Food in the time of a pandemic

[TicTac]

 

 

not sure how eg manages to totally rotate the orientation from how it’s even displayed in my phone but...kudos!

Shrimps - lobster sauce - egg bean noodle.  Back yard wild celery (First pic) - beans and cabbage 

 

[MokaPot]

@Porthos, glad you found fresh bulbs of garlic. Just in case, there's also pre-peeled, fresh garlic. I usually find it in the "organic" produce area. Doesn't stay fresh as long as the kind you find in bulbs, but I like it. They are packaged with approx. 2 bulbs' worth of garlic.

 

Not sure if you have Asian markets (specifically, Korean) close by, but they also sometimes sell huge bags of pre-peeled garlic. (I haven't tried the garlic from the Asian / Korean stores.)

[Tri2Cook]

With fluctuating availability and store attacks from the masses whenever one of the government check release dates arrives, food in the time of a pandemic means I'm going to start preparing for Cinco de Mayo way earlier than I normally would. One door has already been closed due to the current situation. The only Mexican beer available at the LCBO right now, locally or via the online ship-to-store option, is Corona... and they're not expecting that to change anytime soon. I'm not unintelligent enough to be troubled by the coincidental match between the beer name and current virus troubling the world, it's just not good beer. So I'm eyeballing tequila cocktails as my backup plan. Unless something changes between now and then, I'll be working the next morning so there's not going to be large quantities of whatever I go with. Anyway, pork butt in both roast and steak form are on sale this week and I was leaning towards carnitas so I guess I'll see if I can wedge a little more in the freezer.

[Porthos]

2 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

 Anyway, pork butt in both roast and steak form are on sale this week and I was leaning towards carnitas so I guess I'll see if I can wedge a little more in the freezer.

You've reminded me about Cinco de Mayo. I've got pork for carnitas in the freezer, but made some recently. If I want to make carne asada I'll need to get some skirt steak. We don't typically do anything at home to celebrate Cinco de Mayo so I'm not too worried pandemic or no pandemic. But I have Luna's recipe for carne asada, which I can't share, and just now the siren call of carne asada is starting to make it's way into my brain.

[heidih]

On 4/17/2020 at 8:29 PM, Jacksoup said:

Tried an Instacart order.  The open slot was April 22. Then I saw the fast but you take whenever someone is available. I ordered April 17 and got today April 19. I already saw online no TP or PT. Got everything else except tomato paste even though I approved her sub by text. Unfortunately I also got a $!3 pack of thin sliced chicken breast - which I would never buy. I will call customer service tomorrow. I know they are hiring newbies so I get the issues and the stress they are under. 

PS: did not mean this to be a quote but can't get red of reference to a quote)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 20, 2020 by heidih (log)

[tonyrocks922]

As others in this thread have noted the situation in NYC is weird. With my tiny fridge and freezer it's been difficult to keep stocked up on things. Delivery slots for instacart and Fresh Direct (a local grocery delivery) have been impossible to get.  Even when I get get a slot they will inevitably not deliver one key ingredient for a recipe I was planning 

 

Stores in my neighborhood are supposedly reasonably well stocked but my wife is considered high risk and I don't want to do any in-person shopping.  I finally caved and ordered from Baldor Foods (a restaurant supplier now doing residential deliveries). They have a $250 minimum but now I've been able to Tetris 10 lbs of chicken into my freezer and got some yeast (1 lb of instant - the only type/quantity available). Their produce is much better quality than I've been getting from other places.  

Edited April 20, 2020 by tonyrocks922
Fixed incorrect word (log)

[chromedome]

Could have put this in a few different spots, but this seemed most appropriate:

[weinoo]

9 hours ago, tonyrocks922 said:

Their produce is much better quality than I've been getting from other places.  

 

My guess is the "other places" often get produce from Baldor!

[Orbit]

Our local  grocery store seems to have started ordering and stocking commercial rather than consumer retail basics like toilet paper and flour (the kind usually destined for restaurants). I'm glad they're doing it because these items were previously unobtainable.

