(My apologies if you’re seeing this twice — I failed to click the “thread” instead of “post” button! I want everyone to be able to reply, so I’m reposting! So sorry! If you’ve already replied, feel free to copy it over here!)
Today has been about groceries. One dear friend was beset by the chore this morning, frustrated but generous towards all; my friends in New York are dealing with the awfulness of Fairway filing for bankruptcy and closing some of its locations, even when theirs is the only grocery store serving an entire neighbourhood. I had been putting off doing groceries for days, but today, nourished by dreams of making Helen Rosner’s Roberto at last, I set out — and ran into another dear friend, who’s only in town for a few weeks, but whose shopping time and place had astonishingly converged with mine, and we got to briefly and delightfully indulge in the fantasy of being neighbours, of having this happen all the time.
I would like to know about you and groceries. Is it a task you enjoy? Do you drive or walk to get them? Do you shop with purpose for specific meals, or do you keep certain foodstuffs as staples from which to experiment?
Tell me, while I go make myself this citrus salmon and broccolini situation — I’m saving Roberto for Sunday night, so I can devour him for lunch all week!
If ever there was a post for me, this is it! Few things bring me as much joy as grocery shopping. The discovery, the smells, the colors, every time I enter the store I am 5 years old again and I just entered a theme park. Each grocery stores I go to is a place to discover anew each time. Each store is holding a mistery and it is my job to discover it! A new product, a new texture, a new fruit, a new vegetable, so much to discover!
I grew up in Cuba during the 90s, with little food, and even less choices. When I arrived in Canada in 2001 in that first year I gained over 60 pounds (I do not recommend doing this). There were so many foods I had never seen nor tried, so much to discover. Every day that first year was new to me, every new food a new world to explore. I had 19 years of hunger and curiosity, and it was unleashed that first year.
After a while I calmed down a bit. I got cooking books and started to explore different cusines, and groceries became more task oriented. Then came kids, and groceries was a chore, something that needed to get done for survival.
But then I became a vegetarian 10 years ago and had to go back to the beginning and learn how to cook and shop all over again. I gained brand new respect for vegetables and the depth of their flavours and how to make them sign. I started to explore ethnic stores for products that would expand my culinary world even more.
Nowadays my grocery is a city wide adventure. I go to Costco and Maxis for staples. And then I go to a Latin store, an Italian store, a Rusian Store and a Bangladeshi store for different ingredients, and to discover flavours and products that bring me back to the experience of that first year. The discovery, the mistery, finding that which is hidden, oh joy.
But ultimately my love for grocery shopping and discovery has led me down a path that now seems so obvious I can't believe it took me so long to realize: I create foods, I invent new food categories. I so badly want to experience food like that first year I have created the experience for myself! My first food product is launching in February (Nutality.com). The adventure continues!
We live just around the corner from a Lidl, which makes food shopping very straightforward. And since we must walk, we tend not to get a large amount of shopping at a time. (Although hauling home the 10kg bags of cat litter does constitute a work-out.) Though we always have rice, beans, flour, and pasta in the house...
Lately I've realised I'm not enjoying the current state of my body, so there's some more mindful shopping and eating in the future. Last night C. made us a delicious chicken (marinated in olive oil, oregano, and balsamic vinegar) stirfry (red peppers, broccoli, mushrooms) over brown rice, and I feel like I'd like to eat like that almost every day. :D
I have mostly lived within walking distance of a grocery, and currently also live within walking distance of a lovely local farmer's market in the summer. I've heard that a lot of "farmer's markets" aren't actually local farmers selling their produce, but fronts for Big Grocery. I know mine is local because I live on an island, and everybody knows everybody and ain't nobody coming over here to sell their stuff.
Eggs are available locally year round from roadside stands, which is delightful. We raised chickens when I was growing up and it's hard to beat eggs fresh from the hen.
