of the best such markets around, from the vaunted food stalls of Philadelphia and Santa Fe to the esteemed produce purveyors of Seattle and San Francisco. Grab your shopping list and get started.

Ferry Terminal Building, San Francisco

If you consider grazing to be a favorite pastime, set aside plenty of time to explore downtown San Francisco's Ferry Terminal Building, which has a slew of great restaurants and food shops. The gorgeously restored building, a former ferry terminal that dates to 1898, overlooks San Francisco Bay. Inside, you'll find merchants selling a dizzying variety of mouthwatering morsels, including wines, olive oil, sausages, coffee and tea, sweets - just about anything that makes your taste buds tingle can be found here.

Behind the building, there's also a farmers market on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. The entire facility is like a hands-on museum of food, and what better place for such a shrine than San Francisco?

Check out: Acme Bread (they bake divine baguettes); Cowgirl Creamery's Artisan Cheese Shop (try the Humboldt Fog goat cheese); Hog Island Oyster Company (nosh on succulent oysters on the half-shell); Ciao Bella Gelato (sample coconut-lemongrass sorbetto and chocolate-jalapeno gelato); Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker (for heavenly semisweet mocha squares); Taylor's Refresher (fantastic ahi tuna burgers and garlic fries).

Pike's Place Market, Seattle

When it comes to shopping, downtown Seattle claims one of America's greatest retail facilities: Pike Place Market. To think that during the 1960s urban planners lobbied to tear it down. Seattle residents voted to protect it as a historic site, and today this sprawling 1907 market continues to buzz with fishmongers and food stalls of every ilk you'll find 200 year-round businesses, 190 craftspeople, 240 performers and musicians and 120 farmers who rent table space.

Pike Place sort of tumbles down a hillside toward Elliott Bay, and there's a fascinating assortment of book, clothing, gift, crafts and antiques shops occupying the lower floors and adjacent buildings. For $8, you can also take a walking tour of the facility, Wednesday through Sunday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Check out: Crepe de France (made-to-order crepes); Le Panier (artisan breads and chocolate croissants); Razey Orchards (organic Yakima Valley cherries); Pike Place Market Creamery (cheeses from all over the region); Pike Place Fish Market (the freshest Dungeness crab you'll ever taste, plus smoked salmon packaged to go); Sisters Cafe (heavenly focaccia sandwiches).

Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia

From Lancaster's Pennsylvania Dutch Country to Pittsburgh's Steel Country, Pennsylvania has long enjoyed a tradition of superb food markets.

In gay-friendly Philadelphia, you'll find the mother of them all, Reading Terminal Market, which has been selling tasty treats since it opened in 1893 (there's actually been a market on this site since 1860). The market, inside a train shed built by the Reading Railroad, houses about 80 merchants who dole out everything from fresh basics (eggs, tomatoes, flowers) to local specialties (Philly cheesesteaks, Amish baked goods, Italian hoagie sandwiches). The market is open daily except Sunday, and Pennsylvania Dutch merchants and farmers set up tables here Wednesday through Saturday.

Check out: Delilah's (soul food, including a knockout mac-and-cheese that Oprah Winfrey has called the best in the country); Franks A-Lot (outstanding hot dogs and Polish sausages); Beiler's Bakery (Amish baked goods); Bassetts Ice Cream (America's oldest ice-cream company, going strong since 1861).

Santa Fe Farmers Market, Santa Fe

New Mexico's capital, nicknamed the "City Different," has fervently embraced the organic food movement and farm-fresh produce, as evidenced by the city's bounty of high-end natural-food shops and restaurants serving innovative and healthful food.

From late spring through fall, the Farmers Market takes place on Saturdays and Tuesdays in an outdoor park near the city's rail yard (as well as Thursdays at the County Fairgrounds). In winter, the market moves indoors to the nearby El Museo Cultural and is held only on Saturdays. One unusual feature about this market is that all of the foods here are produced locally in northern New Mexico (many farmers markets around the country proffer goods from outside the area). You'll see plenty of artsy and outdoorsy types here most days, gathering picnic supplies for hiking or attending the city's famous summer opera.

Check out: Shepherd's Lamb (they sell delicious organic grass-fed lamb); Milk and Honey (wonderful all-natural soaps); Pena Blanca Goat Cheese (try the cheese infused with lavender); Heidi's Organic Raspberry Farm. There's also a concession stand selling delicious New Mexican fare, including tasty breakfast burritos.

Andrew Collins is the author of "Fodor's Gay Guide to the USA" and other guidebooks.

E-mail: OutofTown@qsyndicate.com




This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition, July 7, 2006.