Grocery Store Week, pt. 2

Hannaford | Supermarket, Grocery, Coupons, Pharmacy & Recipes | Hannaford:

Hannaford is my "go to." There are lots of reasons for this. Probably the biggest reason is that when I was a kid, the grocery stores all around me were "Shop and Save" stores. Hannaford bought out the chain and so it is the store I have known my whole life and trust. 


Hannaford is not the cheapest grocery store. I will say this, though. For the quality of the produce and meat, it is the best deal in town. One of the things I keep my eye on (price-wise) is Chobani Greek Yogurt. Now, come on, this product makes a huge profit. Everyone should know that. And there is absolutely no reason why a 6oz cup of this product should cost more than $1. You can imagine my disappointment when Hannaford recently raised the price of it to $1.19. Come on, Hannaford. That's an unreasonable price. Half-gallons of organic milk are reasonably priced in the store, but the greek yogurt no longer is. And I KNOW that part of the reason for this price point is to increase sales of its store brand. But really.Come on. What else can I say about this.


Also, recently, Hannaford has been promoting their new "100% sustainable fish/seafood" policy. Again, my inner cynic...I don't like this. I feel it's misleading. I don't think there is any way a grocery store can actually enforce this policy, what with so many suppliers in the chain. Secondly, for example, in the fish counter today, all the shrimp was from Thailand. I will admit that I am not the most educated about sustained fishing but I did hear an article recently about the affect of shrimp farming on Thailand's ecological system...so, who is this "sustainable" for?


To say that my opinion of Hannaford has been sullied recently would be accurate. I used to claim this store as my favorite. I have to remember that times change, and maybe being absorbed by a large conglomerate (Delhaize) changed the general philosophy of the brand. Again, a big company more concerned with making profits and saying the right thing rather than looking at the best interests of its customers. 

Grocery Store Week, pt. 1

Grocery shopping. I have found that there are two types of grocery shoppers--people who do it out of necessity and people who relish it. I happen to (usually) be the latter. I LOVE to check out a new grocery store. When I move somewhere, I make it a point to check out all the grocery store options. I'm not the kind of girl who typically is loyal to only one store in town; I'll find the best quality for the best price on an item, and get it there. For example, I am one person living in a small townhouse, and I eat out a LOT; however, I still consider three different grocery stores my "regular" shopping stops. I just want what I like; if I have to go three different places to get it all, that's ok with me. So here, in no particular order, is a rundown of most of the grocery stores I would consider myself pretty experienced with. If you happen to have the chance to go into any of these stores for the first time, you can trust that my opinions here will put you on the right track (I have put a LOT of research into this!). Friends and readers, I bring you Grocery Store Week!


Wegmans: I thought about putting this at the end of the list, sort of "saving the best for last," but let's be honest here: 1. I am all for instant gratification, and 2. By the time you get to the last, you are usually already satisfied with whatever you are in-taking, and the last seems redundant, too much, "no thanks, I've already read about seven other grocery stores (not like I was going to go to any of these anyway), I don't need another" so I didn't want you to miss this one.  IF you are lucky enough to have a Wegmans within an hour of you, go to it. It is the best grocery store I have seen in the US. People ask me why--Is it more like a Trader Joe's, more like a Whole Foods? The only answer I can ever come up with is, it's EVERYTHING. Wegmans is family-friendly. It has the bulk chicken legs you need and the pop-ice you know you want. It has a great store brand that is always good, consistent quality. It is organic produce. It is bulk sale. I like that I can weigh and tag my own produce to get through the check-out a little faster. At Wegmans, you can get artisan bread, cheese, and chocolate, but you don't HAVE to. You can get grass-fed, organic beef, or you can get irradiated ground beef in plastic tubes for $1.19/lb (I have been in both financial situations). 


There are at least four different places in Wegmans to buy cheese, including their own shop in the middle of the store. Try the Israeli feta. Try the Parisian Feta. Once you do, the feta that comes in the tubs with Greek font will never measure up again. Some have a little wine shop in them. Some  have little florist shops. They also have tons of seasonal things that seem out of place for a "grocery store" (I'm sure right now it is lawn shop and bbq goods) and a kitchen section that sells cute dishes and small appliances. 


One of the rows I'm allowed to go in but not buy anything is the bulk candy aisle. It's like one of those mall candy shops where they have every candy imaginable by the pound. Except it's Wegmans, so it's bigger than the mall store and therefore has more candy.