The one (1) local grocery is a provincial chain, and is OK. My wife and I drive there once a week or so to buy larger/heavier items, but mostly it's on my daily walk and I pick up stuff as we need it, which is the way I lived when I lived in a city. The "buy as you need" habit is pretty deeply ingrained in me, but country living does require a bit more foresight, especially in the winter when the power may go down and the roads may be blocked.
I enjoy shopping in pretty precise proportion to how much cooking I'm doing. My wife is a vegetarian and a much better cook than I am, so she has tended to do more of the cooking, but I've been picking up a bit more lately--figuring out niches she is less familiar with or where my more carnivorous skills transfer--and have found it makes shopping a lot more fun, as it becomes part oft the meal planning process, creative rather than rote. When I was living by myself and cooking for myself--which I did for many years--I took much more joy in grocery shopping.
Groceries: as much as we can acquire via our local farmers markets, with the balance from a “regular” grocery store. The huge revelation when this habit started years ago was coming into touch with the growing seasons in a more profound way than a label changing from “Local” to “New Zealand” or wherever. After a few years, anticipation snd delight sets in: “ooh, there’s raab, I suppose we all survived winter again!”
I like getting groceries! I walk to my local vegetarian grocery store. I often chat with the cashiers since most of the workers there know my face. I like to make specific meals when I force the time into my schedule. I'll be moving later this year and I'm gonna miss this grocery store.
I'm naturally dreadful at grocery shopping. I'm good at meal-planning, though, so I plan the meals and make a list, and take my husband to the grocery store with me. He's trained me pretty well on how to navigate the store and make decisions without getting sidetracked comparing two cans of beans for 15 minutes or wandering down aisles full of things I don't need. I spend much less time grocery shopping (with better results) now than I did when I was single! We drive because we live in a car-oriented area, and buy in bulk for the whole week. I would love to live somewhere where a carless life is possible, though.
What a great question! I enjoyed grocery shopping a lot more before I found out about all my allergies. I'm with other commenters on the joy of discovery. I loved the big farmers' market in my town. I loved Wegmans when they came around to my hometown. In New York City there used to be a huge natural foods store on University Place, and I could spend tons of time meandering through. I'd see tatsoi and pea shoots and brazil nuts and fresh winter wheat berries and a new kind of spicy sauce and suddenly I had a new dish floating in my mind. When that store closed and the farmers market started to go more corporate, I was frustrated.
But! Then there was FreshDirect. Online shopping, somewhat diverse foods, some coming from farms I knew & had visited upstate. Great joy! I loved browsing their digital shelves. That said, it also incurred great expense. :x I wanted to be sure I had everything and the delivery fee was flat, not graded to how much you ordered, so every delivery was larger than if I'd gone to the store myself.
Now that I'm allergic to all sorts of things, it's a lot more troublesome. I walk to Whole Foods despite my disability because it's *that* close, and as much as its Amazon-data-hoover nature bothers me, I'm grateful it almost always has fresh italian parsley, frozen kale and basil, and taro chips. If I'm feeling up to it, I'll take public transportation to Trader Joe's and/or drive to Costco and Wegmans. I'll sometimes still do FD if I'm feeling poorly, but walking to Whole Foods 2-3x a week feels more sustainable than a refrigerated truck going all around town, so I do it whenever possible.
I will still go a-travelin' for certain things when the hankering hits me. For instance, I grew up with a dwarf apple tree orchard nearby, and when I get the apple craving, only local-orchard will do. I recently took a road trip to North Star Orchards (because of Chuck Wendig's Twitter apple reviews). That was a serious delight. *swoon*
My husband likes shopping, so he actively tries to do it instead of me. I am practicing gratitude by reminding myself that he is contributing to the household and takes pride in finding deals.
I am practicing detachment by remembering that it's okay if he comes back with the wrong thing because he misreads my handwriting, or if he gets tomatoes not tomatillos on account of not knowing what tomatillos are because he's not the cook.
I am practicing imagination by finding interesting activities for the extra two hours of one-on-one time with our kid while he's off at first one then the other grocery store to get the best deal on everything.
I do not, btw, rearrange the dishes in the dishwasher after he loads it. Much.
