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Where To Buy Guts..

July 23, 2006 on 9:14 pm | In Resources | Comments

Where do I get these meats? That’s the question I’m asked most often. It’s amazing that what used to be available in every butcher shop are now considered hard-to-find specialty items, but that’s another story. To start with, I can give you a list of places in the Bay Area as well as a few mail order spots where you can get offal. For those folks outside the Bay Area, I suggest you do two things: 1. if you’re lucky enough to have a local butcher shop, ask them. They may not have guts on hand, but they can probably order them for you. 2. Check out the “ethnic” markets in your area; Chinese, Latino and Filipino markets (and probably others I’m not familiar with) usually have offal in their meat section. The following list is by no means complete; it’s just a starting point. Now go get some guts and start cooking. And add your favorite retail spots for offal in the comments section below and we’ll compile a more complete list so that someday soon everyone, everywhere can bring home some guts for dinner.

Prather Ranch Meat Co.

I get a lot of lamb, beef, and pig offal here. They are great to work with and do small batch retail for regular non-restaurant folks. Plus they are Certified Humane just like we are at Incanto. They regularly have tongues, sweetbreads, liver, ears, tails and many other delicious treats all for the asking.
Niman Ranch

I get pig, beef and lamb offal from these folks as well. They also carry sausage casing as well as lots of cured products. You can either buy online or find a local butcher that carries theire products and ask them to order it for you. Niman is a staple in the meat industry in the Bay Area and they always have good product.

Marin Sun Farms

You can find them at the Saturday Ferry Plaza farmers market or at their own shop in Point Reyes. They have great beef and lamb bits. This is where I get my Marin Mountain Oysters.

Golden Gate Meat Company

Here is another great SF source for offal, they ask for a preorder to get you what you want. They carry all animals as well as different types of sausage casing for you home sausage makers. I also use them at the restaurant and their service is incredible. They have a shop at the Ferry Building in SF.

99 Ranch Market
Daly City Store
250 Skyline Plaza
Daly City, CA 94015
(650) 992-8899
This is one of many locations around the country specalizing in asian ingredients, but has a very large offal section. Which is a major part of asian food culture.

To answer an email I recieved here is where one can find Balut embryonic chicken eggs:

Island Pacific Supermarket
(650) 827-0888
3573 Callan Blvd
S San Francisco, CA 94080


There are also many markets in San Francisco’s Chinatown that carry a large range of offal both dried and fresh. You can also buy live quail, roosters, and chickens at:

ON SANG POULTRY CO.
1118 GRANT AVE.

MING KEE GAME BIRDS INC.
1136 GRANT AVE.

Get a live bird and do the deed yourself. That way you get all the offal and can eat the bird with it.

There are a couple of places on Clement Street (around 6th Ave) in San Francisco that have whole birds and offal as well.

NEW MAY WAH SUPERMARKET
547 CLEMENT ST.

11 Responses to “Where To Buy Guts..”

  1. Steve G says:
    August 25, 2006 at 12:42 pm

    I’ve seen whole plucked dead chickents at New May Wah with feet and heads; I didn’t turn them over to see if they still had internal organs. These whole chickens were a few specific breeds that must be prized in Chinese cooking, and were more expensive than their other generic chicken offerings without heads and feet.

    I’ve also seen a black/blue chicken (I think it had a head on it) at a smaller Chinese supermarket out on Noriega Street on the corner of perhaps 34th or 35th, across from HC Seafood/Dim Sum. This wasn’t like a Bresse chicken with blue feet, the whole body was blue and it was on the small size as chickens go.

  2. Jenna says:
    October 8, 2007 at 11:18 am

    Do know of any places near NYC?

  3. DEBBIE CHANCE says:
    November 2, 2008 at 5:56 am

    Hi, First of all, I stumbled across your site after seeing an episode of Iron Chef America where they were preparing offal cuisine and offered duck testicles as one of the secret ingredients. Since I am a big fan of eating “bizzare foods”, I immediately went on line looking for the duck testicles. Your site referenced D’Artagnan as one of the places to find them but they were not offered. Is there another source from which I can purchase them? Secondly, I am not usually a blog reader but I have really enjoyed reading yours. Thanks for the very interesting tidbits that you have offered.

  4. sean says:
    November 19, 2008 at 12:54 pm

    nybody know where I can buy fresh, not frozen chitterlings in the San Francisco Bay Area?

  5. Brian says:
    December 6, 2008 at 11:24 am

    To reply to the person looking for offal close to New York:

    In Fair Lawn NJ, the Shop Rite on Fair Lawn Ave. usually has tripes, pig ears, pig tails, beef hearts, different types of livers, chicken gizzards, and sometimes kidneys.

  6. Chris says:
    February 16, 2009 at 5:41 pm

    Closest to the city would be Chinatown. I was visiting yesterday and stumbled across many meat markets carrying everything. And if anyone is interested, a plethora of different animal offal can be found at Shop Rite’s and Stop & Shop’s across NJ. I’ve bought Beef Heart, Calf’s Liver, Beef Tripe, Pig’s Neck, Chicken Livers, Pork Brains, Sweetbreads, Oxtails, Pig Trotters, Calf’s Kidneys, and more. So these two Supermarkets are overflowing with offal goodness.

  7. Job says:
    March 30, 2010 at 3:50 pm

    Is there any place in Bay Area, I can buy chicken gizzards, hearts, livers…and so on.

    pls helps.

  8. King says:
    June 3, 2010 at 9:36 pm

    Here in San deigo you can buy betamax(pork blood bbq),isaw(pork/beef intestine bbq),shawarma,addidas(chicken feet bbq),helmet (chicken head), kwek kwek (fried orange egg) etc. all already cook and some are ready to serve.

    Blitztorte Kalye Hits

    914 E 8th Street
    (between Highland Ave & I Ave)
    National City, CA 91950

    (619) 434-8511

  9. marlon lara says:
    August 13, 2010 at 12:11 am

    where can i buy bull’s testicles (rocky mountain oyster) in San Fransico Bay Area?

  10. Basil says:
    March 14, 2011 at 9:57 pm

    Hi, any idea where I could purchase chicken intestine in the Los Angeles/San Gabriel Valley area?

    Thanks all!

  11. Cory Baughn says:
    March 1, 2013 at 8:57 pm

    Hey Chris! I recently fell in love with offal thanks to you and recently purchased two live rabbits just so I wouldn’t lose any of their organs. Everything was eaten that could be and it was great! The organs were better than the meat to me, the kidney and lung being the best.

    That said, is there a good source for offal online that is shipped in the US? The UK has tons of sites, but none in the US which is so so ridiculous. I guess they “get” it better than the US does.

    I have not found ANY good supplier around where I am in Birmingham, AL, so I am stuck to trying to find it online. If you know of any places let me know, otherwise I am going to be stuck only getting offal treats on extremely rare occasions when I come across animals to butcher myself or the few treats that I get from our yearly hog killing in the fall. Thanks Chris, you’re pushing a great thing here and definitely changed the meat tune I sing.

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