Slavic Shop
1080 Saratoga Ave., San Jose; 408.615.8533
Slavic shop offers products from Russia, Ukraine, Hungry, Bulgaria and other East European countries. The small grocery store in Saratoga also has a large deli counter with more than 180 different cured meats from salami to smoked hunter’s bacon, as well as prepared items such as piroshki and stuffed cabbage.

Eastern European, mostly Russian, candies, bread and cookies line some along with Russian peach and pear sodas and pickled vegetables. “Name something you think cannot be pickled, we have it,” says owner Alex Napadiy. Napadiy also boasted of 40 different kinds of vodka, smoked herring and mackerel and Kiev cake, a wheat-free cake of meringue, hazelnuts and chocolate from Ukraine.

Best Buys: Huge variety of pickled vegetables, dark rye bread, Kiev cake and lots of vodka.

Oakmont Produce Market
810 W. Hamilton Ave., Campbell; 408.866.6555
From the parking lot, Oakmont Market looks likes a typical corner store but with a large display of produce out front. But a look inside reveals that this isn’t a run-of-the-mill grocery. The tidy store is a haven for East European and Russian expats looking for a taste of home.

The sausage selection alone is worth a visit. There are baked goods from San Francisco’s Cinderella Bakery (try the poppy seed rolls), Polish (Podlaski) cheese, and dark and dense schinkenbread from the Bavarian Bread Co. This is Silicon Valley, so Oakmont also sells tortillas and American potato chips.

Best Buys: Kielbasa, half-sour pickles, fresh farmer’s cheese and American bowfin caviar for $115 a pound.