What's on sale? I'm back after traveling

I've barely been around for a month and I wasn't shopping intensely before either of my trips. Now my refrigerator is fairly empty and I need to shop.

In Pittsburgh I did get banana peppers for 25¢ each and hatch chiles for $5 for 18 oz, so those are in my refrigerator and I need to use and/or freeze them. I can never find hot banana peppers in NYC.

Bravo White tuna is 3/$4

C-Town Cracker barrel cheese are $2.50 for 8 oz. Often I find deals on Ibotta for $1 back, which makes them $1.50 and quite a good deal. Jif peanut butter is $2.69, which after recent inflation, is a pretty good price. The tuna deal is here too.

Food Bazaar I'm still mad at them, but I will look because I might like to get salmon. In Pittsburgh at Giant Eagle, I got a piece of salmon for $6/lb and I dry cured it. It's $10/lb at Food Bazaar. Coke products are 3/$5 for 2 liter bottles. Can of coconut milk are 4/$5.

Foodtown (fka Brooklyn Harvest Market) London broil is $4/lb. A jar of mayo is $4. Pepsi 2-liters are 3/$5. Kraft shredded cheeses are $2 (and on Ibotta for another $0.50 off). Seltzers are 5/$3 per liter.

Green Corner Four pound boxes of shrimp for $3.50/lb.

Ozzie's Sardines 5/$4.

The Wegmans in Brooklyn–Not Good!

Lewis made me go there today. I bought 1 hungarian wax pepper for $4.49/lb and so it was $0.52. I also rang up Lewis's marinated meat because I had a coupon on my app and his app wasn't working yet.

Butter was $2.99 which is a good price.

Overall, I didn't like it! On Twitter, I said it was like a Giant Eagle if Giant Eagle only had 1 brand of canned tomatoes. I really did like the app and using Apple Pay. I really can't understand what people like about it. It is significantly worse than the Giant Eagle in North Huntingdon, PA. And I don't even like that Giant Eagle. It's just that Giant Eagle does a way better job of executing that kind of approach than Wegmans does.

Here is my 2-star Yelp Review:

This isn't a very good grocery store. First, the things I liked: their app is good! I had coupons, it shows up on my phone easily, it integrates with Ibotta. I also liked that Apple Pay was so easy to use there. I never use that because nowhere I shop takes it, but I did like it. And the cashier was very nice. Nicer to C-Town? No, but nice.

Bad things: The parking lot was hostile to bikes and pedestrians. The hot bar of prepared foods was expensive (it tasted ok). The store seems to have been laid out by someone at Ikea, but without the method to the madness. It just didn't have things you would think a big grocery store would-there were no anchovies in jars. There were no brands of canned tomatoes except the store brand. It has Wagyu beef for $200/lb, but for a shopping experience, it is worse than the Key Food near me, the C-Town, the Ozzie's Fresh Market, every Trader Joe's, every Whole Foods, the Giant Eagle in my parent's town, the Bravo near me, and especially worse than Food Bazaar, which is an amazing shopping experience that has everything.

I do not think this store will be open very long. There cannot be enough deluded people from Rochester to sustain it when everywhere else is better.

Oysters seemed reasonably priced. Cheese wasn't. Overall, if you care about prices, and you know I do, this was a bad store. This is a store for people who don't know the value of anything.

Oh, back to positive things. The maple walnut ice cream for $2.50 tasted good. And the frozen pizzas for $4 looked good, but I didn't try them. The beer selection was good.. better than Stop n Shop at Rockaway. But not any better than C-Town. 

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.

Now at Western Beef: Lamagna ricotta cheese!

I'm so excited. I was walking around Western Beef yesterday with a basket too full to add anything and I spotted Lamagna ricotta cheese. This stuff is the best. It was the first ricotta I had in my life and no other kind has ever lived up to it. Its curds are ever so slightly bigger. And it tastes much better. Other ricottas don't really taste like anything. When I make my Christmas Eve feast for my family, I make sure I use this. You can't even find it at Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh, but now it's at Western Beef! (Lamagna's from just outside of Pittsburgh.)

