Grocery Shopping

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I can't post any pictures, so I won't bore you with a long litany of mundane items I got at the groceries I visited today, but I thought I'd share some highlights, at least for me.

 

At S-Mart, my nearby Korean-owned, pan-Asian grocer:

 

http://www.yelp.com/biz/s-mart-cary-2

 

I got more of their thin sliced, almost shaved raw rib eye steak at $5.99 a pound. Mainstream grocers here used to offer rib eye at that price on sale, but without the value added prep of thin slicing for stir fry. Now it is $8.99 (or more) a pound on sale at best price at regular grocers.

 

I also got white onions, russet potatoes (all big premium baking-sized), eggs, American sweet potatoes, kabocha squash and ginger root at vastly lower cost than regular grocers.

 

Ethnic grocers are well worth checking out for bargains as well as exotic ingredients, of which I found some today at S-Mart. They had fresh water chestnuts   and large, I assume, cultivated persimmons. I've never had the cultivated ones, but enjoyed the smaller wild ones in Tennessee while riding my horse after a good frost. I'm looking forward to both these treats.

 

Then at A & S Market

 

http://www.aseuromediterraneanmkt.com/

 

a few doors down, I got Valbreso brand imported French feta cheese, Caykur brand Turkish tea, and some really good pide bread that appeared to be homemade and very fresh.

 

So I had a wonderful food shopping day, and I'm looking forward to cooking with the ingredients I got today.

 

ETA: I can't believe I totally forgot about another treasure I picked up at S-Mart. King oyster mushrooms, which I've never had before, and only $4.99 a pound which is as cheap or cheaper than regular old white button mushrooms at most groceries around here.

Edited November 8, 2015 by Thanks for the Crepes (log)

[huiray]

Sounds good, Crepes!

 

That thin-shaved ribeye – for a while I would get it fro my local (definitely non-Asian) butcher (NOT supermarket) when they did it at my request with good ribeye - I explained to them it was for PHO, what else!!   then they started offering it as "Philly Cheesesteak" cut. Heh.

 

ETA: It is a regularly offered cut at various other places in my area, such as, yes, the Korean-owned Saraga International supermarket here.  Mind you, one can get not-quite-as-thin beef cuts from Hispanic/Spanish/Mexican/Central American groceries – sometimes pre-marinated, sometimes as-is.

Edited November 8, 2015 by huiray (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

 huiray,

 

S-Mart offers the thin slices of  rib eye and pork where you can find some packages still frozen, and those are the ones I always go for. It needs to be at least partially frozen to slice or mince anyway, and once you cut meat like that it doesn't last long fresh. I just love the cut, even though I don't make pho. I like to use good meat more as a flavoring for vegetable dishes usually, and this cut is ideal for it.

 

I asked the Asian cashier on my recent shop at S-Mart why I couldn't find chicken, and she said it was because of the "bacteria". I didn't get into it further, but I suspect that it is the salmonella problem that is tolerated by our government here. I was so hoping that she would tell me that they had some in the back to slaughter on order. I know it's illegal here, but I am a dreamer. *Sigh* I bet the folks who work there have their own chickens in the backyard for eggs and meat. That is legal here, though technically, you are not supposed to slaughter the chickens, but it's a very hard law to enforce. S-Mart does have live fish swimming in tanks that they will kill, dress and clean to order, but no live shrimp. Do you find live shrimp in Indiana?

 

I definitely need to check out our Hispanic grocers, of which we have several. If only I could find skirt steak, one of my favorites. We also have some halal butchers I need to see about. It's lovely living in such a melting pot.

[huiray]

Do you find live shrimp in Indiana?

 

 

Yes.  I've posted some recent meals on the dinner thread where I bought live shrimp and brought them home in a bucket of water.

 

There are also a number of salt-water shrimp farms here in the state as well. I'm not sure where the grocer that I buy those shrimp from gets his live shrimp, but those shrimp farms around here do supply many higher-end restaurants in Indianapolis and other more-upscale (Western) shops that sell seafood.

[huiray]

Today:

 

Indy Winter Farmers' Market (1st day of the season):

Purple carrots, yellow carrots, Blue Oyster mushrooms, 2 doz eggs, red & yellow Cipollini onions, Swiss chard, Stangenbrot (German crusty baguette).

