Tips For Agoraphobes & Anyone Who Hates LA Traffic: Top 10 Foodie Shopping Websites

It's a jungle out there. Angelenos text while driving, arguments break out in parking lots over front row spots, parking cops hover like vultures, and locavores throw elbows for choice produce. Shopping at our city's farmers markets and gourmet grocers may fill the larder, but venturing out of the house can be downright hazardous. Add the fact that Los Angeles measures more than four hundred square miles, and suddenly shopping for a handful of key ingredients can seem like a high stakes, cross-country journey.

Maybe that's why so many modern hunters and gathers shop for specialty foods online. If facing clogged streets makes your stomach lurch, here's a list of the top 10 sites for purchasing food and gourmet gifts online.

Brooke Burton

Gourmet Home Delivery

Zingerman's

1. Zingerman's: Known to many as Ann Arbor, Michigan's culinary mecca, Zingerman's offers shoppers traditional foods and specialty items from across the world via their online/mail order catalogue. In addition to their comprehensive selection of hearth baked breads, build-it-yourself deli sandwiches, artisan cheeses, varietal coffees, estate bottled olive oils and customized culinary gifts, owner Ari Weinzweig and his staff offer insightful product descriptions that illuminate the cultural back-story of every specialty ingredient they sell.

Spoonsisters.com

2. Spoon Sisters: There are times when the need for a particular kitchen gadget feels like an itch that needs to be scratched. Immediately. Thankfully, the Spoon Sisters sell a wide range of food related gizmos that can fill any kitchen tchotchke requirement. Whether you're looking for a retro lunch box, temporary food tattoos, or decaf coffee test strips that ensure your java won't jack you up past your bedtime, this retailer's selections will save you from ever having to face traffic for a foodie gift or dining hall desire again.

Foodzie.com

3. Foodzie: Put two great things together (think Etsy.com meets the Santa Monica farmers market) and you get Foodzie, an online community of artisan food sellers. It's easy to browse through the individual seller's shops and use the site's search engine to discover specific products. There are plenty of tasty treats to be found. One seller's organic, spicy tomato juice was recently named one of the 50 best things to eat in the world by the UK Guardian. If buying local is important to you, have no fear. Foodzie has a large number Los Angeles-based food artisans that sell their wares direct to customers.