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2002.january.31 --------------- saw a commercial for boca hot dogs last night. it reminded me of all the stuff i don't get to buy on a regular basis anymore because i don't shop at big grocery stores. i used to always have a pack of smart dogs, aka protein sticks, in the fridge for a sixty second protein snack; i haven't bought them since august. also, i've been without my beloved rice dream for over a week...sacrifices happen. i just wish there was a nice, independent health food store in my neighbourhood, preferably one that stocked bulk foods. that's asking a lot; there isn't even a whole foods in walking distance. the nearest one is at the pit of consumerism that is north & clybourn. it's not just obscure health food stuff that i miss though. yesterday i was reminded of the existence of potato bread, and wow do i miss it. i've been known to go through almost a loaf at a time, making toast. now the closest i get to that is a potato bagel on bagel days at work (wednesdays). besides health food, the other main component that has all but vanished from my grocery list is the meal-in-a-box. while making mac and cheese last night with jeff, i realized it's been a while since i've made a just-add-X meal. my concept of cooking has definitely shifted in the last five months. it's become rare to "cook" stuff that comes from a box; most of the food i prepare now starts as basic ingredients, like vegetables, butter, tortillas, or noodles. funny, i'm still very hesitant to prepare meat at home (bacon being the only exception), usually only consuming it when i go out to eat. 2002.january.30 --------------- jen pointed out something interesting to me, something i had kind of noticed before but hadn't fully registered as a generalizable phenomenon until now: the ubiquity of soy sauce and mustard in hippie and punk cookbooks. yes, it's an overgeneralization, but a somewhat valid one. whether out of unavailability, laziness, or just being broke, the limited range of spices and sauces for vegan usage can cause an overabundance of certain ingredients. if you substitute balsamic vinegar for mustard, the generalization pretty much sums up most of my vegan cooking years. oh, and cinnamon. my mom's major complaint with me when i was vegan was that i was being too restrictive, not letting myself experience all the flavours that life has to offer. and granted, every time i now eat good meat or a rich dessert i say to myself (and anyone around to listen) "wow, i'm so glad i'm not vegan anymore." but there's a flipside to the austerity most people assume about vegan cooking. because so many traditional ingredients are off limits, being vegan can force you to be creative or experimental. i know i ended up exploring new sauces and spices that i might have never tried or even heard of before. 2002.january.29 --------------- i took the chickpea challenge last night, and goya emerged as the clear winner. to recap: when i went to the grocery store last week i bought two cans of garbanzo beans: goya and la preferida, because i could never remember which one i liked better. just about everything about the goya bonzos was better: the color, the texture, the flavour...la preferida beans were too smushy, falling apart almost immediately. good for making hommus, but not so much for bonzos allegra (now with red pepper flake modification). overall, the la preferida chickpeas were watery tasting, with more discolored (greenish) beans and a slimier-than-normal goo congealed at the bottom of the can. from now on i will remember to buy goya. --- lunchtime pb&j update: apparently i'm not the only one comparison tasting! one of my coworkers, myung, has been bringing in small jars of different kinds of peanut butter in an effort to determine which one he likes best. last week it was skippy; today it's peter pan. 2002.january.28 --------------- odds and ends for an endofthemonth monday: found an interesting article (via saute wednesday) about soy milk's traction in the dairy market. it focuses on several differences between soy and cowjuice, primarily aseptic vs. refrigerated packaging, and the benefits of isoflavones, a plant form of estrogen found in soy protein. of course, i prefer rice dream to soy milk, even if i haven't been able to buy any in the last week. --- i've been getting a fair amount of hits for vegan dryer sheets and laundry detergent. funny, i was vegan for three years and never really knew that a lot of those products are made with animal stuff. anyway, i did a little research, and ethical shopper seems to have the best selection; their product standards codes provide a lot of information about the companies behind each item. --- good news: comments may be on their way. rbgrn, my generous host, has ftp disabled so i