Polcari's Coffee is a great old market of bulk herbs and spices, coffees and teas, and all sorts of oddball ingredients that you might have trouble finding even in the North End.

For example, Polcari's is my first destination for chestnut flour. Chestnut flour is a required ingredient for the delicious Castagnaccio, a favorite dish in Lorna's Tuscan Birthday Feast or any other time - if you can get the chestnut flour. Even King Arthur doesn't have it!

A visit to Polcari's is quick to show why this is a foodie heaven. The whole place is as packed with goodies as the shelves in the photo. It is very similar to Ed Hyder's Mediterranean Marketplace in that respect, if Ed were Italian! 

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