You're looking at Delallo's Fan of the Week

Every week Delallo names a fan of the week based on submissions of memories of the store/brand. So last week I decided to win myself a free t-shirt and this week I won it. I wrote about how excited I was to see their products in Key Food for the first time.

Yesterday I took Greg to Western Beef. Western Beef should name me fan of the year for how many people I've made go there.

I'm on to you, groceries!

I knew 59 ounces was a weird size for my orange juice. The New York Times says this is how we get inflation in food. It's because we're very price sensitive but not very quantity sensitive.

Ms. Stauber, 33, said she began inspecting her other purchases, aisle by aisle. Many canned vegetables dropped to 13 or 14 ounces from 16; boxes of baby wipes went to 72 from 80; and sugar was stacked in 4-pound, not 5-pound, bags, she said.

Five or so years ago, Ms. Stauber bought 16-ounce cans of corn. Then they were 15.5 ounces, then 14.5 ounces, and the size is still dropping. “The first time I’ve ever seen an 11-ounce can of corn at the store was about three weeks ago, and I was just floored,” she said. “It’s sneaky, because they figure people won’t know.

Now I have a new thing to keep my eyes peeled for.

Eggs on Special at Associated. Beans, no.

I went to Associated today to buy some jalapeno peppers because my jar was running low and I devised a way to mass produce huevos rancheros which is going to make me famous. They were $1.59/lb, which isn't bad. At Key Food they're $4.99/lb. They were on the old side, so I almost left, but I saw medium eggs for $1.25. You can't beat that with a stick! You always want small eggs when you're making huevos rancheros, especially with my new way.

I was also in the market for some celery salt, but they didn't have it. I wanted chick peas, but they wanted $1/can for them and I was having none of that. $0.80 is appropriate. I needed milk too, but I don't think they have enough turnover of milk for it to be good so I still have to go shopping later. I didn't think their price on Mexican crema was that good either.

Here's what I do with my peppers. I chop them up and stick them in my jar of vinegar and salt. Later, they're good.















And here's the secret to mass producing huevos rancheros. Use a muffin pan. It's all in there. The best part is either that the tortilla is not soggy or greasy or that you don't need a fork or a knife to eat these. You can pick them up and they're perfect.

By my reckoning, I will be able to feed 12 people 2 eggs each for about $12, which is how much my huevos rancheros cost the last time I ordered them in a restaurant. And these are better, so I won't name the restaurant.

Key Food's Good Deals and a Recipe for Eggs

It's been a while since I felt like I got a good deal at Key Food. Today I did. Their egg prices are reasonable again. I got a dozen medium for $1.69. I got a 32 oz Powerade for $1, which is good since I imagine I might be drinking my way through this weekend at times. I got some Tree Ripe orange juice for $1.99. And I got Mezzetta hot peppers for $1.50. They're usually $2 there, and I will still happily pay that. Oh, and butter for $2.99.

Here is my recipe for how I eat my eggs every day. It's nothing fancy, but it gives me an excuse to eat toast and it's the best thing I know how to do to eggs this side of huevos rancheros. It involves the Mezzetta peppers. You can use Golden Greek too. As long as it's spicy.

In a frying pan, put a generous dose of olive oil. You're going to eat this oil, so don't overwhelm the pan, but don't skimp either. Heat it. Start making your toast. Put some peppers in the oil and pour some of the brine in it too. You're going to fry the egg in the oil at the same time as you're sorta poaching it in the brine. When this gets nice and hot, crack your eggs into the pan. Grind some black pepper on it. When the yolk starts to set, you're done. You can speed this up by spooning some hot liquid over the yolk, but I don't feel like dirtying a spoon so I just wait. Put everything in the pan on a plate--the oil/spicy brine mixture is good to eat with toast. Eggs are good for toast. Toast is inherently great.

How to Turn Last Week's C-Town Specials into One of the Best Foods I've Made

 Yesterday I invited Dylan over for dinner before I knew what to make, so I went to C-Town. The manager let me know the Heinz pickles I requested are in now. I wandered the aisles with only vague ideas of what to make. Luckily, I had bought all types of pasta earlier in the week because Ronzoni was 4/$3. And all I can ever improvise is pasta.

I decided something like baked ziti, but made only on a stove top, would be good. I got hot sausage, which was $1 off. I don't know why it seems to be on my receipt twice, two different ways. I got a can of Colavita crushed tomatoes, which they now carry for me at $1.50. I bought some frozen spinach because Laura told me I need to have Vitamin E if I want to quit being ugly in one specific way. Mozzarella was on sale. I already had the pasta. I also had some frozen onions that they sell and I like to keep on hand because, like I told Dylan, I'm never going to chop an onion for fewer than 6 people. I tasted one out of the bag and it tasted like an onion. You'd expect that from something whose only ingredient is "onions." I also threw in some garlic powder, a ton of pecorino romano, and some dried parsley. I got those at Key Food, but you can get them at C-Town too.

C-Town Pasta and what other people think of it.