can't use blogger, moveable type, or grey matter. however, rob has volunteered to write some kind of commenting system for me that doesn't involve ftp. wouldn't that be nice? 2002.january.27 --------------- yesterday's gorgeous weather inspired ellen and i to take a nice long walk. for a destination, we chose alliance bakery, which jessica had told me about; it's on division, about a block or so west of ashland. the store itself was very pleasant; three small tables, non-intrusive lighting, lots of wood and moulding, and an aria playing in the background. alliance didn't have a huge selection of goods, but everything seemed to be of very high quality. they also offered coffee and espresso. a blurb on this page says they sell everything for half price after 7pm, the last hour they're open. i'll have to remember that. on our first pass we chose a dozen small finger cookies: six sprinkled and six chocolate chip. i ended up liking the sprinkled better, because the sprinkles themselves were sealed on with some kind of glaze. also, the cookie part of the chocolate chip was a simple sugar cookie-type dough; i prefer the cookie part of chocolate chip cookies to be chewy, not crumbly, and to have some kind of brown sugar and cinnamon involved. we also got a piece of poundcake with blueberry topping, which turned out to be extremely fluffy, and a raspberry oatmeal streusel bar, also good. the streusel bars, available in apricot, were labeled non-dairy; since they didn't seem to have any eggs in them i assume they're vegan. i should have asked, but the counter girl wasn't very pleasant. all of the above purchases (total: $4.50) got wrapped in a box, which we immediately sat down and opened. after munching a couple cookies each, we realized we hadn't bought anything really chocolate. it wasn't a hard decision; we went back up to the counter and bought a slice of chocolate mousse souffle cake to bring home. wow, it's amazing stuff, a bit thicker than the average mousse, but even more rich. this cake, which i call a cake only because it was delivered in a sliced format, is one of my new favourite chocolate things in chicago. --- alliance bakery is just across the street from pizza metro, the place that used to carry kinder eggs. damien and i went there for slices last night; i don't do restaurant reviews, but their crust is wonderful, makes for the basis of a great slice. anyhoo, last time i was there i tried a bottle of san pellegrino chinotto, so this time i tried a different flavour: limonata. the drink had more kick than i was expecting, perhaps because it's 12% lemon juice. they also use water from the san pellegrino springs (in italy), which i'd like to try by itself. last summer's trip turned me into a bit of an evian snob. if i didn't have enough inspiration from the little stores on my block, limonata cemented my decision to make an imported pop page. no, don't go looking for a link, i haven't done it yet. but i will. i quit drinking soda for several years, but all the mexican pop available in heavy glass bottles has won me back. now all i need is a digital camera for documentation... 2002.january.25 --------------- last night i went out for dinner with my mom; she had never had middle eastern before, and we were in skokie, so i took her to pita inn. afterwards we went next door to pita inn market. the shop was small but really nice, almost all imports. not just carrying groceries, they also stocked a good amount of cookware (pots, pans, kettles), as well as some very delicate tea services. they also had an entire aisle devoted to tea. i got: + 3/4 lb. stuffed grape leaves from the deli + a box of peppermint tea + a small strainer for making chai + 2 dark chocolate lindor balls the deli had mostly cheese and olives, but many varieties of each, and the old guy working there was super nice. perhaps the best thing about this place though, is that they sell hommus and baba ghanouj from pita inn (restaurant) next door, both of which are very good. in fact, i think pita inn hommus was the first hommus i ever had, so it's always been kind of the defining recipe to me. the grape leaves, however, were just ok, kinda smooshy, without any special spices. 