Zaarly Food Storefronts: Local Treats You Won't Find In Shops

Think of it as an Etsy for food.

Over the past few weeks we've been shopping on Zaarly, which began as a "reverse Craigslist," but reinvented itself this spring as a five-city online marketplace for crafts, foods and services.

The edible offerings in San Francisco range from catered meals to pickles, and the vendors, from amateurs to established pros. A good 10 percent of the items, as you can imagine, are cupcakes. Bonus: Most of these shops deliver.

Three Zaarly shops you should know about:

Sweet Pistachio Pâtisserie: Erin Emmett trained in Paris and New York before working for Chantal Guillon. Now on her own, she makes killer macarons ($14 for 6, $27 for 12). Hoard the lemon meringue ones for yourself.

Kevin & Gail's vegetarian red chili

Kevin and Gail's Chili Palace: These cook-off champions sell frozen, boil-in-the-bag packages of their two chilis ($8 for 12 ounces, $11 for 18 ounces). The tomatillo-based chili verde is tart and porky, and the red vegan chili, a mess of beans and vegetables, is equally vivid in flavor.

Crumb Shoppe's salted-caramel cookie dough

Crumb Shoppe: Self-taught baker Claudia Gutierrez sells frozen tubes of her cookie dough ($11 a pound, or $17 for two half-pounds) through pop-up markets and Zaarly. Our favorite: Her toffee-like salted-caramel cookies.