There are aisles of food that are imported from all over the world--India, Mexico, Europe (even a UK/Ireland section...go get your salad cream or spotted dick at Wegmans!)


To sum up--not more expensive than any other store, very fresh produce, great selection of everything (did I mention the shelves and shelves of Kosher baked goods?), and I didn't even get to the food court, which, in the newest store in MA rivals the size of a shopping malls with much better food, this is no secret. Wegmans openings draw record crowds for a reason, and if you can go anytime other than the weekend, you should!

A Quickie

Just surfing the net late at night and came upon this. I have to be honest, if I paid $450 for dinner and got some Jackson Pollack smears on a table for dessert, I would be inconsolable. This is utterly ridiculous.

How to NOT Run a Bakery

I like to check out reviews of local places on Yelp and Chowhound and then pick a place randomly. A few weeks ago I (once again) tried to find a good bakery here in Manchester. I'm not going to name the place I ended up trying because maybe it's not fair to, I'm not sure. Anyway, here's what happened.


The bakery only had a few reviews that I could find but they were positive. I ventured over. It was a pretty small place. It had one small bakery counter that served as the check out, order counter, etc. but it was so cluttered with pamphlets, cookies, etc. that there wasn't much room for transactions. That's ok, I like cozy.


The first thing I noticed that put some doubt in my mind was that more than half of the goods there were already packaged. For me, when I go to a bakery, I like to see things that look fresh--on trays, in bakery cases, looking right-out-of-the-oven fresh. What I found here was bagged bread (only), plastic-wrapped (only) cookies, whoopie pies, and brownies, individual cheesecakes in plastic to-go boxes. This gives me the impression that none of this was probably made that day, as it was still before noon when I arrived. To me, the word "bakery" should imply "fresh" but I did not get that immediate impression.


I also have to mention here that I'm not a terrible baker (I'm nowhere near a pro of course) and also I have some great bakers in my family. When I go to a bakery I like not only something fresh but something that is otherwise labor-intensive; something I wouldn't make for myself. While I was chatting with the very pleasant lady in the shop, someone in the back brought out something that looked fresh--puffed pastry layered with some sort of creme and raspberries. I asked the lady what they were and she responded, "Oh, those are our raspberry napoleons, they are our best sellers!"  Fresh? Best-seller? THAT is what I want.


"Do you make the puffed pastry here?" I asked


"Actually, that is the only thing in the whole bakery we do not make here. We have an excellent supplier," she responded.


At this point, my faith in this bakery is completely lost. Their "best seller," it turns out, is something they don't even actually bake. AND it doesn't have any pastry creme in it (which is the definition of a napoleon), it has flavorless whipped cream in between each manufactured layer of puffed pastry, AND....AND....to top it off, the raspberries are terribly unripe and sour. And there were exactly four in each huge layer. The unripe, green flavor of the raspberries with the overly sweet, thick, overwhipped cream was like a war in my mouth.


I'll give them this--they coat the top layer of the pastry with a little butter and cinnamon sugar before they bake it, that was nice.

Brazilian Steak

I love the concept of the Brazilian steak house. It makes me think of a party--who doesn't think of Carnivale when they think about the best of Brazil? I've lived here for several years and this restaurant concept has intrigued me since I got here. I had never heard of a Brazilian steak house before.


Gauchos has two locations (which also happen to be the cities I frequent most often); Portland and Manchester. My sisters, aunt, and I checked out the Manchester one recently. 


We were seated and the hostess took our drink orders. We all had various caipirinhas and, frankly, they were a little small for $9 each. Mine was quite delicious though.

So there really is no "menu" at this restaurant apparently. The waitress told us that the servers would come around with skewers of meat and we could have as much of whatever that we wanted. She failed to mention to us that the green and red cards on our table that we thought were coasters were actually signals to the servers that indicated if we wanted service or not. For sides and veggies, there was a salad bar. It was exactly what you would expect at a place that was mostly salad bar--lots of mayonnaise-based concoctions,  fresh veggies to make your own tossed salad, a bunch of "steakhouse" sides like mashed potatoes and creamed spinach. There were also some soups; however, nothing was labeled so you really didn't know what you were getting. I tried a bunch of stuff on this salad bar and by far, without question, the yummiest thing (in a giant plate of "blah") was the black beans with sausage. It was exactly that--black beans stewed with onion, sausage, bay leaves, and spices. It wasn't "hot" but it was spicy and comforting and the best thing in the entire restaurant (including the meat). 


