My supermarket experiences in the US

Z

zeegirl84

New member
On Sun, 27 Mar 2011 11:47:51 -0400, "Ed Pawlowski"
wrote:


I don't think so, not for bananas.... maybe you don't mind paying wine
cellar prices for bananas, I don't. Bananas ripen at their own rate
and pretty rapidly, I buy the greenest ones, within two days they are
already ripened to the way I like them for eating out of hand, for
baking/smoothies I let them get a little softer, but for eating as is
I don't much care for mushy bananas. If any store has what someone
thinks are better tasting bananas it's just coincidental that they
were a particular crop from a certain plantation, or more likely chalk
it up to a damaged taster. Produce is like that, it can never be
precisely identical crop to crop. And if someone is taking particular
drugs, or even eaten certain foods, then their ability to taste will
be affected... I just don't believe that people go around taste
testing bananas from store to store nor do they comparison taste side
by side... the sense of taste is one of the poorest sensory memories
humans possess, only the memory for color is worse. Mostly what one
percieves eating bananas is their smell, which constantly strenghtens
during the ripening process... if your olfactory nerve were severed
and you were blindfolded you couldn't tell mashed banana from mashed
sweet potato.
 
Things have changed a lot in ten years. Some things are a lot worse and
some a lot better.

Trader Joe's nowadays doesn't seem to have a lot of reason to exist. It
looked to me as if they are mostly about prepared food. The ones I sampled
in the stores were good, but I don't buy packaged food and I was very
disappointed in the basic ingredients selection and shocked at some of the
prices. $4.95 per pound for broccoli? At the absolute height of the
season? $3.95 per pound for leeks? I don't think so.

I shopped at Giant a few times. I saw the same problem that I often find
here: dozens of choices of a few things and none whatsoever of other things.
Leeks were almost as expensive at Giant, too. Leeks are easy and cheap to
grow. Why so pricey?

Mega Market was so much fun I would move next door. It was like a vacation
in South America without a ticket. I loved it, although sanitation was
probably on the low side and you have to want what they've got. They had
Peruvian dried potatoes and many different chili peppers, so I was happy
with them. I probably wouldn't buy meat from the butcher unless they
cleaned the glass and got the splotches and fly spots off, though.

Costco is what it is and isn't much changed. You never could do all your
shopping there and you still can't, but those rotisseried chickens really
are tasty. Their Pecorino Romano or Romano cheese is just horrible. I
didn't know Italy made cheese that bad. It's fun tasting all the weekend
specials, but not so much fun if you have to buy 3-5 pounds of it.

Wegman's is what supermarkets need to be. Everything about it was easy and
pleasant. Prices seemed right-- not cheap, for sure, but the days are over
when really good food can be cheap. They make and explain the distinctions
among specialty products. They, for example, had a separate stand for
Parmigiano Reggiano and offered both 2 year old and stravecchio. They did
not reveal the age of the stravecchio and I am used to every piece of
Parmigiano having a labeled age. Still, just having it was a plus.
They had areas just for French cheese and just for Italian cheeses, etc.
That should help shoppers a bit.
They were as much a food fair as a grocery in some ways. Lighting was
great. Ordinary vegetables were next to the organic versions so you could
see what difference you were paying.

I didn't buy any meat, but it really looked good. Fish was noticeably fresh
and pleasant.

I was given a taste of a chocolate on chocolate cake that was just terrific.
I certainly have never bought a supermarket cake that delicious, and many
bakeries don't deliver that flavor.

All the rest of my shopping over the two months was done at specialty shops.
That was partly because of where I was staying. Chevy Chase is a close-in
suburb with lots of specialty shops, but for supermarkets I could reach
without a car only Giant and Trader Joe's. The other supermarketing was
done semi-recreationally when my friend with a car went with.
 
On Sat, 26 Mar 2011 11:10:45 +0100, "Giusi"
wrote:


TJ's isn't as fun and interesting as it used to be. You probably
never "knew" Trader Joe's in the olden days, but subsequent customers
demanded consistency and that's what they got. It's just a shell of
its former self because well off, entitled, Yuppies wanted to see the
same products every time they shopped there. Money talks. My new
favorite store, Rainbow grocery, is filled with rich, aging hippies
and they cater to the crowd. That's how it goes in retail.


Hey, it's ORGANIC (plus torrential rainstorms in California have
driven vegetable prices through the roof) and vendors have to meet TJ
standards, which are very high, if they want to sell there. You get
what you pay for.... or maybe not, but at TJ's you usually do.

You go to Costco to buy in bulk. If you like the bulk product, you
buy it. Otherwise you're screwed.
It's sure different from shopping in Europe. European shopping is
quaint and I wish we had more of that here. But all in all, I'm glad
we have what we have with all the choices we have that go with it.
It's not like you can find top quality at every shop on every bend
over there either. I'd go crazy trying to live with all the
limitations of being in one region or another in Europe. It's a nice
place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there very long. Two
years would be my limit.

--
I love cooking with wine.
Sometimes I even put it in the food.
 
notbob wrote:

but


nb,

Sounds like a different banana accident because of no mention of EDTA.

Nice funny and upbeat song and story though! Thanks!

Best,

Andy
 
On Sun, 27 Mar 2011 10:37:08 -0800, Mark Thorson
wrote:


This is true... and since bananas generate copius ethylene all on
their own I can't imagine it being added during shipping or at any
point... if you want to ripen tomatoes place them in a bag with a
banana. And no shipper refrigerates bananas to much less than room
temperature, they'd quickly turn black... they are climate controled
during transportation to prevent their freezing or cooking.
 
On Sat, 26 Mar 2011 11:10:45 +0100, "Giusi"
wrote:

Trader Joes has never been a place to buy good inexpensive produce. I
go there for decent basic ingredients, and not much else.