[Tri2Cook]

I went on a scouting mission today after work to determine the feasibility of my Cinco de Mayo plans. Looks like the only sticking point is going to be tortillas. Masa Harina is rarely available locally at the best of times, it's not available now or expected in any foreseeable future. Amazon Canada is currently sold out and wouldn't get here in time anyway with the current expected delivery dates they're giving on pretty much everything. We're going on 2 weeks with no commercial corn tortillas available in the store. They have much more hope for that to be replenished than any chance of masa harina arriving so, under the circumstances, I'd be willing to go with that. But there's no guarantee they'll arrive. So the decision I'm gonna have to make is, change my plans or go forward with the knowledge that I may have to use flour tortillas instead. I know... if that's my biggest problem right now, I've got it better than many. That's not lost on me. 

[weinoo]

Deliveries keep coming, from sources I didn't have before. I got some pre-made pizza dough, along with flour, yeast, cornmeal, etc., from a little bakery across the street. The 2 doughs made these one night...

 

 

Which were good, not great. They were very oily doughs, so I made focaccia instead.  I also got a beautiful hunk of...

 

 

Guanciale, which helped make this for dinner one night...

 

 

Rigatoni all'Amtriciana. A ton of turnips led me to...

 

 

Turnip soup and...

 

 

Soon to be pickled enough turnip/beet pickles.

[Kim Shook]

I thought I would post some pictures of our Kroger when we went shopping yesterday.  I thought it might be interesting to see how things are in different parts of the world.  I am in Richmond VA - central VA, 2 hours south of Washington DC.  The produce is seemingly not affected at all:

 

 

This is the organic section.  Just a couple of voids that I can see.  

 

 

Honestly, I don't think you could tell the difference between these pictures and ones taken a year ago.

 

The meat department looks a little thinner, but not bad. 

 

 

Plenty of breasts.  But, oddly enough, no wings, backs, or thighs.

 

 

The gaps are mostly fresh pork and, all the way to the left, the marked down almost expired meat.

 

But this is VA, after all, so plenty of cured pig. 😁

 

 

Also lots of frozen turkey:

 

No more pictures, but dairy seemed well stocked (I forgot to look at eggs - didn't need any).  By and large the center food shelves were decently stocked - very little flour, but what there was was AP and self rising.  The limit on TP and paper towels was one package per customer, but they did have some.  Plenty of soap, clothing and dish detergent and even some spray cleaner.  NO wipes at all.  

 

 

[rotuts]

@Kim Shook 

 

that is Sooooo good to see !

[Shelby]

Yeah, I like seeing it too.  I'll take pics next time I'm in the store.  

 

I spot check Sam's, walmart, and various other places for TP every few days.  Yesterday Sam's website said they had TP--a large package.  I forget how many rolls.  Anyway, I put a pack in my online cart.  Asked Ronnie if he could think of anything else.  He wanted a case of water so I found that , put it in the cart.  Clicked checkout.  TP unavailable .  Gotta be quicker, Shelby lol.

[robirdstx]

I was in my Kroger early this morning. Stock was similar to what Kim showed in her photos. Was able to get most things on my list. The paper towel and toilet paper aisle had some stock, but I didn’t need any so resisted adding them to my cart.

Edited April 20, 2020 by robirdstx (log)

[heidih]

3 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

So the decision I'm gonna have to make is, change my plans or go forward with the knowledge that I may have to use flour tortillas instead. I know... if that's my biggest problem right now, I've got it better than many. That's not lost on me. 

 

OK for perspective here in Los Angeles there is frequently a question posed at the start of the meal "flour or corn".  The meat and the salsas and various sides like radish, avocado,  pickled onion/jalapeno/carrot, good beans - make the meal

 

[Toliver]

When I was checking out at my local Walmart Neighborhood Grocery Store on Saturday, the woman in front of me had a small jug of bleach (of course it was Walmart brand ) and a 4-pack of TP. I figured out I would stop by the store tonight to see if they still have those products.

Then I get a text from my brother to go to Home Depot or Lowe's and check out their Cleaning Supplies aisle. He said they have lots of bleach and paper towels. I'm guessing they may have TP, too. Will have to check that when I go in. 

