Key Food's Clearance Sale

 Last night I went and it was packed and way more cleared out than I expected. I got 2 jars of peanut butter and 3 bags of dried cannellini beans (all the rest).

Today I needed to break a $20 to do laundry, so I went back. I didn't end up breaking the $20 there, but I did get gorgonzola, 2 cans of tomato juice, a jar of hot horseradish, a tube of anchovy paste (which I've never bought before), a bag of Starbucks coffee beans (which I've never bought before, but people have given me both a French press and a coffee grinder within about the last 6 weeks, so I am going to try something new). I also got sun-dried tomatoes, which I'm not sure if I even like much or if they were a good price. I ended spending $25 after they took the 30% off. Oh, I got dark soy sauce too. I've wanted dark soy sauce for a while, though I don't know why.

Maybe tomorrow they will have different sales (since it's Friday) or they'll increase from 30%. Nobody is buying their oil or pasta at all.

What's on sale this week? I'm hungry

 I did a good job of eating lots of the ends of containers from my refrigerator, so I'm ready to shop!

Bravo: $0.79/lb for "slicing tomatoes" but Bravo's tomatoes are always pink so this doesn't count. I would stock up on these $1.69 anchovies, but I did that last time. So I should use some anchovies from my cupboard.

Brooklyn Harvest Market: A 2-lb bag of onions is $1.

C-Town: They also have tomatoes for $0.79/lb and I trust them. Mushrooms are $1.5 for 8 oz. The anchovies are $1.79 here.

Food Bazaar: I peeked yesterday but they didn't have mussels, so I am not going to look again because I'm not going to go there.

Green Corner: Tomatoes on the vine for $0.69/lb! Extra large eggs for $1.25 Oh, further down the ad the tomatoes get cheaper. 

Key Food: They still say a 3 lb bag of Vidalia onions is $2. I got a bag last week and they tried to charge me $5 so I corrected them. Colavita pasta is $1 so I will stock up I suppose. Both Cabot and Chobani Greek yogurts are $5 for 32 oz. I'll try Cabot because Chobani isn't as good as Fage and I don't know about Cabot.

Ozzie's: They didn't update their circular but it's probably similar to Key Food's

UPDATE! I went go Green Corner and the tomatoes were labeled at both prices even in the store, but they rang up as $0.59/lb.

What to buy this week - Coronavirus Edition

A couple of my friends were talking about stocking up on food in case there are quarantines or supply chain problems. I realized that all my usual shopping already prepared me. I have so many beans because they are always cheap. I have so much canned fish because it's Lent. But now I have an excuse to go buy even more beans. I want borlotti/cranberry/Roman (they are the same) because I've been watching Italian cooking videos.

Anyway...

Bravo: Barilla pasta is $1. I keep seeing that in my videos. I want weird shapes. A tin of anchovies is $1.69. I also see that in my videos. (They use so much more anchovy when that's an ingredient than we do.. and so much less garlic.)

Food Bazaar: Octopus is $3/lb. I watched several videos about that, but I am not ready to deal with one.

Green Corner: Lemons are 7/$2, which is more lemons than 6/$2, which is better than 50 cents each, which is usually a good lemon price. (This is how I do math in my head.)  A 2 pound bag of red onions is $1.25.

C-Town: Asparagus is $2/lb. Since when is Hormel salami $9/lb?

Key Food: Key Food has corned beef sales because St. Patrick's Day is coming up, but it doesn't have sales as good as last year, so I won't buy it. Last year I think it was like $0.40/lb. Now it is $2. Asparagus is also $2/lb here. Baby bella mushrooms are $3/lb. Mozzarella is $3.50/lb. Hmm. Cabot Greek yogurt is $4 for 2 lbs. Compare that to Fage, which is $6. Buttermilk is only $2. It's usually $2.50 here (but $1.69 at Trader Joe's). Colavita pasta is $1. Maybe they have good shapes.