 

Claus' German Sausage & Meats:

Pressed tongue, coarse Braunschweiger, blood sausage, Bauernschinken (Farmer's Ham), Westphalian Ham, smoked Cajun sausages, calf's liver slices.

No pic, everything went into the fridge a while ago and I'm not hauling them out...

 

Goose the Market:

Fresh duck legs, a slice of Pig & Fig Terrine, La Quercia Prosciutto Rossa, Nickajack cheese, Adelegger cheese, fresh Barramundi fillet, Laughing Bird shrimp.

No pic, ditto as above.

 

The Fresh Market:

California Olive Ranch EV olive oil - "Everyday Fresh" and "Arbequina" varieties, cod fillets; plus other stuff.

 

Namaste Plaza:

Two bags of Z Reserve basmati rice (good stuff), curry leaves (Murraya koenigii), house-made vegetable samosas.

Edited November 15, 2015 by huiray (log)

[Arey]

I have  a couple of bottles of California Olive ranch Everyday Oil, and a bottle of Arbequina oil.  I bought them after reading about them in C.I.. The price appealed to me since I've been using Lucini EVOO for years and it is a bit expensive for me, and for cooking any old cheap stuff I could find.  What years ago was called "Lamp grade". but I've also seen it called "industrial".  May  how long you've been using California Olive ranch oils, and how you came to know of them..

[huiray]

I have  a couple of bottles of California Olive ranch Everyday Oil, and a bottle of Arbequina oil.  I bought them after reading about them in C.I.. The price appealed to me since I've been using Lucini EVOO for years and it is a bit expensive for me, and for cooking any old cheap stuff I could find.  What years ago was called "Lamp grade". but I've also seen it called "industrial".  May  how long you've been using California Olive ranch oils, and how you came to know of them..

 

I've used them for several years at least (more than 5++, I *think*). I simply "played around" with oils I noticed, and that didn't cost two arms and two legs for more-routine use.  I didn't "read up" about them until after the fact.  I like California Ranch oils - I find them quite decent. (And I am also supporting a home-grown business)

HTH.

 

(I *do* have - and buy - a couple or more of olive oils that are, um, not cheap - but I don't use them for "everyday/routine" stuff on the whole. (Alziari and Maussane-les-Alpilles are two of such oils I have on hand)

[huiray]

Saturday 2015-1128

 

Indy WinterFarmers' Market:

Purple curly kale, Tuscan (lacinato) kale, yellow & red cipollini onions, small portobello mushrooms, 2 big packs of free-range chicken frames/necks.

 

Goose the Market:

Fresh duck legs, thinly-sliced boneless pork loin (Berkshire), Porchetta di Testa (spiced & rolled cured pig face), Salame Cotto (large type), Red Rock cheese, Kokoborrego Gilead cheese.

 

Asia Mart:

8-year Tang Brand Shaohsing wine, white rice vinegar [Golden Flower], 3-year Chinkiang vinegar [Gold Plum], Shaohsing cooking wine [Wei Chuan], Lingham's Hot Sauce, Chinese okra (Luffa acutangula), Persian cucumbers, bitter melon "#1", limes, long hot green chillies, Thai basil, ong choy (kangkong), Chinese long beans (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis), Cantonese "chow mein"-type noodles [Prime Food], fresh yakisoba [Maruchan], Chan Pui Mui (陳皮梅) (preserved sweet & sour plums), raw shelled peanuts, fresh Yali (鸭梨) pears (Pyrus x bretschneideri), Hinoichi soft & firm tofu, fried soy puffs [Nature's Soy], white beech mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, beef shanks, chicken feet, miso ramen packs [shirakiku], Jjajang Pokki noodle bowls, bamboo chopsticks.

Viet Hua Food Market:

Coriander leaves, scallions, negi/"cebollita", small kai-lan, red edible amaranth (紅莧菜), Chinese-type spinach, fresh winter bamboo shoots (冬筍), Venerupis clams (花蛤蜊; "flower clams").

 

Al-Basha Grocery:

Spinach pita "turnovers".

Rene's Bakery:

Half a loaf of multi-grain bread, 2 chocolate eclairs, 1 slice Bête Noire.

 

 

[chefmd]

Not my photo, but still deserves to be on this thread

[huiray]

Picked up some nice stuff today.

