Flutterby™! : Worthless markets 2008-09-09 02:07:34.132274+00

Worthless markets

2008-09-09 02:07:34.132274+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments

The one thing I don't like about Petaluma is that our grocery store situation isn't nearly as cool as it was down in the Fairfax area. We have G&G, Whole ~~Paycheck~~ Foods, Petaluma Market and Trader Joe's. Better than some areas, but when compared to Good Earth and United Markets they kind of pale; Petaluma's options tend towards the "lots of frou frou processed stuff", but fall a little shy on basic ingredients and produce.

Case in point: I was at Whole ~~Paycheck~~, saw that they had decent asparagus, and thought it'd be cool to make an aioli or mayonnaise to go with it. I knew we were out of refined olive oil, and unrefined olive oils don't let a mayo fluff up right, so I went to the olive oil. At least two feet by the full height of the shelf in assorted different "extra virgin" olive oils (which, these days, is almost just straight-up code for fraud, unless you know the orchards you're buying your oil from), but not a single refined olive oil.

I laughed out loud at the absurdity, and decided I'd make a Hollandaise instead.

Our market is sorely lacking here in the Lake Isabella area. We have a Von's (chain store) and one family owned place who has about the same as a convenience store, only without the fabulous low prices. Weekend before last, I went down to LA with my other half and I went to a beautiful store full of rich and copious amounts of veggies and ethnic foods called Valley Produce. The store was probably 20% yuppies, 5% hipsters, and 75% immigrants from the eastern block or latin origins.

It was so refreshing to find a market where you could get actual blackberry compote or green tea and sushi rice with no english writing on the packaging. It almost makes me miss living in a large city like Vegas or New Orleans and being able to access stores like this. Almost.

Ah - old benighted Atlanta has the DeKalb market, not frou frou, but economical as all get out with an incredible variety of fresh food materials. I miss it.

JT, we've also got the usual assortment of chain stores, Safeway is the local brand name of Von's (the rewards cards are interchangeable), and Albertson's (or whatever Lucky is calling themselves these days), but neither of those have a grocery section that keeps us happy.

We've also got a little hole in a strip mall Asian store that occasionally has interesting produce which we buy whenever we're in there and they have it, because it's almost always stuff we've never seen before, and it's been very yummy so far.

Nancy, who knew that all of the spam I'm getting promising to make me more attractive to women actually contains cooking hints?