A Visit to Williams Sonoma
I am visiting Williams Sonoma looking for the elusive white truffel butter required in The Equalizer’s recipe for Pumpkin Risotto. Can’t find the white truffel butter, but I did find some very lovely things – things we can get a lot cheaper, maybe even better, in the Middle East.
First is what they call a Greek pepper grinder, for a mere $79.
I bought the same, beautiful pepper grinder in the Diraa souk in Riyadh for $10 – and I believe it came from Turkey. It grinds peppercorns beautifully and stores the grindings airtight in the bottom until you need to use them.
Then these two pots. The first one is $200, and the second ranges from the low $200’s to $320, depending on the size . . .
they are beautiful, hammered copper from Italy . . .and we bought beautiful, heavier pots with beautiful handles in Damascus for a fraction of what these cost. If I had to choose, I would choose Damascus any day for shopping, over Dubai. 😉
Is there anyplace in Kuwait where you can get copper pots re-tinned? Or has that, too, gone by the wayside?
(And a BIG shout-out to Joan of Arc who patiently taught me how to link pretty)
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you can find lots of neat stuff in souq salmiya, believe it or not, they have lots of traditional pots and pans, and alot of diverse and new things..
its interesting..
ya mal al-sham — Dubai has the glitz but Damascus has the real thing: deep culture, good people, solid values. oh — and great restaurants, for those of us erstwhile new yorkers who prefer our pots more for decoration than actual use :-).
inchoufik b3ad boukra ya khalti!
Baroque – Thanks for the good information – is Souk Salmiya also sometimes called City Centre?
Little Diamond – see you tomorrow!
WOW! this stuff is jewelry!! :))) You ppl really buy such things to ACTUALLY cook with them?!?!
No matter how rich a family can be here; we live satisfied with the standards– really! 🙂 OK, the cars, real estates, clothes.. Yeah they won’t settle for standers at all! LOL
GOD HELP US ALL :))))
I’m glad you can do pretty links now! Mubrook 🙂
Joan! Those items I showed are all items we have bought in the Middle East, at substantially lower prices! I have beaten copper pots I bought in Damascus; one, a fish poacher, has a fish handle that makes your hand WANT to grab it, it is so beautifully wrought. I was sharing because the price difference between what I paid for the beautiful brass pepper grinder was so huge! At $10, it was a great buy!
And nothing beats a copper pan for cooking . . .it spreads the heat so evenly. Just a bummer keeping them looking sparkly.
I guess you know better in these matters! 🙂 They DO look lovely.