We tend to put groceries together in one of two places: the year-round Sunday market in walking distance that ranges from having most everything, even a local miller and dairy (summer) to having root veggies, apples, meats, and cabbage in winter. The second place is a grocer that sells mostly local and organic, which fills out the missing stuff from the market. I do this run during the work week by car because it’s usually the bigger and the temp-sensitive stuff. And occasionally Trader Joe’s for random things.
I kinda love grocery shopping. I love eating and cooking. We *try* to plan a couple big meals so we have some idea what to get at either market, but some days during some weeks we’ll just raid the pantry/fridge for to see what dried beans or cans we have and google about for recipes to match or adapt to suit. Our freezer starts with 20lbs of frozen and/or smoked salmon from a CSA/catch share I get each October, so if nothing else, we make something around that. That fish larder generally lasts a year.
We do a lot of veggie soups and such for they last many a day.
My issues with grocery shopping come not from the act of entering a big shop to collect foodstuffs, which I find reasonably agreeable as chores go; rather, the worst part of the experience is the sense of creeping dread I sometimes feel when I'm food shopping and simply can't settle on what to buy. I know that I need food, and I know that accordingly I need to select some food, but more often that I'd like I find myself listlessly wandering up and down aisles, with a nasty little internal voice asking if I truly need more chips or if I can really afford a nice cheese.
Fortunately, that voice is at its quietest when I visit my favourite place to shop for groceries, a weigh-and-pay specialty store not too far from where I live that has just the most wonderful range of delicacies available. It's my go-to place for buckwheat and Turkish delight, spiced almonds and packet curries, pinto beans and French fleur de sel (the latter priced at a very reasonable $11/kilogram!). Moreover, it's an excellent place for gifts, and indeed a carefully selected sampler of the shop's greatest hits has been a Christmas present success for me more than once.
Fun fact: the market shares of the major Australian supermarkets roughly correspond to the average vote shares of the largest Australian political parties. In the mid-single-digit percentages we have Aldi/One Nation; at around 10% or so there's IGA/the Greens; Coles and Labor both sit in the mid-thirties; and smugly occupying the top spot on about 40% is Woolworths/the Liberal-National Coalition.
I’m all about farmer’s markets. I just love them. The quality of produce and meat/poultry/seafood is so much better. And kinder if you’re going to eat something that was alive. And for actual grocery stuff, I have celiac disease so for me shipping is partly online when I can’t find something specific (gf sourdough starter for instance) and partly at my neighborhood indie grocery. I tend to shop to make specific meals.
If ever there was a post for me, this is it! Few things bring me as much joy as grocery shopping. The discovery, the smells, the colors, every time I enter the store I am 5 years old again and I just entered a theme park. Each grocery stores I go to is a place to discover anew each time. Each store is holding a mistery and it is my job to discover it! A new product, a new texture, a new fruit, a new vegetable, so much to discover!
I grew up in Cuba during the 90s, with little food, and even less choices. When I arrived in Canada in 2001 in that first year I gained over 60 pounds (I do not recommend doing this). There were so many foods I had never seen nor tried, so much to discover. Every day that first year was new to me, every new food a new world to explore. I had 19 years of hunger and curiosity, and it was unleashed that first year.
After a while I calmed down a bit. I got cooking books and started to explore different cusines, and groceries became more task oriented. Then came kids, and groceries was a chore, something that needed to get done for survival.
But then I became a vegetarian 10 years ago and had to go back to the beginning and learn how to cook and shop all over again. I gained brand new respect for vegetables and the depth of their flavours and how to make them sign. I started to explore ethnic stores for products that would expand my culinary world even more.
Nowadays my grocery is a city wide adventure. I go to Costco and Maxis for staples. And then I go to a Latin store, an Italian store, a Rusian Store and a Bangladeshi store for different ingredients, and to discover flavours and products that bring me back to the experience of that first year. The discovery, the mistery, finding that which is hidden, oh joy.
