Best of Boston

2009 Best Gourmet Shop, South

Sid Wainer & Son

We’re all for keeping weird and wonderful stuff in the fridge (as long as it didn’t, you know, grow there). That’s why we love making the trek way down south to Sid Wainer to stock up on Styrian pumpkin seed oil, baby Calabrian fig purée, dragon tongue beans, and more than 2,000 other gourmet provisions, most of which will never see the inside of a supermarket. The samples at the demo kitchen are reason enough to go, as is the massive cheese ‘cave’ of 250-plus varieties.

2301 Purchase Street, New Bedford, 888-743-9246,