That's cause you shopped on the east coast, in the winter. Come to
the west coast, and we can show you a whole different story.


Come to the bay area, and we can show you a lot more places like that.
Have you ever seen Berkeley Bowl? Now that is a great place...and I
think you would love it. Same with some other places in the bay area.

Christine
--
http://nightstirrings.blogspot.com
 
projectile vomit chick wrote:




The advantage of leeks is they are in season when many vegetables
are not. (Such as, now.) I sometimes make just plain braised leeks; but
recently I've been making pasta, leeks and yuba in broth. For some
reason this combinatation is very good. I've tried other vegetables
instead but the dish seems to want leeks.


Steve
 
On Mar 26, 5:47?pm, The Cook wrote:
Different meaning for different regions of the country. Here a curb
market is a small store to run in and buy a pack of cigarettes, coke,
cup of cooffe,chips, etc. In years past a person would drive up and
the clerk would run out and take your order.
 
Giusi wrote:




That works, however I have found it easier to first do the slitting
maneuver I describe above, then rinse them when they're still whole,
then slice them.

Steve
 
"Christine Dabney" ha scritto nel messaggio
"Giusi"


I spent a lot of time on the West coast when I lived in the US. Part of
what I was doing this year was experiencing what my readers experience.
Real life wherever they are and having to buy and prepare food every day for
a family. Only part of that allows for California.
 
On Sat, 26 Mar 2011 12:09:24 +0100, "Giusi"
wrote:



Ahhh..I see. In NM, it can be a dismal experience as well. Even in
summer. One just doesn't see the bounty of the markets that are there
on the west coast.
At the moment, I am back here in NM. While it is great to be in my
own house with my stuff around me, I really miss the markets back in
CA.
Before I left CA two weeks ago I went to the farmers market and got a
bag of blood oranges and meyer lemons to bring back here with me. I
also got green garlic, that I have never seen here. Before I drove
back here, I also got some stuff from the bay area markets, as I knew
I wouldn't be able to find it back here with the quality and
inexpensiveness I find in CA.

We truly get spoiled on the west coast.

Christine
--
http://nightstirrings.blogspot.com
 
"Giusi" wrote



West coast shopping for all that Christine likes it, isn't significantly
different at all. Been there. 6 years San Diego, 7 years Norfolk.

The prices you listed do not exist that high here. Leeks are .89lb at the
asian grocery, no more than 1.29 at the major markets. Organically grown
asian broccoli (not same critter by the way but the stems taste the same) is
..69lb.

Fact is, no matter where you go, some things will be hard to find and others
are easier. Me, I adapt my eating to whatever wonderful foods are in the
area I am at.
 
On Sat, 26 Mar 2011 11:10:45 +0100, "Giusi"
wrote:


This is the way all markets here are going. Computer tracking and
abundant research by manufacturers and by the stores themselves enable
them to know exactly what sells. TJs has made the shift over the past
2 years. Their German owners must be doing their homework, eh?

Even King Arthur, whom I always used to regard as a source of only
primary ingredients, certainly retains some of that within their
business model, but mixes and additives are fast taking over their
catalog.


Recently we have seen soaring vegetable prices due to a freeze in
Mexico.

http://globalfreeze.wordpress.com/2...sumers-businesses-as-produce-prices-increase/


BUT, leeks have never been cheap, at least here in the NE. One cannot
even be guaranteed to find them at all or in decent shape, if needed.
I grow mine, but they obviously are not at the ready year-round.

snip

The Pecorino and Romano selections change during the year and come
from different suppliers. Additionally, the supplies vary by US
region. They recently had some sort of traveling cheese show come
through, where the supplier set up special in-store tastings. My
Costco had theirs about 6 weeks ago and I was unimpressed. The usual
Costco cheese stock, though, can be absolutely different from such
"special" offerings. They do this show business with fudge and
cheescakes, too, and one or two other items, as I recall.

(about Wegmans...)

Alas, I will not buy any fish from a regular grocery store. Just my
own hang-up. Surprisingly, I have had the bet luck with frozen fish
from Trader Joe's Go figure. For years they carried the most flavorful
and delicate Dover sole I had ever eaten. We had it once a week, at
least. Lately it has disappeared. I am sad.


Almost all of what Wegman's offers up from the bakery is from mixes,
partially made or frozen. TH's company did a lot of work at a company
that supplied much of this.
I use markets for fun and frolic. Large chain groceries are used for
fat milk runs, or to pick up some basics when we run out, or to catch
some fabulous special. I get my meats at Costco or a specialty
butcher, although one local grocery has some nice things once in
awhile (only place I can get veal breast for stuffing and roasting).

Paper goods are from Costco, as is laundry soap, most fruits and
berries and bananas. Even I, who prefer to buy in bulk, cannot use up
5lbs of organic baby carrots, though, nor 20 lbs of potatoes.

We are blessed with many small ethnic markets here in NJ...Italian,
Asian, Middle Eastern, Indian, Caribbean. I do a lot of my shopping
there. These places stock their shelves with what the "natives" want,
not for an American, speed demon, get-the-food-on-the-table so we can
get Michael to soccer, Brittany to the tutor, and still make the PTA
meeting and catch up on office emails market.

Times change. Slow food is just not the norm here (except in my house,
where time stands still). Somebody is out there buying all those
Pringles.

Boron
 
"Steve Pope" ha scritto nel messaggio >


I'm the leek queen here. I've happily wrestled with them in a load of ways
and have a pasta of toasted leeks and Pecorino that is a winner as well as a
"souffl?" or sformato of leeks that I love. They inject a lot of umami into
a dish and onions are just not the same.
 
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