New Wegman's near Boston

[Okanagancook]

I have to say, I do not care for displays of meat all sealed up in vac bags.  Give me meat, freshly cut on a display board in a glass case and that’s where I get my meat.  While on the subject I love butcher shops.  I was in mine yesterday looking for leaf lard and to my amazement they had it, nicely packaged and very, very clean.  Spent seven hours rendering and packaging today.  Beautiful creamy white fat..

[Martin Fisher]

37 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Give me meat, freshly cut on a display board in a glass case and that’s where I get my meat.

 That's available at all Wegmans. And you can custom order almost anything.

 

[Okanagancook]

Wow, wish I lived near one....probably a few 1000 kms and good for them to have a proper butcher shop.  I would love that.

[Martin Fisher]

28 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

...good for them to have a proper butcher shop.

 Not sure I'd call in proper in terms of what butcher shops used to be—but it's certainly better than most of what's available in the immediate area.

[gfweb]

41 minutes ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

 Not sure I'd call in proper in terms of what butcher shops used to be—but it's certainly better than most of what's available in the immediate area.

 Yes, for sure not a "real" butcher shop...but not bad...and fairly priced.

 

The real butchers in my area are overpriced thieves. Oxtail is just a little cheaper than tenderloin...more expensive if you discount bone weight. Seriously? 

 

Wegmans had 7 tritips in vac pacs. Butcher had two at 3x price. Wegmans looked like better meat. 

 

Wegmans had 8 chuck eye roasts....butcher had none. 

 

If if only Wegmans wasn't such a schlep...not the 1000km of @Okanagancook...but far enough to discourage a quick trip

 

[Martin Fisher]

The quality of their products is of issue too.

I could go south, in PA, and, find a real butcher. 

Well, I know the butcher.

But you really do have to find an agriculturist who's in tune with what you prefer and purchase a specimen of your liking and have it custom butchered.

Back in the day, when I used to raise my own. I could do it as I prefer.. Those days are over, probably forever.

The good stuff is out of reach for most, for various reason—certainly if you're dirt poor, as I am.

I've mentioned issues of quality many times before, here's an example:

 

After re-reading that. With all the mistakes. I really do need a pet monkey to type for me! 

Edited May 3, 2018 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[BeeZee]

I should have taken photos, I went to Wegmans for lunch (I have one 1/2 mile from my office) and they had some gorgeous whole fish on ice. Local sea scallops for $14.99/lb, also.

[Anna N]

11 minutes ago, BeeZee said:

I should have taken photos, I went to Wegmans for lunch (I have one 1/2 mile from my office) and they had some gorgeous whole fish on ice. Local sea scallops for $14.99/lb, also.

Where is that green emoji?

[rotuts]

@BeeZee

 

you are exactly correct:

 

" I should have taken photos "

 

[rotuts]

Wegman's Experiment #2 :  Choice Strip Steaks.  on sale $ 5.99 / lbs . four pack :

 

4.38 lbs.

 

 

these are hair less than 1.5 " thick and the best marbling in the case

 

W' insisted that I use the $ 5 off coupon :   $ 4.84 / lbs.

 

Ill post in SV :   the usual , RB40 for 2 days , SV 130.1 ,  maybe 4 hours.

 

the boneless short ribs are done and iced then refrigerated.

 

there seemed to be more jus than I though , perhaps i used too much RB40 ?

 

to hot yest to eat them hot

 

Fz two and will try one tomorrow for a sandwich

 

Im interested in the difference between those and these similarly treated except for time in the bath 130.1 F

Edited May 4, 2018 by rotuts (log)

[Honkman]

Visited yesterday this Wegman in Natick and came away completely underwhelmed - product section had a lot of low quality stuff, e.g. different berries and grapes with tons of mold, baby bok choy just looked awful, for a lot of stuff they force you to buy in bulk, e.g I needed one leek- the smallest bundle had at least four pieces etc. (overall very little care in the produce section), meat section had surpringly little selection and some of the stuff didn't look good, especially the ground pork which had more the look and consistency of slime. The selection of a lot of other stuff I was looking for normally in a regular supermarket was OK but not great and the people working there had surprisingly little idea where anything was located. The perfect finish was the check out where the guy had virtually no clue about any produce and what itwas (e.g. "what is this ?" - "cilantro" - "Italian ?", "is this a nut ?" - "no, a shallot") and a lot of stuff didn't have a PLU number and he couldn't locate anything and it took only 15 minutes at the check out which should normally take 1-2 minutes.

Overall if you live at that part of Boston you are much better of with Russo's, Whole Foods (Alewife) and Savenor's to get much better quality and selection at a comparable price 

[rotuts]

@Honkman

 

I cannot disagree with you on the fresh veg and the like

 

I do pic and choose

 

just to be clear

 

Alewife is a long long ways away.

 

as is Cambridge , and Boston.

 

If those places were easy to get to

 

good for you.

