Heavenly grocery shopping
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
There is an entire element to food in Los Angeles that doesn't exist in New York. This clearly is NOT the restaurant element which I'll rant about another day. I feel like being positive today.
In my 27 year old New York world, there wasn't much in the way of grocery shopping or cooking. You'd order in, you'd eat out, and occasionally, you'd pick up a few things for dinner. But even then, most of the time those few things were a slice of cheese, a slice of mushroom, and a diet coke. My fridge was full if it had a bottle of water, some apples, white wine, and milk for coffee. The few times I cooked, half the ingredients ended up in the living room because the kitchen just didn't have enough room to hold them. And when you've got the culinary world outside your front door, the question remains: Why cook?
But it's different here. One of the few things that thrilled me the moment I moved to LA (and the list of things that thrilled me was definitely limited) was having a car in which to put my groceries. No more schlepping 3 bags home on each arm, stopping on every corner to give the painful, red indentations a break. No more worrying that the really heavy bag was going to break and spill onto the sidewalk. No more swearing I would eat at home, only to find the lettuce I'd bought 2 weeks ago unopened and wilted. This was novel. Not only could I fit bags upon bags of groceries into my car, but I had a kitchen big enough to cook in and enough room for a dining room table to eat at. This was living!!
I love grocery shopping in LA. Perusing the aisles, picking out the cheeses that call to me that week, discovering new treats in the bakery section, determining which ice cream should represent in our freezer. I'm not on anyone's schedule but my own. I can take as long as I like to peruse the produce. I can fill my cart as high as I need, and at the end of the trip, I can put my bags right into my car, pull up outside my house, and walk 20 steps in the front door. To those of you who don't live in a major metropolis without a car, you will never understand the joy of grocery shopping this way. But I know that even you die-hard New Yorkers are reading this with a little twinge of jealousy.
Soon I learned there was something even better than grocery shopping in the stores. Farmer's markets. Stalls and stalls of fresh produce all grown locally and organically. Yes, I know you have this in New York. But it's just not the same. First and foremost, it's not year-round. And second of all, you run into the same dilemmas as you do with the regular market. Those beets are gorgeous - but they'll probably sit in your fridge until they're too old to cook. And you have to limit what you buy because you usually live a long walk or a subway ride away from the Green market at which you shop.
Every weekend, I spend my Sunday morning at the Larchmont market stocking up on heirloom tomatoes so sweet that they taste like candy and arugula so fresh you're reminded just a little of Italy. I buy strawberries and raspberries and peaches and cherries and blueberries and apples and plums. The brightest, freshest, sweetest, juiciest fruit you have ever seen. And it's insanely inexpensive. Organic, locally grown, delicious and cheap. What more can a girl ask for? I wander the stalls figuring out what I'll make for dinner that evening...roasted beets and carrots and kale and japanese eggplant? A salad w/ peaches and tomatoes and burrata? Gazpacho? Homemade pasta with an arugula salad topped with shaved parmesan reggiano? The possibilities are endless. The farmer's market is like my palette of paints. I pick my colors and create.
So while I miss my New York restaurants like I missed my parents while I was at overnight camp...I am grateful for the grocery stores and especially for the farmer's market. It's the little things that keep us happy. I love grocery shopping in Los Angeles.
Posted byMeesh-elle my Belle at 3:32 PM
Labels: food and drink
you should specialize in food writing, you make everything sound so damn good.
yeah. you made me hungry! I'll say I definitely miss being able to walk a half block to grab lunch in NY. The only place I can walk to here in LA is a hospital with a cafeteria - otherwise I have to get in my car to go get lunch . .. that's strange to me. (i suppose i COULD make lunch at home)