Cost Plus World Market and I go way back to my first trip to San Francisco, when it was a higgledy-piggledy warren of assorted interesting, inexpensive stuff. At that point, it was like an immense version of Pier One. Nowadays Pier One has decided to compete with Pottery Barn, another store that began at what we’d now call Ikea prices, and lost its charm. But World Market, as the store now encourages us to call it, still reminds me of walking into Pier One in the old days, with the feeling of "Oh, wow, I didn’t know I wanted one of those!" Beyond the tableware, baskets, cushions and furniture, they carry a pretty decent selection of reasonably priced wine and some interesting specialty food items, like curry-cooking sauces, jams, snacks, chocolate and pasta. As the holidays come nearer, remember that it’s a good place for stocking stuffers for adults. (Kids, too, but perhaps not quite as much.)
Poking around in the kitchenware section, I found a couple of striking things. One, as much for the visuals as the usefulness, is a series of measuring jugs. (There’s a bowl, also.) The smaller one is $5.99, the larger $7.99. The high sides make me think that it would work well for something that would be mixed by a stick blender.
But the most interesting item was this grinder-grater. There are three pieces: The white ceramic top layer is a half-circle with nubbins on it for grating smaller amounts of garlic, onion or ginger.
The half-circle fits on top of a bowl whose interior has a ridged, coarse surface.
The third piece is a wooden pestle. Some mortars and pestles are lovely but utterly ineffective because the ingredients slide and bounce around as the cook is trying to mash them up. Won’t happen here with a bowl like this. All this is $7.99, more than reasonable. And it’s a lot easier to clean than taking apart a food processor.
-Ann
Cost Plus World Market
24 Brentwood Promenade Court, Brentwood
314-918-7800
3628 S. Lindbergh Blvd., Sunset Hills
314-821-4488
238 THF Blvd, Chesterfield
636-728-0011