A little bit of heaven

I found heaven on earth, and it's in Brisbane, California. It's a European food and wine importers warehouse. Every once in a while, they open their warehouse doors to the general public. A friend of a friend tipped me off and I went yesterday afternoon. The doors opened at 2 PM and rumor had it that the good stuff sells out fast, so it was important to be on time. That meant sacrificing an interesting late afternoon seminar in the pursuit of ever-lasting happiness. Indeed, the place was mobbed. Compared to other shoppers who were loading their baskets with 10 kilo packages of French foie gras and entire wheels of English stilton and crates of French chevre, I was restrained. This was more of a reconnaissance mission on my part, as I was more interested in checking out what this place had to offer. And I found heaven. No pearly gates or fluffy white clouds or angels, just an entire walk-in refrigerator stuffed with cheese. Not to mention the warehouse racks filled with chocolates, olive oil, basalmic vinegar, pasta, and spices. Or the other fridgies with foie gras and smoked meats. And did I mention the specially discounted French wine? So I left with Spanish olive oil, hard cider from Brittany, Italian prosciutto, French smoked duck, French foie gras, a round of epoisses, a chevre, some CowGirl cheese from Mt Tam, and a 1/2 case of a special cuvee of white chateau-neuf-de-pape for half price. Pretty restrained, I'd say. At least for me.