Title: October 17, 2013
Author: jean komatsu
Last saved by: Owner

Market Hall @Rockridge in Oakland, CA – deli/specialty food vendor
Review date: January 2015
(previous reviews appended below)

Just a note regarding some of the other products we've tried. Excellent are:

•	Pasta Shop Chicken Liver Mousse, also available in 4-oz size through Good Eggs delivery service. Wonderful; really intense chicken liver flavor. Although the label said apples, the gelée on top was from blackberries with maybe some apple for sweetening. It was excellent with the livers, which were very smooth without an overdose of cream. 

•	WeLoveJam. We tried WLJ's passionfruit/mango/raspberry jam, but in contrast to the soft, superior Blenheim Apricot jam, this was stiff as a board and just tasted like raspberries. Wouldn't buy this again.

•	San Daniele prosciutto. Possibly the least salty prosciutto we've found. Slightly less than the others, I prefer it although Carlos likes any prosciutto.
 
Good Eggs delivery will deliver a Roli Roti roast chicken, but it overcooks by the time it gets to you, so it's not worth ordering one for dinner. Pasta Shop is better, fresher, less overcooked, but it won't sit around either.

Market Hall Rockridge in Oakland, CA – update, take-out
Review date: Sept. 2014
(previous reviews appended below)

We stopped by Market Hall – specifically, The Pasta Shop, which is the largest vendor. TPS has not only fresh pasta and sauces, but an extensive deli and charcuterie case, fresh bread, and specialty goods such as pickles, chocolates, and jams. 

Mediterranean roast chicken. TPS offers four different roast chickens. This had a touch too much rosemary, although it's great to finally find rotisserie chickens whose breast meat is still juicy and not overcooked. Of the four flavors TPS offers, I prefer the lemon-tequila roast chicken. Carlos likes all of them equally.

Mac'n'cheese, with a bread crumb topping. This is a mild m&c, with a slightly creamy sauce. The bread crumb topping is mixed with parmesan cheese, which gives the mac'n'cheese a necessary jolt of salt and umami to avoid blandness. It's good although not the best.

Note: Carlos was very disappointed this time that there was no pasta with marinara sauce – he really likes TPS's version, often getting a separate order of meatballs (which also weren't available today). Carlos could happily eat pasta in tomato sauce three times a week for the rest of his life without getting tired of it (me....ummm, not so much).

Cucumber salad. This was different than anything we've had before, anywhere. We both approved and would be happy to buy it again. Standard cucumbers were seeded and sliced, then combined with a few raw carrot shavings for color. There was the merest touch of salt, some sliced green onion tops that had no bite, and a generous sprinkling of goma, black sesame seeds. 

Mixed fresh vegetable. Today the vegetable blend was fresh white corn, cut off the cob and mixed with diced bacon, fresh spinach, and slices of fresh shiitake mushrooms. I enjoyed this. Carlos tried a spoonful but didn't like it (he prefers corn on the cob, never off).

Vegetable fritters. These sounded interesting -- shredded zucchini mixed generously with crumbled feta. They are breadcrumb-coated ovals, so it's a thin crisp shell over a soft filling. It comes with a lemon yoghurt dip, which I used generously. I liked these, Carlos just shrugged.

It's worth noting that The Pasta Shop/Market Hall Rockridge is one of the few sources for the specialty brand We Love Jam, which has become famed for its very rare Blenheim Apricot Jam (read about how it's made from one of the last Blenheim orchards left in the heart of Silicon Valley). This is now one of the rarest commercially-grown fruits in the U.S.: http://www.welovejam.com/save.htm. 

If you're looking for it on the TPS shelves, there's a photo of the label on Jam's website at http://www.welovejam.com/shop.htm to help you identify it easily. A 9-oz jar of the Blenheim is $11.95 at TPS, which is cheaper than paying shipping from the website. It's a very soft jam, btw, almost runny. If you've never tasted a Blenheim, this is the closest thing to the fresh fruit one can come. 