 

Claus' German Sausage & Meats:

Top to bottom, L to R: Bratwurst, bulk Sauerkraut; coarse Braunschweiger, pork Schnecken; Kalbsleberwurst, Zungenwurst; pressed tongue, Westphalian ham.

Oh, plus fresh calf's liver slices (not shown).

 

Goose the Market:

Toulouse sausages (this one, from Smoking Goose), Salame Cotto (house - i.e. Smoking Goose).

Cheeses on right: top to bottom: Vacherin Fribourgeois Alpage, Cabot Clothbound Cheddar (Jasper Hills), Pecorino Ginepro. 

Plus a dozen enormous deep brown farm eggs.

 

Amelia's Bakery:

Francese loaf, browned butter chocolate chip cookie, Kouign Amann.

 

Hotel Tango Distillery:

Lima Charlie Limoncello – Batch #15, Bottle #4.

Golf Gin – Batch #57, Bottle #55.

 

Nicole-Taylor's Pasta Market:

Fresh mozzarella, fresh spaghettini nests, bag of fresh fusilli.

 

The Fresh Market:

De Cecco fedelini, Sesmark brown rice thins, La Panzanella mini-croccantini, SMT whole peeled tomaoes (San Merican™ Tomatoes), lemons, parsley.

 

 

"What about vegetables", you ask? Well, I still have stuff from both the (Western) supermarkets and from the Chinese grocery...and I've also been making soups and preps and dishes featuring dried vegetables and other dried things, stuff which are ingredients in their own right with their own taste. 

[kayb]

I was scheduled to hook up with fellow eGulleter @cyalexa yesterday and browse some of Memphis' finer culinary shopping destinations. One I was particularly looking forward to was Porcellino's Craft Butcher, a relatively new restaurant-cum-butcher shop where they make in-house marvelous charcuterie. Unfortunately, germs had a different view of my plans and kept me at home getting over strep throat. Cyalexa, hope you found it OK and got all kinds of good stuff -- I may wind up making a run over there early next week!

 

[huiray]

Saturday...one thing led to another...

 

Broad Ripple Winter Farmers' Market:

A sort of flat-headed type tatsoi, red & green mizuna, broccoli florets.

Chicken backs for stock, eggs.

 

Then I thought...let's check out the Carmel Winter Farmers' Market:

Icicle radishes, carrots.

 

OK, I wanted some spinach pitas and the place was not far away...

 

Al Basha Mediterranean Restaurant & Grocery:

Spinach pitas (the triangular ones), za'atar pitas, pickled cucumbers.

 

Then, driving down Allisonville in the direction of home...eh, Namaste and Morelos is right there...

 

Namaste Plaza:

Hot green chillies, flat Valor beans, turia (a.k.a. angled loofah, chinese okra, Luffa acutangula), fresh mint (they just got delivered!), curry leaves (Murraya koenigii; I've always known it by the Tamil name: either kariveppilai (கறிவேப்பிலை) or karuveppilai (கருவேப்பிலை)).

 

...and just 10 yards or so away...

Carniceria Morelos:

Fresh tamales (made in-house that morning), carnitas (ditto) (picked from the big tray of freshly-prepared still-steaming stuff) w/ some salsa provided for it, costillas de res (beef short ribs), chorizo, corn tortillas.

 

...and then back home I wondered what happened....

 

[Smithy]

It looks like a mad shopping spree of the best kind to me, huiray.  When I jump the bounds like that my next problem is "where will I put all this stuff?" rapidly followed by "what am I going to do with it all?" It's nice to see such a 'haul' without having to answer those questions.  :-D

[huiray]

Checked out the Indy Winter Farmers' Market in its new location. Picked up just a few things - including the first "real" winter spinach I've got my hands on this winter: stout, fat-stemmed, thickened-leaves, sweeter stuff than the spring/summer ones.

Carrots, German Gold potatoes, winter spinach. The spinach is about 1/3 to 1/2 of what I got.

Plus baby Blue Oyster mushrooms and randomly-bagged shiitake mushrooms.

New location of the IWFM at this address on Google Maps.

 

After that... I was so close... so drove down 10th Street to Love Handle. :-) 

A pound's-worth of braised pork tongue (I asked for and got the softer ends) plus two headcheese eggs in disposable ramekins.