2002.january.24 --------------- at my request, jeff brought back some chocolate hot fudge from michigan; i'm giving it to my stepdad because he grew up there, and still loves the stuff. it's made by sanders, a small company i've mentioned before, but could never find their site because i was spelling it wrong. jeff also brought me some of their butterscotch-caramel topping, which i originally had mixed feelings about; i prefer my caramel uncut. luckily for me, the butterscotch-caramel combo is actually really good, leading me to put it on cream puffs, chocolate bars, and hot cocoa. --- site maintenance: an email from james prompted me to start a food blogs section on the links page. 2002.january.23 --------------- i'm officially back on the caffeine train. i got off it at the beginning of this month when i was sick for a week, and have managed to stay uncaffeinated since. korean ginseng tea, brought in by my coworker myung, has provided me the occasional morning warm-mug wakeup. i don't even drink it every day; i'm a morning person, so usually chugging a glass of water is enough to get me going. it's the afternoons that got me back, riding that train: hardcore espresso cravings arrive daily at 2:30, shockingly punctual. yesterday i had a lot of work to do, and was drowsy, so i gave in, telling myself it was just one day. but it happened again today, so i give up, admit it: i'm back. the espresso machine is twenty feet from my desk; my boss makes regular runs down the street for greek coffee. from what i can tell, artopolis has the best greek coffee in greektown, though i'm no expert on the stuff. artopolis also has a wonderful bakery, always fresh samples out to try, and no less than four different kinds of mousse on any given day. they also sell wine, vinegar, olive oil, and chocolates. as for caffeinated beverages, i'm going to try and limit myself to one espresso per day and of course, weekend coffee. weekend coffee is different from weekday coffee: i add sugar, and sometimes cream/rice dream. during the week i take it black, because if it's sweet i drink it fast, which means i drink more. on weekends i usually only have one cup, so it's nice to splurge, celebrating the weekend in sugar. ellen and have been discussing an upcoming chinatown excursion, on which i hope to procure some good tea from ten ren tea company. i drink it constantly in the winter for the express purpose of staying warm, which means it should definitely be uncaffeinated. and have lots. and lots. of honey. 2002.january.22 --------------- several recent discussions have gotten me thinking: how do i define "corporate"? to be honest, i haven't done much research into which corporations own what stores; been saving that project for future downtime (yesterday's rainy day). obviously i won't shop at dominick's or jewel, and i find whole foods to be particularly repulsive. i do, however, make the discrimination between a chain and a corporation, i.e., i'll shop at jimenez, even though it has several locations throughout chicago, because i don't consider it corporate. why is that? the easiest answer is: because it doesn't feel corporate. a lot of my definition of corporate stems from my reasons for doing this site in the first place. it didn't occur to me immediately, but i can see now that fuckcorporategroceries is a response to feeling like a gentrifier in my neighbourhood. a little background: my roommates and i live in a pretty nice, recently gutted and rehabbed apartment, and probably pay some of the highest rent on our block (which is still pretty cheap compared to most places in this city). two big buildings a block or so over have been converted into lofts, so the process of gentrification would have happened whether our name was on the lease or not. that doesn't stop me from feeling some amount of guilt; my father was a city planner, so i've heard and thought a lot about gentrification and urban renewal for most of my life. i've spent two years living where i do, and still can't shake the occasional feeling of being an evil white person. so instead of getting in my car (you know, the one i got rid of a year ago) and driving somewhere to a yup-scale grocery, i decided to hoof it round the 'hood and support my local businesses. several of the stores i frequent are owned and run by the people that live above them. after a while, they started to recognize me, making me feel more a part of the neighbourhood, instead of feeling apart from the neighbourhood. 2002.january.21 --------------- finally! i got to do a major grocery shopping yesterday, made off with quite a haul. jeff took me; it was his first time shopping at jimenez, and though i don't remember everything he bought, he too was amazed at his total cost being so cheap. i found the grocery list i made several weeks ago, even brought it to jimenez in my pocket, but forgot to look at it while i was there. i checked it when i got home, and had only missed one thing, though i can't remember now what it was. + a 2 lb. canister of oats (i feel an oatmeal kick coming on) + a box of rice krispies (forgot to buy marshmallows - d0h!) + some chocolate wafers + 1 liter mango juice (pamplona) + a bunch of 6" flour tortillas + 5 bananas + a dozen large brown eggs + 1 box mac n cheese + 1 lb. salted butter + 3 separate kinds of pasta - shells, small elbow mac, and fusilli + 1 lb. chihuahua cheese from the deli + ibarra mexican chocolate + 