It's baked ziti season now. What timing. You'll never find another ricotta cheese in my refrigerator again. Unless you come over right now because I still have half a container of some inferior brand that I have to use up so I can go buy Lamagna. I should have a toast party too.

Food Stamps

One of the better grocery shoppers I know recently qualified for food stamps. I suggested he make ceviche because he could afford limes now. He said he refuses to encourage Giant Eagle's lime prices, no matter what.

I also encouraged him to buy local products to help the economy. I wonder if those local brands think about how the government gives people money to buy the food they sell, and if that stops them from pretending Romney's "I built this" lie is true.

Studies show that food stamps are one of the most effective forms of economic stimulus the government can undertake. But I wonder if some benefits should be reduced to increase regular welfare. If you still need food, you could buy it with your money.

Tomatillos!

I just learned about tomatillos. By that, I mean I finally bought some and used them. I made salsa verde. It was the best salsa verde I ever had. Then I made more salsa verde by adding new things to the old, but it wasn't as good.

I got tomatillos at Associated for $1.69/lb. At Jesus they are $1.99. At Western Beef they are $1.99. At Key Food they are $2.99. At Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh, they are $3.99. I lucked out by buying them at Associated without comparison shopping. But you make your own luck--they seemed like they'd be cheapest there based on how their other prices go.

I didn't really look up a recipe for salsa verde other than to check wikipedia to see if I had to cook the tomatillos. (You don't, but you can.) I ended up using this many tomatillos, a jalapeño pepper, some shallot, some cilantro, and some lime juice.

 They come in papery wraps. Tear it off.

 Inside it is not like a tomato. It is more like an eggplant. They are all members of the nightshade family.

Then I put it all in my quart container for Chinese soup take-out (I don't usually go to restaurants, but sometimes I want a quart container and soup is a good way to get one) and used my immersion blender. And it was done.

job

My brother has an interview to be a stocker at a grocery store tomorrow. I guess we'll find out if this world is set up correctly or not. A grocery store that doesn't hire us deserves to go out of business.

Citrus

I'm going to develop a signature non-alcoholic drink for a dinner party I'm hosting next week. And I think I need citrus.

I got a grapefruit, a pink grapefruit, a lemon, a lime, a juice orange, a tangerine, and 2 clementines. That cost me $2.60. I'd hate to see what Giant Eagle would want for that. I got every citrus they had except the navel orange.

Giant Eagle Sucks - Produce Edition

I'm in Pittsburgh for the weekend so I can go eye Giant Eagle. By the way, "Giant Eagle sucks" is usually one of the most frequent search terms that lead people to this blog. I think people look it up a lot.

I was horrified by the produce prices.

 Here you have limes that cost more than lemons. You have limes that cost more than gold. At Western Beef a lemon is 5/$2 and a lime is 14/$2. No wonder people in Pittsburgh don't make ceviche.

 I wouldn't pay more than $1.50 for an avocado in Brooklyn. $2.50? No wonder people in Pittsburgh don't make guacamole.

Eggplant was $1.99/lb ($0.99 in Brooklyn). Zucchini was $0.99/lb, which is the same. I said to my mother that the price wasn't bad. She said zucchini around here at this time of summer is usually $0.00/lb because people grow it and have too much and beg you to take it from them. You can't beat free.

 Here was Giant Eagle's strength. I'd be delighted to find buttermilk in Brooklyn for under $2.19 for a quart. $1.35 is amazing! Why does Giant Eagle subsidize its buttermilk with its produce?

And below the jump, the results of its blood pressure machine. That's my favorite part of Giant Eagle.

Do they even have margaritas in Pittsburgh?

My brother told me that my parents drink margaritas now. Even at home! How is that possible/affordable? A single lime costs about $0.70 at Giant Eagle. For comparison, I can get 6-10 limes for $1 now, depending on where I go. I buy so many limes because they're so cheap that I throw a lot away. It's worth it to have the option for a lime.

Two More Pics. Then I'm Done.

Today I went to Penn Macaroni, Walmart, Delallo's, Giant Eagle, and Costco. I'm so tired.

 Here's a rare time I push a cart. It was very weird. My parents asked me to drive the cart around to go get seedless grapes. That took me a while because I refused to accept that you needed to buy 4 lbs of them. I was wrong.

