The Neighborhood 5-Star Restaurant

At long last, the snow has melted and green chutes and budding leaves color the once bleak brown landscape. As the temperatures continue to creep toward flip flop and Hawaiian T-shirt weather, one word rings through Marlborough neighborhoods – cookout!

This week’s restaurant column is devoted to jumpstarting the inner-chefs hiding within each of us, just itching to turn backyards and patios into personal five-star restaurants. has ingredients key to transforming your cookout into a memorable event.

This small, discreet Brazilian grocery sells fresh and hard to find goods that turn shopping into an adventure unto itself. Fresh quail eggs, frozen alligator tail meat, frog legs and octopus are some of the items worthy of a closer inspection and promise to intrigue dinner guests.

The meat and seafood available from the butcher located in the back of the grocery are both fresh and cheap. Marinated buffalo chicken wings are only $2.79 a pound. Pork chops are $2.99 per pound and the popular marinated steak tips only $6.99 per pound. And Silva’s also sells charcoal to fire up those grills.

The butcher has a wide variety of meat and seafood to satisfy most carnivorous cravings. Salmon, haddock, tilapia and kingfish are included in the seafood lineup. The commonly requested cuts of both chicken and beef, such as New York strips, are available as well.

But why stick to the ordinary? Oxtail, beef liver, tripe, beef feet, pork feet and chicken hearts, to name a few, hold promises of a culinary exploration not soon forgotten.

“Our boss is always out getting fresh produce and meat. Most of the meat comes from Massachusetts farms, and so is very fresh,” noted one Silva’s Market employee. The grocery has been in its current location nearly one-and-a-half years, but has been a part of the local community for more than five years.

In addition to the thorough selection of fresh seafood and meat, Silva’s Market also sells fresh fruit, fruit juices such as passion fruit and coconut water, in addition to frozen mango pulp – perfect for smoothies to top off the backyard barbeque.

Drop on by Silva’s Market, located at 500 Boston Post Road East, Marlborough. Quality ingredients for skilled backyard chefs are just down the street.