Coconut Milk in Pittsburgh

I just got back from a week in Pittsburgh. Delallo's had cheaper food than I expected, including a little glass jar of anchovies for $3.33 or so. I should have stocked up. I taught my brother how to make green curry while I was there. It involved buying a tub of it on Amazon then getting some coconut milk. We went to every store and it was so expensive. We checked Aldi, Shop n Save, Giant Eagle, and Walmart. I think the best we found was $1.60 at Target (that was after we got it somewhere else).

Then I looked through this week's Food Bazaar ad back in Brooklyn.

I got a lot of anchovies for $2.89 at Whole Foods

 I went to Whole Foods with my friend. I wasn't going to buy anything, but I noticed this big jar of anchovies for only $12.99. A similar jar (different brand) is $15 at Key Food. That's been on my shopping list forever, so I got it. Then I noticed that Whole Foods was giving me $10 off for having Amazon Prime. The icing on the cake was saving $0.10 for not needing a bag. I haven't eaten them yet, but they look good.

In Praise of Shopping While Hungry

If you don't go shopping when you're hungry, you'll never let yourself buy $22 of anchovies. There are probably people who don't want to know how to allow themselves to buy $22 of anchovies, but they don't read this blog.

White ones: $10 for 150g. Other ones: $12 for 140g. (Both weights drained). That surprises me. I've never seen marinated anchovies in a jar before, but I thought they'd be more expensive than standard ones.

Dumpling Night

Ridgely reminded me to have a dumpling party, so I am going to do that tonight. Yesterday I went to Hong Kong Supermarket in Chinatown and bought ingredients. (Then I walked around and now my feet hurt so much that I don't think I can get to Key Food to buy pork.)

I bought 4 packs of dumpling wrappers (which makes 160-200 dumplings I guess. $1.50 each), a big Napa cabbage ($0.59/lb) , a bag of bok choy ($0.99/lb I think), 2 8oz containers of white mushrooms ($1.19 each. What a deal!), 2 bunches of scallions ($0.50 each), a bottle of Squid brand fish sauce ($1.19), a leek at a price I forget, and maybe that was it. I was running late so I didn't get to peruse. I spent about $18, which isn't bad for getting to feed 10 people or so.

I have been thinking about fish sauce a lot lately. I use anchovies when I cook pasta a lot. Maybe fish sauce, which is made of anchovies, salt, and water, would be easier or cheaper. I'm going to find out. I have no experience with fish sauce though so I don't know what brand is good. I bought Squid because it wasn't the cheapest, wasn't the most expensive, had an ok color, and had a squid on it.

I think I might fill some dumplings with ricotta and spinach and call them raviolis.

Why I Keep Shopping at Western Beef

As my unemployment benefits ran out today, my mind turned to converting my illiquid assets to liquid ones. And as far as I can tell, cheap beer is more liquid than a dollar bill, and that's why I go to Western Beef, even in the rain.

Here's what I hauled in today.

The first item is 1% milk. I just started noticing the price of milk, which means I can survive a gotcha question when I run for president. At Key Food, a half gallon of milk is $2.50. The second item there is Vintage tonic water. At Key Food, I can get the store brand for $1. $0.67 is a $0.33 subsidy to my gin consumption.

I got some white beans for $0.67 too. I turn that into a tuna salad that I'll show you sometime. It's pretty good. I served it to my family for Christmas Eve and they liked it.

Next is a jar of anchovies for $3.49. I pay between $4.99 and $5.49 for a similar sized jar at Key Food and C-Town.

And finally, my traditional 3 bottles of Baltika. At $1.88/bottle, my assets could hardly be more liquid.

Giant Eagle Really Sucks

I used to be a fan of Giant Eagle, but no more. I've witnessed outrage after outrage in its aisles. Boxes of pasta are all $1. Pecorino romano is $8.99/lb if you're lucky! In New York City, where groceries are reasonably priced, I buy my pasta for $0.50 or $0.67 and my pecorino romano is $4.99/lb.

I paid $4.99 for a little jar of anchovies. I found them later at an Italian specialty shop for $2.99. They also had my pecorino romano for $4.99 LIKE GOD INTENDED IT TO BE PRICED!

I don't know who Giant Eagle thinks its impressing--the ignorant I suppose.