The Joy Is Back

Feb 26 2008

Published by Kirsten under Food, Shopping

I have rediscovered joy in the mundane. I heard it was coming, and even took a quick peek once or twice once it was here. But today, I did it. My first real grocery shop at the new chain: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. It’s Tesco’s foray into the US market. I shopped at Tesco when I was in London, and aside from the joy that is shopping in a foreign supermarket, I liked the small store geared for city shoppers who cannot schlep home their week’s shopping on the Tube.

I also used to work for a supermarket, off and on, from the time I was in high school until I left to move to Las Vegas. Added up, it was something like 8 years, but if you start with my original hire date of 1/1992 until I left in 5/2003, you’ll see that I just could not stay away from the place. I even enjoyed shopping there. When I moved to Vegas, I saw that the grocery scene was very different. People aren’t loyal to a particular store. How can they be? No one store will carry everything that you want, like stores back home will. Here, getting all that you want, all the brands, varieties, and flavors, requires trips to the 4 or so major chains. Then there’s WarMart and her secretly smart and pretty cousin Kay, only one of which I have found actually has a food section. We also have 3 chains of ~~soccer mom~~ natural grocery stores - Whole Paycheck, Wild Hay, and Trader Joe’s, where Boyfriend and I have taken to shopping lately. But there wasn’t as much variety as I like, and I was getting really sad.

Enter Big Bad Mama Detroit. BBMD lives right next door to a F&E, and loves shopping there. Boyfriend and I were on our way to her house for dinner the other night, and we said we’d bring dessert. Since she pointed out the F&E in the directions, I figured we’d stop there to pick something up. The store is super organized, which appealed to my sense of order. It’s small, with lower shelves, so you don’t get lost and don’t get whiplash looking for what you need. And OMG the produce! Being in the middle of the desert where it’s darn near impossible to grow anything, Boyfriend and I have both commented that we’ve thrown away better looking stuff than can be found in the average supermarket here. But F&E has super fresh, great looking produce! The best part is that it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. I picked up some rosemary, potatoes, strawberries, and salad fixins.

But wait, there’s more! I nearly short circuited myself in the meat aisle. I’m not a huge meat eater, but I like a variety. Not only did they have big ol’ slabs of meat, they also had some ready to cook options like kebabs, seasoned meats, stuffed meats, and other delicious meal options. I wanted it all. I couldn’t decide, but finally settled on some chicken drumsticks for dinner tomorrow, and a big pork roast that I’ll stick in the crock pot on Wednesday with some BBQ sauce. Both will give us plenty of leftovers for the rest of the week. They were marked down because they were both going out of code in like, 2 days, but they looked just as good as the stuff with more recent dates on it.

The store carries a lot of its own brand for the rest of the groceries, but they did have a selection of name brands too. Boyfriend and I are trying to focus on fresh foods, so we don’t buy pantry items as often as we used to, but they did have tahini, which I know can be hard to find at conventional megamarts.

Boyfriend and I have been spending less at Trader Joe’s than we ever did at a regular store, and even though I didn’t buy as much as we usually do, I found the monetary outflow to be on par with TJ’s. I stopped in on my way home from work, and other than the quick dessert run the other night Boyfriend really hasn’t had time to explore, so I think we’ll try to stop by next time we do a grocery shop so he can really check the place out. Even if it’s not a regular thing, it will allow a stop by the free sample bar to try the delicious foods they offer. I know I’ll be returning.