2 cans beef-a-roni + 1 can refried black beans + 2 cans chickpeas - goya and la preferida + bimbo bread + 10lbs. potatoes + 1 bag of spinach + 2 green peppers + 3 grapefruit + 2 zucchini + dolce marinara sauce with mushrooms (ellen and i really like this brand, it's sweet and tangy) total: $40.07 some notes: last time i was at jimenez they had several kinds of silk (soy milk), which struck me as odd but cool. this time they didn't have any alterna-milks at all, so now i have to make a separate trip somewhere for rice dream, which means and i can't try my ibarra yet. ibarra's the cinnamony mexican chocolate stuff that i couldn't remember the name of last week; jessica in humbolt park reminded me of it. thanks for the tip! jimenez carries a lot of department store-esque stuff, noticeable once you look up above the shelves, suspended from the ceiling. lots of pottery, mortar and pestles, inflatable rafts and animals, different coloured plastic cafeteria glasses, and some other things i couldn't identify. jeff pointed out that for a medium-sized grocery store, jimenez has no real frozen food section, just a small freestanding four foot freezer case that contained frozen corn. i never noticed because i don't buy much frozen food, but it's interesting and indicative of the neighbourhood food preparation culture. jimenez's produce section is decent - they don't always have everything, but usually what they do have is good. the major exception to this is broccoli, which they never have or when they have it, it's brown. too bad; broccoli is my fave veggie. this week their zucchini kicked ass though. i may not buy much frozen food, but i do buy cans, that's just how i was raised. this week i bought two different kinds of chickpeas, goya and la preferida, because i want to find out once and for all who makes the better bonzo. the challenge is on, sometime in the next few days. it's important to note that if you go to jimenez, you should probably have some cash on you. they do take credit cards and have an in-store atm, but they were both out of service yesterday. the people that worked there were nice about it, didn't seem to mind holding my bagged groceries for me till i returned from the nearest cash machine. we came home to prepare a pre-simpsons dinner of egg scramble tostadas and sweet corn bread; for dessert, mandy baked some cream puffs. sunday is definitely a good day to eat well. 2002.januray.19 --------------- ugh. i've had a horrible bellyache since about noon yesterday; almost twenty-four hours later, it's still hurtin. after i came home from work i went to carniceria y fruteria roman, the little store three doors down, for a fizzy clear beverage (all we had in the house was tonic water, the grossest water on earth). usually when i go to carniceria y fruteria roman to pick something up they don't have it, and i have to walk all the way to pete's at the end of the block. however, yesterday their limited inventory did suffice: i procured two bottles of pop. i like the soda they stock; it's all "hecho en mexico" so it comes in heavy glass bottles, and is super sugary, much more so than american pop. i got two bottles: sprite refresco, and limón jarritos. since i'm still not feeling better, i've considered a short fast, but what a bad day to do so! the bears are in the playoffs, and my sportsnut roommates are preparing beer bread, mini crescent roll hot dogs, and a buncha other snacky food for the game. i don't really know what to do; curling up in a ball doesn't even make me feel better. other than being lactose intolerant, i don't usually have digestive issues. i suppose i could take some medicine stuff, but i'd rather address the cause instead of just placating a symptom. 2002.januray.18 --------------- so i got home last night to find mandy cookin up a storm - she made the garlic steaks that i mentioned yesterday! and some baked potatoes and salads. synchronicity, what? my goal for this weekend: to put together my old lady push cart thing and go grocery shopping for real. i've had enough of running down the street to pete's to buy the two things i need to make dinner on a given night. it's been almost what, two months? since i last made an all-around grocery shopping trip. i started a list several weeks ago, it's past time i actually used it. kinder egg update: the siskanator came back from windsor last night bearing kinder gifts, or so i hear from alicia. also, someone told me they are available at treasure island, which means i may not need them imported for much longer. besides, it's the second time this week that people have told me to go to treasure island, so i feel i should go check it out soon. 2002.januray.17 --------------- one of my roommates, amanda, is from lagrange/western springs. on her occasional suburban trek she stops in at