Stop 'n' Shop at Specialty Food Markets

Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market, San Francisco

This young market, established in 1992, quickly became one of America's best. It is also a top San Francisco attraction, housed in an 1898 ferry building that was the Bay Area's transportation hub until the 1930s. The steel-framed landmark was renovated to include a 65,000-square-foot marketplace in the central nave.

Ferry Plaza is a testament to California's commitment to sustainability: All fruits, vegetables, meats and flowers hail from regional farms and ranches, many of them certified organic. The goodies don't stop there. Look for regional artisan breads and cheeses, coffee and tea houses, wine merchants, pastry shops and ice cream parlors. For burgeoning foodies and so-called localvores, there are free cooking demonstrations and Q&As with farmers every week. Open Tuesdays and Saturdays; One Ferry Building; 415/291-3276.

Mercado Municipal Paulistano, São Paulo

Housed in a 135,000-square-foot palatial building, this food gallery is aptly known by locals as the mercadão (big market). The Mercado Municipal reopened in 2004 after extensive renovations to the original 1933 edifice, with grand columns and arches, skylights and stained-glass windows. The Mercado Municipal receives an average of 14,000 visitors a day, both tourists and locals, who come for Brazilian specialty meats such as jacaré (alligator) or capybara (a pig-sized South American rodent), and more than 300 exotic fruits, including pytaias (grown in the Amazon and known elsewhere as dragon fruit) and mameys (large, sweet, orange-fleshed fruits).

A mezzanine food court offers Brazil's most traditional dishes including pastel de bacalhau (cod dumplings) and feijoada (a slow-cooked stew of black beans, pork and beef, served with white rice, collard greens and roasted cassava flour). Open daily, Rua da Cantareira 306, Parque Dom Pedro II. +55-11/3326-6664.