One chicken, 3/4 lb. mac'n'cheese, two vegetables in small 1-cup containers, one order of four fritters in 2 cup container as we didn't want them squished. With a green salad the second night, this was enough for two dinners. Not counting the two jars of jam, it was $34.36. The Blenheim jam was $11.95; the raspberry/mango blend was $9.75.

Market Hall @Rockridge in Oakland, CA – deli/specialty food vendor
Review date: May 2014
(previous review appended below)

We occasionally (honest, not that often) indulge in a cheese-and-charcuterie lunch. Sometimes it's as simple as a supermarket Brie and Columbus lite salami with a Safeway baguette. But when we can manage it, we try for better quality delis, such as the local specialty vendors inside Market Hall in the Rockridge neighborhood.

Except for the parking hassles, Market Hall has an excellent deli, cheese, and charcuterie vendor called The Pasta Shop which we've been exploring. We don't care for the bakery, and the produce shop holds no charms for us, but the cheese and prosciutto are excellent.

We explored a few of the deli items back on Oct 2013. We liked the frittata and tequila roast chicken, but not the curry chicken salad. This time we tried a few other items we like much better. Note that prices are by the pound, so if the weight was a little over or under what we specified, the price adjusted accordingly:

Chicken Pot Pie. All right, it's not Bakesale Betty. But although soft, it's a pretty tasty crust. Maybe a bit salty, but you need some salt for flavor when you're looking at both a top and bottom crust. Not a great amount of chicken, but sufficient. There's carrots and finely chopped broccoli in a reasonable amount of gravy. It's worth the repeat (I first tried it back on Oct 2013), especially for the modest price of $8.25/ea. 

Roast Chicken, garlic & thyme. The deli offers four flavors of roast chicken. Last time we tried the tequila roast chicken, but had to refrigerate it until dinnertime before we ate it. It was good, but we decided we needed to try the chicken when it was fresh. We chose the garlic & thyme flavor and shared it for lunch. Fresh, it was the best deli chicken we've had so far. Sectioned as quickly as possible, the breast meat wasn't dried out and the wings were also good. These aren't really roasted, of course, but rotisseried. The other flavors are lemon and rosemary, and Mediterranean. Sold by the pound, ours was a little over $16.

Broccolini with shiitake. Not cheap but really good; this was a repeat from our previous visit. Cut into 2" lengths, cooked to a nice al dente with generous slices of fresh shiitake, garlic, EVOO, and a touch of chile flakes.  3/4 lb. was $7.66.

Rigatoni in tomato sauce. Simple and basic, another repeat. I thought it was bland but Carlos is fine with it with the meatballs added. 1/2 lb. was $8.06.

Meatballs in marinara sauce. Firm beef/pork meatballs in a good chunky ragú were a great addition to the rigatoni one night, and to some plain linguine the next. Carlos liked this repeat and so did I (I stole two meatballs). A bit over 1 lb. was $18.12.

Moussaka in 4" squares. I love moussaka and frankly prefer my own. But Carlos isn't fond of it, so it's simpler for me to just buy it pre-made, or order it in a restaurant. Pasta Shop deli does a good version: lots of ground beef in tomato sauce, two thin layers of sautéed eggplant, and a thin layer of white sauce with Parmesan cheese on top. It isn't the best I've ever had commercially, but it's more than adequate and dirt-cheap. Two squares only cost $5.05.

Cheddar, artichoke, and red pepper frittata. I really liked this. It reheats well but is good cold or hot. Carlos isn't fond of frittatas, so this 4" mini-round is ideal for me. It's a modest $4.95/ea.

We enjoy the Market Hall. We just wish it was easier to park around it. There is a similar marketplace in Alameda, but it lacks the strong deli section that Rockridge's Market Hall enjoys. The Alameda vendors are stronger in the pastry/bakery and butcher areas, but unfortunately it's not convenient to shop at both in one trip.