 

[Honkman]

Just curious - where do you live (as I live close to Alewife and don’t think driving to Natick is very far away) ?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

On ‎4‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 11:07 AM, rotuts said:

P.S.:  no eel in the shush bar.  I asked and was told that its on a non-sustainable list

 

somewhere 

 

 

I'm just finishing reading China The Cookbook.  There is a note:  "While the book features recipes with freshwater eel, Seafood Watch, a sustainable seafood advisory list, recommends that consumers avoid eating them due to significant pressure on the eel populations."

 

[rotuts]

@Honkman

 

living near the RedLine makes shopping in Cambridge and Boston easy.

 

Im personally allergic to WF.

 

its not for me .  No Parking.

 

also if W'g was on the other side of TJ's, it would be a different matter ...

 

Id rarely stop in

 

still packaged meat looks promising , esp on sale  compared with what i can get locally.

 

its going to very interesting to see how the store does   being so large w so many emplyees

 

the prepared food is probably going to make or break them.

 

Some of the pastries seem to be made there , and Im not sure about the bread.   

 

I aked about two loaf's that interested me.   I think but do not quote me that they said they were baked in NY

 

 

and surprising to me , as they are new and want to generate traffic

 

they are very stingy w samples   

 

Id think each department would have something  as they have plenty of staff.

 

I only had some aged ham  on one trip    and a delicious pear tart on another.

 

and for me , its on the way to Tj's.

 

but MarketBasket and Tj's are my main stops

 

there is a new MB on 128 in Wlatham I think.    try that if you are motoring around

 

TotalWine   is the only reason to come out to Natick.

 

I always see cars from NH and CT in the lot.   far larger selection than W's or any supermarket and cheaper

 

sometimes cars from NY and Maine.

 

one last thought :

 

their prepared refrigerated food selection is immense 

 

I didn't look into how long its shelf life is

 

but they much have a tremendous amount of waste

 

I hope they donate what they can.  many store do this.

Edited May 8, 2018 by rotuts (log)

[Honkman]

I have tried the Market Basket in Waltham but there was nothing which you can’t get anywhere else in often better quality for a similar price (we mainly by produce, meat etc but no processed stuff in supermarkets). And I know TJ is for some reasons quite popular in the US but for me it is the most overrated supermarket if you are not heavily using processed food - I can’t see what people like about TJ

[rotuts]

dried fruit

 

cheese , the same as elsewhere , at least 1/3d less

 

nuts

 

chocolate , much cheaper

 

wine , if careful , much cheaper.

 

they essentially refund some of the advertising national brands use to stay ' branded '  said to be as much as 1/3d of the cost.

 

not for meat nor produce

 

 

Edited May 9, 2018 by rotuts (log)

[Honkman]

52 minutes ago, rotuts said:

dried fruit

 

cheese , the same as elsewhere , at least 1/3d less

 

nuts

 

chocolate , much cheaper

 

wine , if careful , much cheaper.

 

they essentially refund some of the advertising national brands use to stay ' branded '  said to be as much as 1/3d of the cost.

 

not for meat nor produce

 

 

 

 

The quality and selection of cheese at TJ is dreadful. If you have places like Fastachi closeby the nuts are also not something good. Same with chocolate which isn't really high quality - so if you don't care about quality TJ might be a decent place but otherwise they are just good at marketing and hype 

[BeeZee]

On 5/3/2018 at 4:42 PM, rotuts said:

@BeeZee

 

you are exactly correct:

 

" I should have taken photos "

 

@rotuts, I remembered to take photos today, the golden tilefish was really beautiful

 

[MelissaH]

Only the larger Wegmans stores in my area have fish displays like this. Most of the markets just have ordinary fish counters with the fish already cut. When I think I want fish that's more special than the ordinary, I'll make a point of going to one of the stores that has the whole fish. At the big store I visit most frequently, the fish guys are way better than I am at scaling and filleting. (And I don't have the mess to deal with at home. And the price per pound is generally way less than for buying just the fillets. And I'll get the frame of my fish in the bargain, so I can make fish stock.)

 

A bonus of the fish display stores is that they have ice machines. When I get fish, I can ask for (and they'll give me) a bag of ice, so I can keep my fish in good shape till I get home. This is important because if I'm at a fish display store, I'm a good hour from home. We keep a small cooler in our car at all times, but it's nice to get the cooling power of the ice. (Other stores will give me a plastic bag and instruct me to get ice from the beverage machine in the cafe. Which works, but isn't as easy as them scooping me out some.)

[kayb]

There's a little Gulf seafood place about halfway between home and Little Rock that is a regular stop for me when I travel between the two and am coming back at a decent hour. They travel to the Gulf Coast (an eight-hour run) three times a week and bring back fresh shrimp, oysters, whatever else is in season, along with seafood for their Cajun restaurant (which is marvelous!). I can get good jumbo shrimp at a much better than grocery store price; ditto oysters, crab, grouper, etc. Most of it has been frozen, but most Gulf seafood is flash frozen before it ever comes off the boat any more.

 

Been a while since I've been down that way. Need to make a run. They're also a good place to get crawfish, and it's prime crawfish boil season now.