Talk to me about grocery shopping

green beans, greens, sweet potatoes, chayote squash.. stuff like that.

Is school out?

I live across the street from a cheap-stuff chain called Save-a-Lot, aka Eric Rudolph's Favorite Store (he was captured behind one), so from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. we have a big-ass pantry and fridge available and don't have to stock up on staples. We can let ourselves run out of stuff like bread and milk completely before going out for more. This time of year there are produce stands popping up everywhere you look, so the fresh veggies are covered. For TP and laundry detergent etc, there's Sam's Club every three weeks or so. (Sam's is shit compared to Costco, which I went to back in CA and miss a lot. I'm tempted to renew my Costco membership just for the 2-3 times a year it would be convenient for me to shop at the Memphis locations.)

I miss California produce. I haven't had a decent artichoke or been to a decent farmer's market in 3 years. But I can't complain about the tomatoes here.

yes. i have two months to decide if i'm returning. so far my iguana chingy has offered no advice. i'm thinking of downgrading him to iceburg lettuce.

Well, it's June and I haven't had any decent heirlooms yet.

Iguana chingy?

i'm sure clarkeb would agree.
-- gygax! (gygax0...), June 8th, 2004.

Oh, it's good drinking *anytime* of the year -- why wait for summer for something so otherworldly delicious? A caveat: Alsatian Gewurztraminers can be big and blowsy, coming on a bit too luscious and rich for their own good. These wines need dagger-like acidity to balance their richness, which Trimbach's always seem to have in spades, but some do not. I'm a Riesling freak admittedly, but Alsatian Riesling can be an eye-opening experience. These are some of the only white wines that can age and age and age. It's really neat, too, to see how Alsatian whites evolve -- like most white wines, they start life fairly pale in color, but after four or five years in bottle, top Alsatian rieslings turn a deep, evocative gold, and reveal layers and layers of amazing flavor.

OK hasn't anyone addressed this? Cat litter ie JUNK FOOD? Where is Dan?

Anyway I hate the grocery store near me, kind of. Manhattan grocery stores are the sketchiest shit going half the time. They don't stock the same things on a regular basis and the produce is half bad half the time. I actually really liked Fairway when I lived by Lincoln Center but that seems quite far now...though I keep getting tempted to go.

I do like grocery shopping, but not in Manhattan so much. I kind of wish freshdirect.com would hurry up and deliver to my neighborhood already.

I go to Key Foods on Grand to pick up stuff on the way and I also hit all the discount cheeses, crackers, coffee at E. Village Cheese shop to set me up for the week.

For instance I get a real kick out of bargain hunting in the discount stores (such as Poundstretcher, or more recently the even better 99p Store!!) for household items such as cleaning products/saran wrap/dustbin bags etc. I don't see the point of spending a fortune on things like that.

At the other end of the scale, I like to buy organically-reared meat from the Farmer's Markets - the quality is far superior to anything you could buy in a supermarket - but it's correspondingly more expensive. I'll sometimes buy vegetables from the Farmer's Markets too, or from the local Pick-Your-Own Farm, but I grow a lot of veg in my own garden so most seasonal stuff is taken care of at home. Likewise I have a few chickens running around in the back garden so I hardly ever have to buy eggs, and I bake my own bread (in a breadmaking machine - it's so easy!) so don't often need to buy any.

There's an excellent cheese shop in the covered market in Oxford, and I'll go there every few weeks and stock up. Wine is usually bought in bulk a few times a year on a booze-cruise to Calais. I also have my favourite Chinese supermarket and an Indian grocery store - excellent for buying interesting spices etc very cheaply.

I'm not stuck in an office all day at work because my job takes me out and about a lot, so I get the chance to nip into all sorts of different shops all over the county fairly regularly. I couldn't imagine doing a one-off monthly shop in one supermarket - how dull would that be?

I don't really miss grocery shopping in any of the places I lived in NYC at all. Especially not being beholden to the Food Emporium on 42nd & 10th as the only nearby supermarket. That place sucked a fat one.

dude! brighton beach! astoria! chinatown! you've gotta hit the ethnic neighborhoods for the good produce.

in brooklyn heights there's garden of eden, where the produce always looks gorgeous and is displayed proudly in bins outside the store. expensive, though.

rasheed otm re the key food across from southpaw.

Chorus

That is what I have to say about Grocery Shopping!

i bought cat litter, coffee, kleenex, zuchinni, toffee bits, ibuprofin, and odwalla breakfast bars. $40!

Maybe we'll go tonight. We got some burritos from Cancun and watched The Sopranos.

these were your two high-dollar items, I'd bet.

xpost

these were your two high-dollar items, I'd bet.

no! odwalla bars were a dollar each. The cat litter is $11 (we have to get the silicone crystal stuff) and the coffee is $12 (Peet's). I spend more money on stuff for my cats to shit on than I do on breakfast.

That thing at Columbia is even considered any type of market? It's about 5 stands, most of which just sell breads. And the one on Columbus/77th is actually an antique fair with 5 or 6 produce stands mixed in. Neither of these have ever struck me as particularly impressive and often by midday the produce doesn't look so hot, thanks to being outdoors in the humidity for hours and hours I would assume. Just a word of warning, I suppose.

I live in an ethnic neighborhood but the produce here is a bit sketchy off and on, I'm assuming due to the fact that the bodega owners don't really give much of a shit since most of their business actually seems to be people buying beer.

Fairway honestly never seemed that bad for produce but I don't fancy the idea of going down there in this weather and then carrying back 4 or 5 bags, esp. since the 1/9 is the closest line to there and I fucking hate the 1/9, cos my subway stop utilizes the dreaded ELEVATOR ONLY approach to the 1/9 ie 400 people in one elevator=crushed bags. If I had a car or for some reason the city moves the A/C over 5 blocks or so, I'd be so set though.

xpost this is why living in the outer boroughs is better sometimes, I just hate toting back that many bags over the subway.

I wish I lived near a greenmarket, but then again I never cook. I buy all of my $6 tomatoes here.

I go to the store every day now because it is one block away. This is very inefficient.