The total for all seven items was $69.73. With the addition of some dried pasta the second night, this fed the two of us for lunch and dinner, for two full days. This time we liked everything we tried, and would definitely buy all of them again. 

Rockridge Market Hall 
5655 College Ave. (@the Rockridge BART station) Oakland, CA
http://www.rockridgemarkethall.com/
Review date: October 2013

With Inez away on a two-week visit to her goddaughter, Carlos and I have been enjoying ourselves with foods his mom doesn't care for. This includes restaurants with spicy food, as well as such off-beat home meals as lox and bagels, or cheese and prosciutto.

It was in search of the latter that sent us to Market Hall, which resides below the restaurant Oliveto and has several specialty food vendors. We are always seduced by gourmet delis, unfortunately. Instead of just grabbing some prosciutto and leaving, we wandered around for an hour and filled a shopping bag to the absolute brim!

A few months ago we had done a taste test of Market Hall's Jamon Serrano versus the Parma prosciutto. We're familiar with the American-made La Quercia prosciutto; it's a staple at many California restaurants. At that time, Carlos said there wasn't much difference that he could tell, so we went back for the Parma prosciutto, as it's considerably cheaper than both the Jamon and the La Quercia. 

We had a lovely time at the cheese vendor (doesn't everyone?). They had a fabulous French brie, along with buffalo mozzarella (for Carlos' favorite caprese salads) and my favorite St. Andre triple-creme. We also bought several cheeses which we hadn't tried before. The reviews of the cheeses follow:

•	Pont-l'Évêque: This is a French cow's milk cheese that is familiar to many. It's one of the more widely available specialty cheeses, although only 3% of production is classified fermier; literally "farmer", meaning artisanal. This is a pasteurized cheese of soft texture with a washed rind, and is considered the oldest Norman cheese still made (12^th century, no less). Although classed with Brie and Camembert in soft creamy texture, it has a more pungent aroma. Carlos' first reaction was "mushrooms!" and indeed, if you're fond of mushroom Brie, this grown-up version was great with the prosciutto. 

•	Biancina (aka Bianchina): new to us, this is an Italian goat cheese (a Modesto CA cheesemaker produces a mixed cow/goat version locally: http://www.sfgate.com/food/cheesecourse/article/Young-mixed-milk-Bianchina-already-a-winner-4526845.php). Pasteurized, it's made in the Alta Langa region. Our wedge was actually firm and yellowish near the rind for about 1/2", but then segued into the creamy, slightly flaky interior shown in SFGate's photo. It can be eaten fresh or aged for a couple of months. Judging from the outer rim, ours was aged for probably about a month. Either way, it has a milder taste but a firmer texture than most fresh goat cheeses, and we really liked it. If you have friends that are dubious about goat cheese, this is an excellent choice to start out with. The texture was halfway between the softness of cream cheese and the crumbly, semi-firm texture of good feta.

•	Camembert di Bufalo (buffalo milk Camembert): Wow. Yowza. We were buffalo milk Camembert virgins, but no longer. We were stunned by this one. The buffalo milk mozzarella was good, but this....wow, this was amazing! It was Camembert as it should always taste, but no cow's milk version comes within a mile of this. I like Camembert, as does Carlos, but we both prefer other cheeses (for him it's Brie; for me it's St. Andre). But this Camembert came in a close second to our individual favs, literally just a hair's breadth behind. It has the incredibly runny interior texture of pure heavy cream, and the dusty mold on the outside gives it tremendous depth without overwhelming the creamy butteriness. All the cheeses we tried were great, but if you could only get one new cheese – this is the one to pick, absolutely. It deserves the very best French bread you can find or make. 