C-Town has Ronzoni on sale. Only the 5 basics (spaghetti, ziti rigate, ziti, elbows, and thin spaghetti I think) for 4/$3. That's almost a 2006 price there.

I just saw this on Tumblr:

Is it sad that I couldnt voice my true opinion that my local grocery store’s clerks are consistently shitty about packing the groceries (really all the cans and the diet dr pepper in one bag?)? Why couldnt I say anything? Because theyre following me on tumblr and twitter.
So now Im being passive aggressive. You know who you are grocery store, have a seminar on proper bag packing with your ladies.

Now, I actually would like all my cans together, or at least not have qualms. And every week when I'm volunteering at the food pantry at Agnes's church (which should get another post), I pack up all the cans together. I guess in that situation it is offensive to say that beggars can't be choosers. Baggers, however, are the choosers. Ha! 

I always end up packing my own bag because I bring my own anyway.

I looked up C-Town on Yelp and I was appalled at the reviews, so I wrote one. They say they have bad customer service because the cashiers don't talk to you too much. What the heck! The ideal grocery store has cashiers who don't talk to you too much and a twitter account that carries whatever you want at the price you want (usually).

Groceries of Belgium: Canned Hot Dogs, Fruit, Orange Juice, Etc.

A correspondent recently traveled to Belgium and sent along these snaps.

Key Food didn't do a very good job. Associated picked up its slack.

I haven't been to Key Food that often lately, though I'm still currently the mayor on Foursquare. I wanted to go today to recycle my grocery bags, buy milk, and buy Fresca. I was also willing to consider buying jalapeno peppers there, but didn't expect much.

I was right to not expect much! They were $4.99/lb! That's highway robbery. In the pop aisle, I saw they brought Diet Rite back, but at the absurd price of $1.99. When I had a Diet Rite habit, I was paying $1.29. They also carry some of the other Dr. Pepper/7Up brands like RC Cola and one I'd never seen before: Sun Drop. What they don't carry, however, is Fresca.  I ended up walking out of the store with only a half gallon of milk (I still like their milk the best) and a jar of store brand mayo.

At Associated, I was much happier. I got beautiful jalapeno peppers for $1.39/lb and they are currently pickling in my refrigerator. I got some orange juice, some Heinz hamburger pickle chips, and Fresca. The Fresca was $1.99, which isn't the correct price, but at least they had it. I was feeling defeated.

C-Town now carries dumpling wrappers

About two weeks ago I was walking through Chinatown to buy dumpling wrappers and thinking about how annoying it is that these are made not far from my house but I have to go to Manhattan to buy them. Then a lightbulb went off over my head and I tweeted a picture to C-Town to ask if they carried them. Yesterday C-Town tweeted me a picture of them back to let me know they're now in. Now I can make dumplings every time I feel spiteful without advance planning. (I exaggerate. If I made dumplings every time I felt spiteful, I'd never get a chance to eat anything else.)

Sriracha

While I was eating my fish tacos, I noticed the price tag on my old bottle of sriracha.  $3.99. I bought a new bottle in Chinatown for $2.29 yesterday. What a deal.

An interesting note about this blog is that all of its hits come from searches for sriracha, rooster sauce, chinese hot sauce, chinese rooster sauce, and misspellings of the same. My favorite hit so far is the search for "Chopin stage fright" which was a post about how I was nervous to shop for Thanksgiving. Here is the last week.

Here's all time.

My Many Trips to C-Town

I've been reading library books at a pace of a book a day (Phillip Roth - Indignation. Bret Easton Ellis - Imperial Bedrooms) and because C-Town's on the way back from the library, I keep going there. Today was my third day in a row. (I got a collection of Jay McInerney's short stories, but don't expect to finish it in a day because I am going to cook the things I bought at C-Town and be social.)

I am happier to be at C-Town with each trip. Yesterday I found my tomato juice I requested and it's at the price I requested: $1.79. I couldn't find my La Squisita artichokes for $1.29. Today I did find them prominently displayed on a front shelf instead of hidden behind other displays in the first row. The best way to hide something from me is to put it prominently displayed. I also picked up 2 more boxes of Barilla whole grain pasta for $1. I ate a box of it yesterday. The box tells me that is 1400 calories of pasta in a day. I made it with an alfredo sauce and it was good enough to stock up. I also got some sausages I had never seen before for $3.50 or so. I'll find out if they're good when I cook them tonight. Pierogies were $3.29. That is more than Key Food lists them as, but exactly as much as Key Food charges me. (Associated had them for $3.39. I checked on the way.)

More Grocery Store Violence. This at Key Food!

I read a terrible thing in the Brooklyn Paper.

Three perps robbed a Grand Street grocery store on Jan 7, pistol-whipping one victim and stealing $800 from the register.
The perps entered the Key Foods near Lorimer Street at 8:45 pm, flashing handguns and demanding the cash. One perp struck a witness’s face with his handgun while the other took the cash.
The thieves ran out of the store five minutes later and one fired a round into the air across the street.

Terrible.