Food

Sometimes, although it may seem difficult to believe, a food item may not be available in this melting pot of a city of ours.

When I received a query from James Mourglia, who’s looking for Watkins vanilla extract and ground cinnamon, I figured that, at best, we’d end up with an online source. Once again, hawk-eyed Taste of the Town readers surprised me.

Mama Mia! Steve Epstein is looking for Mama Mancini’s Meatballs. Fellow readers Ken Wolt and Stephen Salchenberger reported finding them in the frozen section of separate outlets of Whole Foods Market, which has four stores in the valley.

For Pauline Eikel, who’s looking for a peanut-flour peanut butter that has half the calories of regular peanut butter and that she found at Smith’s, readers have two suggestions.