Here's an oldie from Giant Eagle. Telling me to use my fingernail would make me nuts.

Disappointing Delallo. Plus Giant Eagle

I've been looking forward to go to Delallo for a while. It sits at the intersection of my three loves: Pittsburgh, Italian food, and grocery stores. It doesn't hurt that it talks to me on Twitter.  What a let down!

 I was still excited when I took this picture. I hadn't yet walked in the door. Inside I found the produce section and was taken aback. They want $2.50 for basil. You get more for $1 at Jesus. They want $1.98/lb for eggplant. It's half that even at Key Food. Ginger was $3.98/lb. That might be better than Giant Eagle, but it's not as good as even Penn Macaroni. Cabbage was $0.69/lb, which is the same as Key Food, but I consider Key Food's price bad. They have an antipasti bar where everything is $8.88/lb. Maybe that's not bad, but at the East Village Cheese Shop, I get grape leaves for $2.49/lb. And that's list price. I don't think they know how to measure and usually give me 2 lbs for $2.49.

The one good price was baccalà. That was $6.98/lb. I don't know if that had a bone in it. There were also some prepared versions available behind the deli counter for $17.95/lb.  Eep! The mozzarella for $4.98/lb wasn't too bad. Eggs were $1.49 for jumbo, which is the best price I know. But when I got to the frozen seafood section, I got positively angry.

 At Food Bazaar, you get a pound of octopus (they call it "pulpo") for $3. THIS IS OVER 4 TIMES THAT! Maybe because Pittsburgh is so far from the sea. I don't know.

 I don't actually know what a good price for cuttle fish is. I do know you'd have to pay me more than $6 to cuddle with fish though.

 I probably wouldn't pick on spelling if I were in Brooklyn. But most everyone in Jeanette, Pa. speaks English as a first language. Also, gourmet prices demand gourmet copy-editing.

 These artichoke hearts made me miss Brooklyn. C-Town told me on Twitter yesterday that a shipment of La Squisita artichoke hearts came in. They go for $1.29 a jar.

So then my brother and I went to Giant Eagle. He had to get 15 gallons of distilled water, so I had time to look around.

Giant Eagle, Purveyor of Cheap Eggs, Sues "Egg Cartel."

Giant Eagle's pretty mad that egg costs have gone up.

That, according to Giant Eagle Inc., is the conclusion that U.S. egg producers reached in 1999, when talks began that led to a concerted reduction in hens and corresponding rise in prices. In a federal civil complaint filed last week, the region's dominant grocer charged it had been harmed by an egg cartel that, in the guise of protecting the chickens, hatched a price-fixing plot against consumers.

The last time I was in a Giant Eagle, I was surprised by how cheap eggs were. Of course, over the summer eggs were cheaper. The other day I found myself wishing for another salmonella scare so eggs get cheap again. They're even getting expensive at Associated.

Giant Eagle in Irwin needs to work on queue theory

The natives are getting restless. Found this on Twitter:

TENroaches One lane open. 8 people in line. This #GiantEagle is so stupid. #Irwin

TENroaches  About 20 people in line now. It's a good thing I want my cream cheese softened for this recipe. 18 lanes and only one open. #GiantEagle

TENroaches An idiot on a cell horn just tries to cut in front of me. So she cut in front of everyone behind me.

TENroaches Now she's gonna get waited on before me anyway. This manager doesn't know anything about checking people out. #GiantEagle

TENroaches Finally got checked out. After 20 minutes.

Giant Eagle won't be the only game in town anymore. Walmart's coming. (Aldi doesn't really count. It's a different breed.)

       

Giant Eagle Carries Beer. A LOT of Beer

A faithful correspondent from Pittsburgh submitted these photos of the brand new beer section in the North Huntingdon Giant Eagle, which he says is by far bigger than any beer section in a Giant Eagle. Actually his exact words were "They have better beer selection than I've ever seen anywhere" and then a bit later "Yuengling makes me miss Dylan." I confirmed that they carry Edmund Fitzgerald because it was 35 years ago that that ship sank in Lake Superior.

 More down here.

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.