The Situation at C-Town: Crushed Tomatoes, Cheeses

This won't be as informative as my rant about line management and check-out practices at Food Bazaar just was, but is more informative than most things I write about. After Food Bazaar, I realized I needed more crushed tomatoes to make my sauce for the eggplant parmesan. I usually go to Key Food for crushed tomatoes because they have my favorite brand (Colavita) at my favorite price ($1.50 for 28 oz.) I've written at length before about how to select a can of crushed tomatoes. But C-town is closer and it was very cold and C-Town has been nice to me lately so I gave it a shot.

I went to the crushed tomato section and looked at all the cans. They all had way too many ingredients. I don't need their preservatives. I don't need their salt--I have salt. I don't need their basil and oregano. I have spices. Despite the cold, I almost left and walked to Key Food, which is a much longer walk from C-Town than from my house, so I was going to be quite cross.

Lo and behold, near the registers at the end of an aisle was a section of Cento brand crushed tomatoes on sale! I checked the ingredients and it had only one: "fresh red ripe tomoatoes." And it was on sale for $1.50 I think. I don't know whether to say they hid these because they weren't with the other ones or to say they emphasized these. But I bought them and they were good. Now I have two favorite brands.

Since I was there and happy, I looked around. C-Town told me in a blog comment the other day that the pecorino romano is now to the left of the deli counter. It sure was. At $8.59/lb, I won't be stocking up there, but it beats the non-sale price at Key Food. (It's too cold to bike to Western Beef for a long time.) And I noticed the chunk of gorgonzola. I don't like my cheese pre-crumbled. It can dry out easier.

Some San Giorgio pasta were labeled "buy one get one free - will scan at sale price" which I usually interpret to mean I only have to buy one. It usually says "must buy 2" at stores if you have to buy both. So I got just one box. It didn't give me the sale price. I paid $1.59 for a pound of pasta. That is 59% too much. But I got a good deal on the tomatoes, so I guess it evens out.