02 Nov 2011, Posted by admin in EAT + DRINK, 0 Comments

Food Shopping Evolution

For some of us, those one-stop grocery shopping days we grew up with are thankfully over (Walmart and Target diehards notwithstanding), and we have more roasted beet salad and Coho salmon dinner quality to show for it. Of course, the concept of shopping at specialty retailers was a lot easier back in the day when going to both the butcher and seafood market meant a fifteen minute small town jaunt.

But hey, for the quality I’m more than happy on a weekly basis to hit the grocery store for meat, dairy and other staples, the local farmers market for the best and most affordable produce, the little Iranian market down the street for crazy deals on the parsley, cilantro and onions I go through so quickly (and sure, armloads of fresh jujubes for pennies means there’s plenty of change left for experimental candied jujube recipe fun).

Monthly, there’s Trader Joe’s for nuts (and Parmesan, burrata, olive oil, wine… you get the idea), the rare Whole Foods splurge for good cheese and hard-to-find craft beer, the Hispanic market for those impossibly good homemade tamales and corn tortillas, the French bakery, the seafood market, the German sausage guy, the coffee roaster, and yeah, the butcher for the occasional roast leg of something.

OK, fine. Maybe “more than happy” is a bit of a stretch in today’s urban sprawl and traffic-saturated times. But it sure beats the days when the only options were those chain grocery store fake Parmesan “wedges” and hazelnut-flavored coffee beans, right? Right. Well hey. Culinary perfection is arguably a better obsession than so many other vices.