best places to stock up on san marzano canned tomatoes

[ume]

Hi - Just wanted some advice on where would be some cost effective locations/retailers to stock up on San Marzano canned tomatoes in Vancouver. Thanks.

[hrhsheba]

Bosa's gets them - you can usually get a "by the case" discount. They also sell the giant commercial tins which can be useful for "the big sauce day".

[vandan]

i called bosa when i was researching for my previous post re: san marzanos in van and they said they were sold out and wouldn't have any till at least october or november, not kidding!

[fmed]

I was shopping at Donald's today...Solania brand San Marzano (DOP) is $4.59 per can.

[clutterer]

I picked up a can of Emma San Marzano (DOP) tomatoes on the weekend at Whole Foods - they were on sale for less than $4 a can, I believe. Not sure if that sale is still on or not.

[gourmet wife]

They sell out quite often at Bosa. My second choise is also Donalds. They have a pretty good selection of italian goods there.

[eatrustic]

Donald's isn't even on my radar but I see they're on Commercial near 6th. How do they compare to Santa Barbara?

[fmed]

Donald's has a much wider selection of pretty much all the staples including Asian staples, juice, bread, tofu, coffee, vegetables, etc. They also have a meat section - but it isn't very good. It has a good balance of Asian and European items.

Santa Barbara has a much larger selection of Olive Oils, vinegars, etc...and of course they have that great deli. It has a much more Euro bent to their selection with a token shelf or two for things like soya, etc.

I much prefer going to Donald's over Santa Barbara, personally. Donald's is my "go-to" grocery store...it is more modern and they take cards. (FYI, they have two locations - the original, now larger one is at Nanaimo and Hastings - and has a mediocre Chinese takeout buffet at the back. I get their BBQ pork when I'm feeling lazy...but pass on everything else).

[sackman]

Surprisingly, Safeway. Always have them. Unico brand I believe.

[vandan]

i was @ safeway today and noticed the can says san marzano '' type' tomatoes, they were also a product of canada , so they are not the real thing, besides they were waay too cheap as they were the same price as all the rest

[eatrustic]

Now that is sleazy! It's one thing to call them Italian plum tomatoes but to actually say "San Marzano type" is a blatant lie.

It looks like we need to do a local taste-off of the various varieties of italian canned tomatoes to see where the quality lies.
We had another thread recently where a couple of you bought San Marzanos, any comments on qualtity?
I still like the regular Emmas over the the DOP Emmas.

[vandan]

sorry mine are still sitting in my pantry, while i think of what to do with them to give them proper justice, as an aside kind of reminds me of a bottle of relatively expensive avocado oil i bought waaay back, i cost about $20 so i wanted to make sure i didn"t "waste" ( like pan-frying )it , i could never find anything to do it justice so it sat unopened forever until a few weeks back , so i finally i opened it and guess what , i'm using it for pan-frying (hey it does have the highest smoke point) better to "waste" and actually use it than have it sit there taking up space

[vandan]

they are fairly expensive no matter where you buy them and stupidly so if you go somewhere like whole foods http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/684708

[eatrustic]

Agreed, before "stocking up" you should do some taste tests to be sure they're worth what is often more than double the price. San Marzano, unfortunately, does not often equal vastly superior.