casey's market and brings home the goods. having a more than mild aversion to most burbs, i've never been to casey's, but i've certainly enjoyed the fruits of her visits there. she went again a few days ago, and since they have the most amazing raspberry chicken salad, i feel it warrants a mention. especially since, until this last year, i have never liked non-leafy salads. to clarify: until recently, i found potato salad, egg salad, macaroni salad, and so on, to be disgusting. the only exception is tuna salad; i was raised on it, and like it still. but yeah, casey's raspberry chicken salad kicks ass, as does their super creamy spinach dip. mandy also brought home some garlic pork chops and butter pepper steaks from casey's, or maybe it was garlic steaks and butter pork chops? whatever they are, they're in the freezer, but hopefully not for long; i've been craving steak. my steak cravings can powerful stuff: delmonico steak was the first thing i ate to break three years of being vegan. oh yeah, that was a great steak. to be fair though, beef wasn't the impetus for my return to carnivorism; i think it had more to do with being anemic. that was a year and a half ago, and i have no regrets, though i am amused by the fact that i had the same reason for becoming not-vegan as i had for going vegan: it was what my body wanted. 2002.januray.16 --------------- after yoga last night, i met up with alicia for pizza before going out. she suggested we hit pizza metro, and i jumped on the idea; some months ago, a friend mentioned that they sell kinder eggs there(!!). i don't really know of any place in chicago, or the states for that matter, where i can find the german toy-filled chocolate eggs; hence, my excitement. anyway, i had never been to pizza metro before, but when i walked in the door it was pretty obvious they didn't carry kinder eggs. just in case, i asked, and yes, apparently they used to but don't anymore. bummer. guess i'll have to ask twisted siska to bring some back from windsor. the outing wasn't a total loss however, the pizza was good, great crust, and i got to try a new beverage: san pellegrino. i don't drink much soda, but when i do, i first ask for cream soda, then root beer. they didn't have either at pizza metro, but the guy suggested san pellegrino chinotto, this bitter italian pop with a whole bunch of different flavors that i have yet to name. the official site for the stuff is here, but if you scope it, have alt-f4 ready, it pulls an annoying browser takeover. less intrusive info in english is also available. 2002.januray.15 --------------- yesterday's lunchtime tomato incident made me realize (for the third time this month) that my office's kitchen is out of salt, has been for weeks. simultaneously, i was craving stuffed grape leaves, so i headed down the street for an afternoon excursion to athens grocery. i had hoped they would have some dolmas at the mini-deli counter, but it was mostly just a lot different varieties of olives, so i got canned grape leaves instead. i've tried several canned varieties before, and none have really been to my liking, but i was pleasantly surprised by the kind i tried yesterday: zanae. the *best* stuffed grape leaves i've ever had came from this place in minneapolis, joe's market and deli. wow they were amazing. joe's was near where i worked, so i'd stop by there three or four times a week for their wonderfully prepared cinnamony drizzled perfectly in olive oil dolmas. so good. but i digress. yesterday, along with grape leaves i got some salt at athens grocery, the only kind of plain salt they carried: sea salt. they had lots of other spices and seasonings, but since most of their dry groceries are imported from greece, i got sea salt. the whole episode got me wondering what the difference is between table salt and sea salt. from what i can tell (mostly from this article and a few other sources), most table salt comes from the earth, while sea salt comes from evaporating sea water. if left unprocessed, sea salt can retain trace amounts of other minerals, such as phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen. however, most salt sold as sea salt has had all extraneous minerals refined out, and is essentially the same as earth-mined salt. so now you know, and knowing's half the battle. 