Talk to me about grocery shopping

here's the new trader joes flyer... there may be some good recommendations in there:
http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless/NC.pdf

@d@ml, you met the former imports manager for Kermit-Lynch when we were all briefly sitting together upstairs at the Edinburgh Castle.

Dude with the glasses that was talking about Etta James?

Where did you get the TJ's flyer?

now i just go for diet dr pepper, beer, water and vegetables for my iguana. i was going to go tonight b/c i need to start eating yogurt again but it's raining.

when i shopped i would go to albertsons b/c whole foods is too expensive. now i usually go to fiesta because it's two blocks away and i never get more than 3 or 4 things away. i miss HEB in central texas.

close, his girlfriend.

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.