But ultimately my love for grocery shopping and discovery has led me down a path that now seems so obvious I can't believe it took me so long to realize: I create foods, I invent new food categories. I so badly want to experience food like that first year I have created the experience for myself! My first food product is launching in February (Nutality.com). The adventure continues!
We live just around the corner from a Lidl, which makes food shopping very straightforward. And since we must walk, we tend not to get a large amount of shopping at a time. (Although hauling home the 10kg bags of cat litter does constitute a work-out.) Though we always have rice, beans, flour, and pasta in the house...
Lately I've realised I'm not enjoying the current state of my body, so there's some more mindful shopping and eating in the future. Last night C. made us a delicious chicken (marinated in olive oil, oregano, and balsamic vinegar) stirfry (red peppers, broccoli, mushrooms) over brown rice, and I feel like I'd like to eat like that almost every day. :D
I have mostly lived within walking distance of a grocery, and currently also live within walking distance of a lovely local farmer's market in the summer. I've heard that a lot of "farmer's markets" aren't actually local farmers selling their produce, but fronts for Big Grocery. I know mine is local because I live on an island, and everybody knows everybody and ain't nobody coming over here to sell their stuff.
Eggs are available locally year round from roadside stands, which is delightful. We raised chickens when I was growing up and it's hard to beat eggs fresh from the hen.
The one (1) local grocery is a provincial chain, and is OK. My wife and I drive there once a week or so to buy larger/heavier items, but mostly it's on my daily walk and I pick up stuff as we need it, which is the way I lived when I lived in a city. The "buy as you need" habit is pretty deeply ingrained in me, but country living does require a bit more foresight, especially in the winter when the power may go down and the roads may be blocked.
I enjoy shopping in pretty precise proportion to how much cooking I'm doing. My wife is a vegetarian and a much better cook than I am, so she has tended to do more of the cooking, but I've been picking up a bit more lately--figuring out niches she is less familiar with or where my more carnivorous skills transfer--and have found it makes shopping a lot more fun, as it becomes part oft the meal planning process, creative rather than rote. When I was living by myself and cooking for myself--which I did for many years--I took much more joy in grocery shopping.
Groceries: as much as we can acquire via our local farmers markets, with the balance from a “regular” grocery store. The huge revelation when this habit started years ago was coming into touch with the growing seasons in a more profound way than a label changing from “Local” to “New Zealand” or wherever. After a few years, anticipation snd delight sets in: “ooh, there’s raab, I suppose we all survived winter again!”
I like getting groceries! I walk to my local vegetarian grocery store. I often chat with the cashiers since most of the workers there know my face. I like to make specific meals when I force the time into my schedule. I'll be moving later this year and I'm gonna miss this grocery store.
I'm naturally dreadful at grocery shopping. I'm good at meal-planning, though, so I plan the meals and make a list, and take my husband to the grocery store with me. He's trained me pretty well on how to navigate the store and make decisions without getting sidetracked comparing two cans of beans for 15 minutes or wandering down aisles full of things I don't need. I spend much less time grocery shopping (with better results) now than I did when I was single! We drive because we live in a car-oriented area, and buy in bulk for the whole week. I would love to live somewhere where a carless life is possible, though.
What a great question! I enjoyed grocery shopping a lot more before I found out about all my allergies. I'm with other commenters on the joy of discovery. I loved the big farmers' market in my town. I loved Wegmans when they came around to my hometown. In New York City there used to be a huge natural foods store on University Place, and I could spend tons of time meandering through. I'd see tatsoi and pea shoots and brazil nuts and fresh winter wheat berries and a new kind of spicy sauce and suddenly I had a new dish floating in my mind. When that store closed and the farmers market started to go more corporate, I was frustrated.
But! Then there was FreshDirect. Online shopping, somewhat diverse foods, some coming from farms I knew & had visited upstate. Great joy! I loved browsing their digital shelves. That said, it also incurred great expense. :x I wanted to be sure I had everything and the delivery fee was flat, not graded to how much you ordered, so every delivery was larger than if I'd gone to the store myself.
