My cooking day yesterday was a long one. I visited 4 stores and still forgot the fennel. The dishes I made were awesome though. My clients selected a fantastic menu. Of course being the connossiour of great food at great prices I had to visit as many grocery stores as possible to get all the best stuff at the best prices. (with the local price of gas at about $3.09/gallon is this really wise, I ask myself?) Oh well. My clients are worth it. So Trader Joes is always my first stop. I can usually get most of my dairy, fresh veggies and any pantry items there. Plus the free mini cup of coffee and sample of Toffee Cereal is a serious draw. Have I mentioned how much I love going to Trader Joes at 8am? Oh my, it's like heaven. I can be in and out of that store in 20 minutes flat! And that includes getting my coffee and yummy sample plus having a quick chat with the very cool and friendly checker. Plus I really dig the way they load the bags. Double paper, loaded full. The fewer bags the better, that's my motto. It's amazing - they can fit a whole cart full of groceries into 2 bags! Take that same cart of groceries to Vons and you will walk out with 59 bags containing 1 item each.
So after Trader Joes it's off to Sams (oh I do keep a cooler with a blue ice in the car to load in all the perishables). Sams is great for meats. Plus from 7 to 10 am (for business members only) they have hot coffee and a pastry of some sort just for us. Oh those poor regular members don't know what they're missing.
Then a quick jaunt into Vons. I hate that store. And I only went because I needed some clam juice and you can't get that at Trader Joes. Yet anyway. So Vons is almost done with a recent remodel. What a pain in the kabootie. I remember the last time they remodeled. I swear it was less than 10 years ago. My theory is that they have to do it often enough so you don't know where anything is and you are forced to zig-zag your way back and forth across the store trying to find what you need. And there is this girl that works there that is so incredibly annoying. I don't go to Vons much, but I know to steer clear of her. She wanders the aisles asking customers if they are finding everything ok, and when the customer replies with "yes," this girl says in the most annoying, much-to-cheery, high-pitched voice: "faaaaaaaaaaaaabbulous". Ugh. Yesterday, after I overheard her a few aisles over I was determined to avoid her at all costs. I had to zig-zag a little extra, but it was so worth it.
By now I decided it was time to take the food home and use the bathroom. All that coffee you know.
Then back out the door to Randy's Farmers Market. Another great store. Tiny. Friendly. Close. Great prices. And they are starting to have a few organic items. In addition to the Italian parsley, fresh basil, tomatoes, lemons, oranges and green onions I needed for my client I picked up some organic gala apples for only 99 cents a pound! By now I remembered I needed fennel. Bummer. None available at Randy's yet.
I guess I have to go back to Vons.
Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabbbulous.
1 comment:
Sorry this is a little after the fact...I only came upon your blog as I was trying to find out when The Mockers were going to play at the Brewery.
It is fun to see someone else's take on my 'hood.
You don't "get" the girl at Vons: she doesn't want to talk to you just as much as you don't want to talk to her. The "faaaaaabulous" is just a big F.U. with a smile.
You should write more though.
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