2002.januray.14 --------------- on the way home from milwaukee yesterday, we stopped at the mars cheese castle for some well-made sandwiches. of course, i poked around the shop while waiting for the sandwiches and found some good stuff. first of all: dutch cocoa! how nice to find it so easily, just sitting on a shelf waiting for me, when i was just wondering where to find some. and it's made by droste; i've had their pastilles before and they are wonderful. while at mars cheese castle i felt compelled, of course, to buy some cheese. first i tried finding some fresh mozzarella, but they only had one kind, and the same amount at family fruit market would have been a quarter of the price. still on the mozzarella tip, i thought about getting a buncha string cheese, but ended up going with three quarters of a pound of meunster. also bought a sioux city sarsaparilla to wash it all down. while in kenosha we also stopped next door at this sausage hut, bobby nelson's cheese shop. sure, they had tons of sausage, but the spiciest thing they had was homemade beef jerky, so we got some of that. also, i got a jar of pickled okra, yum. --- tomato underground update: apparently this past weekend, treasure island had some amazing tomatoes; my boss brought one in for lunch and it was indeed beautiful for a january pick. i've never really been to treasure island, as it's always seemed like an overpriced yuppie wanna-be gourmet store, but i'm willing to make the effort if they still have worthwhile wintertime tomatoes. 2002.januray.13 --------------- all that cocoa and hot chocolate talk a few days ago motivated me to put up some chocolinks. 2002.januray.11 --------------- a side effect of being sick for a week was that i didn't get my morning coffee, or my 2:30 afternoon espresso. caffeine has been a daily thing for me since jr. high, so it's not the easiest habit to kick. but i figure since i'm off it for the time being, might as well see how long it'll last. so in the mornings this week i've been drinking tea as a sort of placebo, something warm from my picard mug. i know, i know, some tea is caffeinated, but with nowhere near the kick that coffee carries. perhaps it's time to brew another batch of chai. if i brought a gallon to work it would be gone in a week; we used to have celestial seasoning's chai tea bags there, but i finished them off a little while ago. and i don't even like quick-brewed chai; good chai brews for at least eight hours, preferably twelve, that's how i make it. another option for a morning wake-up at work is korean ginseng tea. it doesn't steep, it dissolves, and is pretty good with a little honey. i've never really been into herbal energy supplements, but i've been enjoying the occasional cup of this stuff. if i keep up with this no coffee kick, i'd like to visit ten ren, a tea shop in chinatown, and possibly the coffee and tea exchange for some other morning beverage alternatives. 2002.januray.10 --------------- winter's here, which means my hot cocoa consumption has skyrocketed. lately i've been drinking the stuff from packets: swiss miss at work and hershey's goodnight hugs at home, because it's uncaffeinated. (if i drink caffeine after 6pm i have a hard time sleeping. insomnia sucks.) what i really need to do is buy some cocoa powder and make my hot chocolate from scratch, using my mom's recipe. she has this really awesome silver spoon, a family heirloom, where one side of the spoon is worn to a flat edge from stirring cocoa for so many years. if i didn't give it any thought, i would buy hershey's cocoa powder, because it's what's always been in my family's kitchen. but i read something about cocoa in the cookbook i bought for my mom, describing how dutch and american cocoa differ. in the manufacturing process, dutch cocoa is alkalized, making it less acidic. now i know that cerebrally, but i would like to explore what that difference means to my palette, so the hunt is on for a place that sells good dutch cocoa. all the stores in my neighbourhood also carry lots of variations on mexican chocolate, which i think is spicier, with cinnamon, nutmeg and some other ingredients. i had some a few years ago, good stuff, especially since i habitually put cinnamon sticks in my cocoa. cinnamon tangent: i'm a cinnamon snob. i only buy it from the spice house. they import it in these huge burlap bags from saigon; last time i was there i made them drag one up from the basement. 2002.januray.09 --------------- being sick, cooped up in my house for four days made me realize that it's been a long time since i've gone hardcore grocery shopping. i ran out of echinacea tea yesterday, and have basically noodles and miso left to eat. (side note: i've decided i'm sick of the jang miso, want to check out chicago food for a different kind, preferably hatcho.) anyway, i've been sick at home, wishing i had the energy to go grocery shopping or make dinner. yesterday, though, ellen came through, stopped at panadaria la central on her way home for a beautiful loaf of bread and a huge sugar cookie (total: 50 cents). then she made salads (using the last of the tomatoes i picked in florida) and baked mostaccioli for us to eat, that was so sweet. i'm feeling better today than i have in almost a week (never thought i'd be so happy to go back to work!), so hopefully