I can't find everything I want and need in a traditional grocery store.
Yesterday I left home and went due east across I-5 on Birch Bay Lynden road to the Grace Harbor Goat Farm in Custer for fresh farm eggs. She also had, strangely, pea shoots. I bought some of those too.
From there we drove south into Bellingham and dropped in at Bodega Neto's for fresh, warm tortillas and some Mexican pastry. The tortillas, made fresh daily, are kept in plastic bags, three dozen in each, still steamy and warm in an insulated chest near the checkout stand. And my god I love the pastries--barely sweet, dry, very little in the way of goop or fillings. They are the sweets born of a poor people who lacked refrigeration and access to luxury goods, the very opposite of a French patissierie, and I adore them. I bought four.
From there to a doctor's appointment for Bob a mile away.
Afterward, Bob asked for a hamburger at Wendy’s about two miles north of the doctor's office which is conveniently near the India Mart. So India Mart I went, and there I stocked up on what is for me has become an addiction--golden raisins. But not just any, they're the best raisins I’ve ever had, in fact I've never been a fan until these. I bought three 1.5 pound bags. They're made up of about 10 beautiful shades of gold, green and orange-y brown, much tangier, less sweet and chewier than conventional supermarket raisins. A super healthy snack and also good for adding to Bob’s morning cereal. There I also bought three-inch diameter carrots (intensely flavored things, and something I only see in Asian markets), ginger, some broccoli rabe, dry black eyed peas to insure I always have at least one dry bean in the pantry, and some frozen flat breads that are like an Indian pupusa but stuffed with cauliflower, potatoes and spices.
From there we went direction home with a stop at a conventional grocery store for conventional cow milk for my dinner souffles (we only have Oat Milk for Bob's cereal, rarely use milk for anything else) and ground turkey for the albondigas soup I plan to make today.
Then on to the house, with one Oops! where I turned around and backtracked a mile to a tiny neighborhood market on the Bay for cilantro. This market exists more to sell cheap wine, beer, snack foods that go with beer and crabbing licenses to tourists than food. But time-share or VRBO clients cruising into town late and empty-handed can always grab some fresh essentials for dinner or breakfast: butter, steak, milk, bacon, eggs, bread and iceberg lettuce. The only other fresh produce, and bless their hearts they ALWAYS have them, is everything needed to make a fresh salsa including tomatoes, fresh jalapenos and cilantro. I don't picture the beer people going to that kind of trouble, but they must.
This is a pretty typical shopping day for me. I rarely make a list, nor do I set aside one day a week to buy a week's worth of food at a conventional grocer like most people I know. I shop on the way to and from other errands, and it's rare that I can find the things I want and quality I need all in one place. It would be a sad world if I had to settle for Sunmaid Raisins (in fact, I wouldn't) and Mission brand tortillas.
