A Week in my Quest

Today will be the end of the first week of my quest. The quest is to stay out of "big box" grocery stores, and to only shop in alternate or ethnic stores.

It was a very successful week, all things considered. I will add a note here to explain that I will still go into the big boxes for paper and cleaning items because that way I can troll the aisles to take note of the prices on the things I'm not buying there. Also, if they have a good sale on tri-tips or asparagus, I might be inclined to pick some up. The quest isn't about virtuous avoidance, it's about doing something that is better.

I also will note that I am aware that my peculiar lifestyle allows me the opportunity to engage in this quest. I'm a full-time student who takes classes online or at night, which leaves my days for studying, kid care and shopping in several stores a week, which is a luxury that I know not everyone has. On the flip side of that, I don't have the big salaries that most people do who are working days, so this quest enables me to save money, which is as important as having higher quality foods available to feed my crowd.

Since I will be going to work full-time sometime next year the experiment is up in the air as to the future. But something in my heart tells me I will never give up my darling alternate stores completely.

So, how did the week go? Very well! Leo and I bought dishsoap and zip loc bags at Von's on Sunday, and I did buy milk, cereal, bread, london broil, pepsi and wine on Thursday at Ralph's. A word about that, though: I was in class in San Bernardino until almost 9:30, so there weren't many other options open and no milk for my italian roast in the morning is a thought not to be seriously contemplated. Pepsi almost falls into the same class as paper and cleaning products, as most ethnic stores, or alternates, like Trader Joe's just don't carry the stuff. And Leo without his pepsi in the morning is as bad as me without italian roast. Some things are not negotiable.

As for the rest of my shopping, there was the 99 Ranch Market (huge Asian store in Chino Hills - actually Big Box Asian!) for cauliflower (39 cents a lb), peppers (red, green, orange and yellow for 59 cents a lb), a huge bunch of chives (89 cents), a fresh bunch of mint, onions (39 cents a lb), fresh taiwanese noodles, fresh greenlip mussels (2.99 a pound - saw them for 4.99 at Ralphs, where they are usually about half of them dead), a whole rainbow trout - fresh as could be (2.99 a pound) and frozen packages of pork, leek and chicken dim sum dumplings for $1.50 per package on sale. We also got some whole crabs for 2.99 a pound, whose leftovers went into some really smashing crabcakes on Tuesday. Oh, I do love the 99 Ranch Market, so happy I get to go again today. It's our "date" these days, usually complete with lunch in their chinese cafeteria. So scrumptious.

I also shopped at Trader Joes, and Maxi Foods this week - fresh tomatoes, glorious garlic, mild radishes at MF's and the usual suspects at TJ's - wine, bread, italian roast coffee and a free-range chicken that gave its all last night as a roaster (with potatoes roasted in some very stingily measured out saved duck fat ala Nigella, whose book "How to Eat" I am devouring, pun intended), and the leftovers of which are now bubbling gently in my huge stockpot with all the other yummy bones I had stashed waiting to make broth. It's been so darn hot that I haven't wanted to do the deed, but seriously, the freezer is starting to look like a CSI episode so I am just biting the bullet and hoping to be finished before the temps go up too much.

Hopefully the weather will turn soon, I really want to cook some hearty cassoulet or other equally cold northern european sort of fare. Soon.