i'll be cooking again soon. 2002.januray.07 --------------- i'm sick. it sucks. fever, chills, hacking cough. been eating chicken soup and drinking echinacea tea and orange juice. i'm feeling better today than i did most of this weekend, but still pretty blah. 2002.januray.04 --------------- well, the holidays are officially over. phew! last night i exchanged gifts with my mom's family, cementing the fact that this year's was definitely a culinary christmas. for starters, i got the grocery cart i wanted! (not the one in the link, that one's just the only link i could find.) yeah, i know it's a weird thing to want, not being an old lady and all, but it'll actually be nice to be able to haul mad groceries home without being dependent on my roommates. in exchange, i gave my mom and stepdad their favourite kinds of fudge: margie's and saunder's, respectively. i also gave them foodish books: my mom got the all american cookie book and geoff got the world encyclopedia of cocktails. also, my roommates gave me a really nice set of highball glasses, a matching cornflower blue set of glass bowls, and some migo coffee tumblers. oh, and a homer simpson shot glass. now all i need is a good set of knives... 2002.januray.03 --------------- yesterday was the day of making blt's for sick roommates. i stopped at pete's for the bread, lettuce and bacon; it's on my way home from the el, and if i could get everything there i wouldn't have to leave the house again. it's gotten damn cold out. anyway, pete's had the bacon and bread, which i bought there, but no lettuce. crud. so i dropped the stuff off at home, warmed up a minute, and then continued west on armitage to a new-to-me store that i've been eyeing: paradise garden produce. one could infer from the name, as i did, that they'd have a decent selection of fruits and veggies, but no. they had turnip greens and iceburg lettuce. i cannot stand iceburg lettuce; it's what you get when you order a salad at a diner. but it's all they had, so i bought it for the blt's. i looked around for some broccoli to dip in my white miso onion dressing, but the three heads they had were old and brown. i managed to find some ok-lookin' green onions that i bought to replace ellen's, which i used making miso soup two days ago. last item i picked up was a can of chef boyardee beef ravioli, because i was craving beef-a-roni, and they didn't have it. paradise garden turned out to be a good reminder that not every little local shop is worth a return trip. i did note, however, that they have real butter, something that's been difficult to find within a couple blocks of my house, so that made the excursion worth it. i'd like to check back in the summertime, when we aren't in the fresh produce-deprived heart of winter, to see if their veggie selection improves. incidentally, i tried to compare the price of bacon at pete's ($3.99/lb) to the most recent chicago food basket survey, but it wasn't one of the items on the list. too bad, i'm kind of curious. --- new happy link: i discovered chowhound when my roommate ellen pointed me to a local grocery store thread. i'm still reading through the chicago archives. kickass. in fact, it was the chowhound links page that inspired me to redo my links, expand and categorize them. 2002.januray.02 --------------- so i've been eating a lot of miso lately, and reading a lot about it in my new book. currently, i'm going through a tub of dwen jang, korean miso that's pastier than japanese miso (lots of soybean chunks), and slightly saltier. i've also been running through the white miso onion dressing i bought in bulk on friday at blind faith cafe. it's best as a dip for steamed broccoli, but i've also been eating it on crackers and bread. i guess this most recent miso kick puts me back on the asian food train. i'm looking forward to exploring more stores, especially now that i know that "asian markets are generally stocked according to the principles of balance. hot, spicy, chili sauces and curry pastes are all in one place; salty items are together in one row, and bitter, sour or sweet things are in other sections" (quote from this book, which i haven't felt the need to purchase). 2002.january.01 --------------- happy new year! i know i'm ready for the palindrome that is 2002. the tomatoes i brought back from florida are finally ripe, so i'll be eating blt's and salad caprese this week. there's a produce store a few blocks west of my house that i've been meaning to try, i think i'll go there instead of pete's for the lettuce and bacon. if i can find any good avocadoes, i'd like to make guacamole; having it at a party last night made me realize that it's been a while since i've made any. i also had some really good roasted goat cheese portabella mushrooms yesterday, i'll have to get the recipe from alicia. |