•	Brie Fermier: Brie is Carlos' favorite (mine is St. Andre) but one taste of this and we were impressed. Over the decades we've eaten probably way too much Brie, and this ranks as the best Brie we've ever had. It wasn't until I was looking it up on the Web that I discovered this is a small-production, highly regarded Brie (http://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/Saveur-100-Brie-Fermier). Saveur describes this as "what Brie was meant to be", finding it sharp and mushroom-y. Our wedge would be better described as "subtle, rich, and seductive" – which is probably more from a difference in age and fermentation batch than anything else, cheese being very much a living food. We both agreed that Saveur got this review right on the nose. As Carlos remarked when I told him, "No wonder we liked it!" If you enjoy Brie, we can't imagine anything better than this one. It virtually begged for a perfect Bosc pear, something I'll have to keep in mind when those fruits start hitting the markets.

•	St. Andre: One of the richest triple-creme cheeses in production. The distinctive flavor comes from being made with equal parts sour (cultured) cream and whipped sweet cream. The aroma and taste are sharper than Brie, but cleaner than Camembert. I was surprised to read it's considered a fairly rare cheese, as production is small compared to other artisanal cheeses. You can get this at a number of specialty vendors all over the Bay Area; it may not always be in stock at one place but demand keeps it around most of the time. This is my personal favorite, and this wedge was in perfect condition, flawlessly ripe. I couldn't ask for anything better.

One of the things we loved best about these cheeses was that none of them were overly salty. Creamy, fragrant (even pungent), rich, delicious – yes. Salt as the first taste that hits your tastebuds and the last that lingers – nope. Nada. 

Sadly, although we are okay with the breads in the Market Hall bakery (separate cash register from the deli and cheese, btw), their loaf cakes were terrible. The banana-walnut loaf cake was horribly stale and dry, and the bittersweet chocolate loaf cake was a nice fine-grained texture, but a little dry. The bread is adequate, but not as good as Semifreddi or Acme, so we wouldn't go out of our way to buy bread here.

We tried a new ice cream, brand name McConnell's, from Santa Barbara. Carlos loves chocolate and orange together, and this is the first ice cream we've seen offering a chocolate-orange mix. Unfortunately they use a base of cocoa, and too much of it: this gives the ice cream a dusty, one-note flavor. A shame, because the orange flavor was true and very good. Back to Haagen Daz!

Over the next few days we ate some of the deli prepared food. The chicken pot pie was decent, but the pastry is thick and crumbly, not as good as the thinner, flaky butter pastry that Bakesale Betty uses. They're a good price, however - $8 for a filling dinner (if you're eating lunch, I'd suggest sharing one and getting a small side salad). 

Carlos tried a rigatoni pasta, as well an order of the meatballs in marinara. He liked the meatballs but not the pasta, and said he would be willing to buy the meatballs and eat them alone or with bread.

I picked one of their small individual vegetable frittatas, which was roasted red peppers and artichoke hearts. Carlos dislikes frittatas so it's nice to be able to pick up an individual one I can have by myself. When I reheated it at home, I melted a slice of smoked Gouda on top, and it was a great combination. The smoke flavor really brought the frittata veggies to life – I'll have to remember this pairing the next time I make a vegetable quiche.

I'm fond of curried chicken salad, but didn't care for Market Hall's version. They shred the chicken breast and include a lot of half-raw carrot batons to match. I didn't care for the textures although the dressing is pretty good. I prefer Whole Food's version of this dish, and in fact that's the only deli item I do like from Whole Foods. We don't regard WF's deli section as highly as many seem to. 

We don't shop often at Rockridge Market Hall. Parking is fairly difficult most of the time. Plus, we honestly try not to over-indulge in our cheese mania more than a couple of times a year. But we do want to check out more of those interesting deli foods, so we'll have to exercise serious self-restraint to avoid filling up our basket with more of those yummy artery-cloggers in the cheese section!

For the cheese shop and prosciutto alone, Market Hall gets our vote as one of the best in the East Bay. The quality of those cheeses was top-notch. Every one of them was in perfect condition, indicating fast turnover and proper care. When you're dealing with the semi-soft and soft cheeses, good turnover is important. These type of cheeses don't stay in prime condition for very long.

But the next time, I really have to remember to pick up the cornichons for Carlos!

I didn't keep close track, but we spent roughly around $130 for five meals for the two of us, which is hard to beat.