 

Hmm, I did feel like some semolina bread and some Kouign-Amann...and Amelia's stall at the IWFM doesn't do half-loaves. So - a small detour down to Amelia's Bakery's shopfront... No Kouign-Amanns, so I picked up a white chocolate-walnut brownie instead plus the bread and also stocked up on some local fresh spaghetti from Bettini Pasta.

 

Then...home. ;-) 

Oh, on the way back I did pick up some white asparagus  and sweet cherries (both Chilean) from The Fresh Market; and some nice collards and a green cabbage from a neighborhood grocery. :-) 

 

 

[Anna N]

 Just to add a somewhat different perspective to all these wonderful grocery shopping sessions, I just placed my online order.   For a multitude of reasons I am unable to get to a supermarket this week hence I have used our local Gateway grocers. It is by no means my favourite way of shopping for groceries.   But once or twice a year it becomes my only option. Ask me if I'm jealous of some of the groceries I see in this topic.

[Tri2Cook]

2 hours ago, Anna N said:

 Just to add a somewhat different perspective to all these wonderful grocery shopping sessions, I just placed my online order.   For a multitude of reasons I am unable to get to a supermarket this week hence I have used our local Gateway grocers. It is by no means my favourite way of shopping for groceries.   But once or twice a year it becomes my only option. Ask me if I'm jealous of some of the groceries I see in this topic.

If it helps at all, compared to the general selection here, a shopping trip to the grocery section of a decent Walmart supercenter would be an upscale adventure. I will concede that the new owners of the only local store have improved the selection a bit... but it came with a price. Literally.

[huiray]

Friday 2016-01-29.

 

Asia mart:

Rice bran oil; "Little Cook" Pork & Mustard Noodle Bowls; Singapore Chili Crab Lamian 4-pack; "Little Cook" Mushroom & Vegetable Noodle Bowls; "Sapporo Ichiban" Chicken Noodle packs; canned vegetarian mock abalone; pickled/sour mustard packs (2 brands); "pickled cabbage" (雪菜) packs; chillied "preserved vegetable (mustard heads) (榨菜) packs; bag of shallots; fresh soft tofu, fresh firm tofu; Chinese roast duck (half a duck, chopped up); Chinese crullers (油炸鬼); fresh "rice shrimp roll" (豬腸粉); boneless beef shanks/shins; a 3-lb one-piece slab of pork belly; fresh Ya Pears ("yali pears"); fresh galangal, fresh ginger, fresh woodear mushrooms; deep-fried tofu puffs ("tau pok"); frozen fish balls, frozen beef & tendon balls, frozen fish tofu cubes; garlic heads; fresh vegetables: bitter melon, fuzzy squash, persian cucumbers, Thai basil, Vietnamese mint, Vietnamese "coriander", scallions, normal coriander leaves, small/baby kai choy, kai-lan, green daikon, lotus roots, Chinese chives; fresh limes.

 

Viet Hua Food Market:

Thai red chillies; scallions; fresh winter bamboo shoots; striped bass - from the tanks, killed & gutted; short-cut pork spare ribs.

 

------------------------

 

Saturday 2016-0130.

 

Claus' German Sausage & Meats:

Coarse Braunschweiger; pressed tongue; fresh calf liver thick slices; jarred Hengstenberg Sauerkraut.

 

Amelia's bakery:

Francese loaf.

 

Goose the Market:

La Quercia Prosciutto Rossa; cheeses: Vacherousse d'Argental, Cato Dutch Farmstead, Moulis de Brebis.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I hadn't been food shopping since our most recent snow, coming up on two long weeks ago.  But I badly needed mint and peanuts, and there is a winter storm forecast for tonight.  My route to the store is just over a carefully measured mile* in the best of weather.  (Which this wasn't.)  This afternoon the wetlands were all but impassible, with mud, ice, snow, and water almost over my boots.  Then I had to go down an embankment.

 

By the time I made it to the store I was pretty shaken up, but then in the parking lot I saw a sign on a car which read:  "Do more of what you enjoy!"  So I went to the rum merchant as well.

 

 

*1.19 mile

[huiray]

Oh my. But glad you got some stuff and made it home (presumably) with your spirits tanked up. ;-)

[Deryn]

Huiray - I think it should be illegal for you to post (especially with pictures, and especially in mid-winter) your latest glorious grocery finds in a forum where Canadians who live 70 miles from even a lousy Walmart grocery store can see them. There is no delivery service here either - not that I would actually like what they might send if there were.

