One of the last remaining institutions of the Lower East Side’s Jewish history, Russ & Daughters is best understood as the place where one buys “the foods one eats with bagels” like lox, herring, whitefish, cream cheese spreads, and (why not) house-label caviar. When Joel Russ immigrated here in 1907 from a shtetl in what is now Poland, he began selling schmaltz herring to the Eastern European Jews in the neighborhood. The fourth generation of Russes now operate the shop on Houston Street.

When Kerope Kalustyan, an Armenian chef from Turkey, founded Kalustyan’s in Kips Bay in 1944, he most likely didn’t imagine it expanding across storefronts and floors to become an essential resource for chefs and globally-minded home cooks. Primarily focused on ingredients of the subcontinent, the packed-to-the-rafters store teems with Middle Eastern and South Asian spices. Delight also in the frozen Indian food, chaat mixes, and labneh spreads, and a dessert case that is a journey in itself.

In operation since 1948, Sahadi’s, a family-owned food bazaar now spanning three storefronts in Brooklyn Heights, is an unparalleled space for Middle Eastern ingredients, reflecting the neighborhood’s history as an immigrant enclave. The bulk-goods section offers a diverse selection of dried fruits, nuts, grains, flours, and candies; in the prepared foods section, order just-made hummus with za’atar bread to take to the nearby Brooklyn promenade, with pistachio baklava for a flaky finish.

In this wonderland of spices and rare foods in Alphabet City, Atef Boulaabi, the charismatic Tunisian-born owner, invites you to open her jars and smell the blossoms, herbs, hydrosols, powders, dried mushrooms, and infused vinegars, stacked on 14-foot shelves. Rub shoulders with NYC’s most revered chefs while spicing up your kitchen with rare ingredients like blue salt from the deserts of Iran and apricot kernel oil for your next bowl of popcorn.

Flushing is home to New York City's largest Chinatown, and JMart feels like a massive supermarket in Beijing. Wind through aisles dedicated to different types of noodles (instant, dried, even hand-pulled!) and every rice variety you can imagine. You come here to buy hard-to-find delicacies common in the Far East: Fresh durian (and durian mooncakes), periwinkles and eels, brown sugar boba-flavored popcorn, and the sweetest jufeng grapes in all of New York ($12 a box, but so worth it).

Adja Khady is a snug market run by a group of sisters in Harlem’s Le Petit Sénégal, and specializes in Senegalese imports like baobab syrup, sumbala (a miso-like nut paste), blazing hot peppers, spiced coffee grounds, dried fish, and couscous made from millet––plus other products like handwoven baskets from the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and Mali. For your next dinner party, try your hand at superkanja, a Gambian soup made with okra, sweet potato leaves and chili peppers.

Tucked between a fried dumpling shop and a shi-shi omakase bar in Manhattan’s Chinatown, Bangkok Center Grocery is a staple for those passionate about Thai food. Stop into this tiny neighborhood grocer, where its floor-to-ceiling shelves are packed with rare ingredients: bird chillies, banana leaves, and canned rambutans. The most coveted item here? Fresh green kaffir lime leaves, which as many chefs know, are incredibly difficult to find, and essential to Thai cooking.

Part supermarket, part community center, Sunrise Mart is the one-stop-shop for homesick Japanese, who are lured to the market on Broome Street by the neon veggies in the window. You might find it challenging to navigate the packaged goods (most are labeled in Japanese), but don't fret: the friendly staff stand ready to translate—and will even give you cooking ideas and suggestions for what to do with that bottle of organic ponzu and 10-pound bag of sushi rice.

If we could only by charcuterie supplies from one store it would be Despaña Soho. While most days this shop operates as a purveyor of Spanish delicacies such as Jamon Iberico and a variety of Spanish's cheese, on friday and saturday nights they open a few tables for their tapas menu.

Located on one of the last few blocks of Little Italy Di Palo's make sure you know this. Stepping into the shop your senses are enveloped in the smells of the fresh mozzerella being made, the cacophony of conversation as long time customers and clerks chat about their daily going ons and most importantly the sight of cured meats hanging from the almost every conciveable place.