Now that I'm allergic to all sorts of things, it's a lot more troublesome. I walk to Whole Foods despite my disability because it's *that* close, and as much as its Amazon-data-hoover nature bothers me, I'm grateful it almost always has fresh italian parsley, frozen kale and basil, and taro chips. If I'm feeling up to it, I'll take public transportation to Trader Joe's and/or drive to Costco and Wegmans. I'll sometimes still do FD if I'm feeling poorly, but walking to Whole Foods 2-3x a week feels more sustainable than a refrigerated truck going all around town, so I do it whenever possible.
I will still go a-travelin' for certain things when the hankering hits me. For instance, I grew up with a dwarf apple tree orchard nearby, and when I get the apple craving, only local-orchard will do. I recently took a road trip to North Star Orchards (because of Chuck Wendig's Twitter apple reviews). That was a serious delight. *swoon*
Grocery shopping, gah.
My husband likes shopping, so he actively tries to do it instead of me. I am practicing gratitude by reminding myself that he is contributing to the household and takes pride in finding deals.
I am practicing detachment by remembering that it's okay if he comes back with the wrong thing because he misreads my handwriting, or if he gets tomatoes not tomatillos on account of not knowing what tomatillos are because he's not the cook.
I am practicing imagination by finding interesting activities for the extra two hours of one-on-one time with our kid while he's off at first one then the other grocery store to get the best deal on everything.
I do not, btw, rearrange the dishes in the dishwasher after he loads it. Much.
We tend to put groceries together in one of two places: the year-round Sunday market in walking distance that ranges from having most everything, even a local miller and dairy (summer) to having root veggies, apples, meats, and cabbage in winter. The second place is a grocer that sells mostly local and organic, which fills out the missing stuff from the market. I do this run during the work week by car because it’s usually the bigger and the temp-sensitive stuff. And occasionally Trader Joe’s for random things.
I kinda love grocery shopping. I love eating and cooking. We *try* to plan a couple big meals so we have some idea what to get at either market, but some days during some weeks we’ll just raid the pantry/fridge for to see what dried beans or cans we have and google about for recipes to match or adapt to suit. Our freezer starts with 20lbs of frozen and/or smoked salmon from a CSA/catch share I get each October, so if nothing else, we make something around that. That fish larder generally lasts a year.
We do a lot of veggie soups and such for they last many a day.
My issues with grocery shopping come not from the act of entering a big shop to collect foodstuffs, which I find reasonably agreeable as chores go; rather, the worst part of the experience is the sense of creeping dread I sometimes feel when I'm food shopping and simply can't settle on what to buy. I know that I need food, and I know that accordingly I need to select some food, but more often that I'd like I find myself listlessly wandering up and down aisles, with a nasty little internal voice asking if I truly need more chips or if I can really afford a nice cheese.
Fortunately, that voice is at its quietest when I visit my favourite place to shop for groceries, a weigh-and-pay specialty store not too far from where I live that has just the most wonderful range of delicacies available. It's my go-to place for buckwheat and Turkish delight, spiced almonds and packet curries, pinto beans and French fleur de sel (the latter priced at a very reasonable $11/kilogram!). Moreover, it's an excellent place for gifts, and indeed a carefully selected sampler of the shop's greatest hits has been a Christmas present success for me more than once.
Fun fact: the market shares of the major Australian supermarkets roughly correspond to the average vote shares of the largest Australian political parties. In the mid-single-digit percentages we have Aldi/One Nation; at around 10% or so there's IGA/the Greens; Coles and Labor both sit in the mid-thirties; and smugly occupying the top spot on about 40% is Woolworths/the Liberal-National Coalition.
Running into a dear friend is always the best. ;-) xo
I’m all about farmer’s markets. I just love them. The quality of produce and meat/poultry/seafood is so much better. And kinder if you’re going to eat something that was alive. And for actual grocery stuff, I have celiac disease so for me shipping is partly online when I can’t find something specific (gf sourdough starter for instance) and partly at my neighborhood indie grocery. I tend to shop to make specific meals.