I don't want the bleach to sanitize anything...I want just white whites when I do laundry, dagnabit! 

 

[Tri2Cook]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

 

OK for perspective here in Los Angeles there is frequently a question posed at the start of the meal "flour or corn".  The meat and the salsas and various sides like radish, avocado,  pickled onion/jalapeno/carrot, good beans - make the meal

 

I have no problem with flour tortillas, I just like corn tortillas better. But I'll keep watching the store, I have a couple weeks to figure it out.

[Porthos]

I was taken by surprise at the start of the panic buying when bleach got snapped up. There's been bleach in our home since we were married in '78. I thought everyone kept bleach at home.  I was apparently mistaken. At least my favorite ice cream treat hasn't suffered a similar shortage. 

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

The governor of our state, Michoacán, just ordered a lock down. Masks are obligatory, though I'm afraid to say I think most people are not complying. My husband and I have masks that we wear whenever we leave the house. Today, however, we took the dog for an outing--a lot of running around for her, a nice walk in the country for us--without masks. Whether we can do that in future weeks remains to be seem. Clearly the governor doesn't have a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois mix on his hands. This dog need exercise. I don't know if the governor's decree allows for exercising a young dog. I guess we'll find out.

 

But we allowed some liberties--in the case of buying food we are still allowed to shop, of course. I will avoid the mercado, which I dearly love, because it's too crowded for social distancing purposes. Produce is available in the neighborhood, and sometimes the larger grocery stores have OK produce, but protein remains an issue. My husband bought 2 chicken breasts on the bone yesterday that I'll prepare tomorrow, but the quality isn't what I have been accustomed to buy in the mercado from my regular vendor (a family--mom, daughter, son).

 

We shop at Costco in Morelia for the kinds of things--goat cheese, fresh mozzarella, bags of lemons (rare here), arrachera (skirt steak), big flats of portabello mushrooms, among others--that we can't find here or with better quality than the local fare.  In the case of the arrachera, Costco's is a great deal better than the best from my favorite carnecería. For years we avoided Costco but finally succumbed. Oddly enough, when panic buying started in the US (and here), our Costco had mountains of toilet paper. Every end cap was floor to ceiling. Paper towels, however, and wipes were nowhere to be seen. We're going tomorrow and I hope they will have restocked.

 

The problem I'm having is how boring the food I'm preparing is. I have half a ton of various beans and a good supply of pasta, but I am having trouble making meals from them. I read recipes from people who seem not to have noticed that there's a pandemic going on, and while I acknowledge that it's a form of entertainment to read those recipes it makes me sad. We've planted a vegetable garden, but that will take time to mature (although the spinach is growing nicely).

 

So I guess what I'm saying is that I sympathize with everyone's struggles to get food. We won't starve, but we may die of boredom.

 

 

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

6 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

 

This is the organic section.  Just a couple of voids that I can see.  

 

 

Please send me a leek.

 

[lindag]

I'm seeing a lessening of 'panic shopping' here.

Last Wednesday I picked up my curbside order and mine was the only car in the designated parking unlike the previous week when all the spaces were taken and I had to wait a good half hour..

I created my grocery order yesterday and, when checking for time slots this morning, found all times from 11AM on were open (they allow time for 10 orders per hour).  This is a small town, you see.  But the variety and quality of the food is amazingly good.

[Kim Shook]

9 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Please send me a leek.

 

When  saw them, I immediately thought of you and your perpetual search for leeks. 

[Martin Fisher]

RESTAURANT APOCALYPSE: 8 million restaurant workers are now unemployed, as the industry braces for $240 billion in losses

[lemniscate]

This week we are planning to order each dinner from local restaurants.   I've been home cooking so far.   Last night was green chile burros with a bunch of side sauces.  Yee Haw!  Missed that tangy heat.  I bought a dozen frozen also for future.

Tonight, planning take out Thai to keep the heat going.  Or Italian.  Will flip a coin.

Cornish Pasties and fish and chips later in the week I hope.

Maybe some Middle Eastern also, there's a place that does great Shawarma and a plate with lamb tongues that I love.