 

It is 'cabin fever' season up here ... so be kind, please. No telling what one in the grip of same might be driven to do to taste such tempting treats.

 

Poor JoNorvelleWalker too - who only has a measured mile to go to the store seems to have returned battered and bruised ... and needed a tankful of rum to begin the recuperation process, presumably as a result of your recent posts.

 

(But, lest you think I am not grateful, thank you very much for the drool-worthy pictures and the images of wonderful repasts they conjured up in my winter-addled brain).  -  

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

@Deryn with the mud the embankment was too much for me so I returned a somewhat longer route with my full backpack and three bags of groceries.  Though I still had to brave the wetlands.  Made it home just at dark.  Two and a half hours to the store and back.

 

Sip of soave at the moment but not yet rum.  I am cooking.  Another half hour and I should be able to have my shower.  Then rum.

 

I'm glad this is New Jersey.  Seventy miles for groceries would take me most of a month.

[huiray]

2 hours ago, Deryn said:

It is 'cabin fever' season up here ... so be kind, please. No telling what one in the grip of same might be driven to do to taste such tempting treats.

 

I would hope that such postings as mine here might simply be thought of as records of what one's experiences were food-wise, as is wont with the thesis of the existence of eGullet - but I shall try to limit such postings in the current times in deference to your murmurings and that of another Canadian poster.  :-) 

Edited February 5, 2016 by huiray (log)

[Deryn]

I am sure we could be bought off with 'care packages'.

[huiray]

Oh, is that so?

 

Your address, please.

 

But that invites discussions about all sorts of stuff, some politically incorrect, some uncomfortable to certain folks.

 

Look, I am not a rich person - I merely happen to live in an area where I can get a lot of nice stuff.  But it seems that some folks here resent reading about such stuff and prefer that NO ONE talk about such stuff because they can't get to it in the off-season where they are. Please look at the stuff here simply as "some things I got".

 

Best Regards,

 

huiray.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

@huirayI'm sure Deryn (who is a very nice lady) didn't mean to offend you. As she said at the end of her post, she appreciates the posts with photos of your bounty. I do too, and I'm pretty sure that I am far from alone. Please keep them coming. I can't get everything that you can either, but that doesn't stop me from vicariously enjoying it, and learning a whole lot. Sometimes, I find that I actually can get some of the stuff you post about in this thread, and was just too ignorant to know about it or recognize it. At the end of January, you had a post here with no photos with some very intriguing ingredients, and I thought to myself, "Boy, I sure wish huiray had photos of his haul." I also thought about asking for some. I also thought it would be extremely bad form to ask someone who had obviously already stowed their groceries to haul them back out again for my entertainment and education, especially as a person who has no means to post photos here, so I was silent. There is interest here, believe me, and Deryn was just pining for spring. That will happen in the Great Frozen North. I know, I used to live in VT for years, and Toronto briefly, and then Windsor also briefly. I'm pining for spring down here in NC in the nasty cold rain, but at least it's not freezing. 

 

I scored a frozen duckling for $2.25 a pound at, of all places, my fresh fish monger. One of the sons had to call his dad to find out the price, and they spoke in English. The family that owns the store is Asian, and stocks a few of those ingredients in addition to the seafood. And I don't lump all Asians into one category. I'm simply ignorant if these nice folks are from somewhere in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea or elsewhere. I do know enough to say they aren't from India or Russia. I don't know them well enough to quiz them about it in their busy store. One of the sons recently married a Latin American lady (again, Mexican, Honduran, Salvadoran, Chilean?). She has influenced some recent stocking of a few Latin ingredients. This is a fascinating little local store to me, with many treasures, including all of the helpful folks who run it. 

 

My prize duckling is thawing in the fridge, but I suspect the almost 6 pound lovely ducky will take a couple or three days to thaw properly, so it will be prepared when it is ready. You can find duck here around the holidays easily, but this is a real out-of-season treat for me. I am anticipating it greatly.

 

P.S.: In case my ramblings did not make it clear, huiray, your posts here are entertaining, educational, and have enriched my culinary life by a lot. Thank you.

Edited February 5, 2016 by Thanks for the Crepes
P.S. (log)