Now, on to the meat service. Indeed, lots of men who spoke barely enough English for you to know what you were eating paraded around the room with skewers of various meats:

This is my aunt, obstructed by a skewer of bacon wrapped filet.

The most fun part of the restaurant is using the tongs to pull the meat off as the server slices it.

There were 11 types of meat that night, and though I think I tried everything, this was pretty much left on my plate when I was done. Here, starting at the top left and going clockwise: bacon wrapped chicken, hanger steak, flank steak, house made sausage, fried yucca, prime rib.


If I'm being completely honest, only the bacon-wrapped meats were above average, and really, what wrapped in bacon is average or below? The meat was all seasoned the same, the sausage was very dry and bland (with no spice). It was probably meat overload for me--I always order smallest portion of beef I can when I go to get steak. I love it but a little goes a very, very long way.


We finished the meal with some very good deserts: an ice cream bomb, a frozen chocolate mousse, a tiramisu and a cheesecake. To be honest, I think the deserts were much more flavorful, fresh, and delicious than anything we ate during the main course.


We all really wanted to love this experience, but it was just a little "too" too many things....the atmosphere was too cold; the room was too formal for men running around with skewers of meat; the restaurant was far too quiet; the salad bar was too bland, generic; the meat was too similar (and about half was too salty); and, at about $60 each with tip, too too expensive for what it was.


I wanted to love Gauchos. I wanted to go and have fun, to be reminded of Carnivale. What I got instead was a rock in my stomach and a lighter wallet without the satisfied feeling that a good meal with my family should bring me.

Raclette

I have a few friends who spent some time living in Europe; they are so worldy and I am so not! When I went to visit them upon their return I got to experience a little bit of European culture right in their Philly suburb. 


Raclette is both a specific type of cheese and a meal. Wikipedia can explain it a lot better than I can. What I can do is tell you about our meal and how much fun we had that evening. 


The table was set.

That odd-looking thing in the back of the table is the raclette grill. Apparently this is a common household appliance in parts of Switzerland and France. The bag in the middle of the table is full of a LOT of steamed potatoes.


So here's how it works. You put the grill where everyone can reach it. Then you put some slices of raclette on a paddle/spatula apparatus.

The spice on top is a spice made specifically for raclette. It is a combination of ground pepper, nutmeg, and some other things that I really couldn't figure out. Then, into the heat it goes!

This is community time. Time to sit around, drink wine, and chit-chat while dinner cooked away. It was a lot of fun. Cooking at the table makes dinner so much more social! In the meantime, prepare on your plate any potatoes, pickles, apples, onions, etc. that you wish to enjoy. Any charcuterie would be perfect with this.

Bubbly, hot, spicy...pull out your personal tray of heaven from the raclette grill and pour it over your dinner.

I will admit that the three of us spent well over an hour grilling cheese, chit chatting, drinking wine, and eating three pounds of boiled potatoes with creamy, spicy, nutty raclette all over them. 


Sort of the same theory as fondue, without the whole community pot of cheese. It really was fun and delicious. Thanks to my friends who introduced this to me; I hope we can do it again during my next visit!

Petite Jacqueline

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to have a fun, delicious dinner at Petite Jacqueline in Portland. If you are ever in Portland and are looking for some French-ish food that isn't too unfamiliar, between here and The Merry Table, you definitely have some choices.


First impression speak volumes, and my first few impressions made me a little nervous. Despite there being several empty tables and having a reservation, we were held in the vestibule for about 10 minutes before being seated. I saw there was a perfect table for two in the window facing the street and told my dinner companion that I was sure that table was being saved for someone with more money than us (I was right). There was a very bored 3 year old running around the restaurant. This is NOT a place to take a 3 year old with a short attention span. 


I ordered a glass of rose that the the waitress recommended that was just blah; however, my friend ordered this lovely wine.

I took a picture so I would remember. We were brought a small baguette (in a bag).

It was served with an herbed lemon butter. This baguette was not french bread. It was sourdough. Way too sour sourdough--with a clashing lemon butter that made the whole thing together taste sort of sour and spoiled and just "off."


For appetizers, we ordered escargot and charcuterie. 

The charcuterie was duck and pork. I wish I could remember the exact preparations but sadly I cannot. I remember the duck was silky and succulent and the pork tasted good but a little fatty. You would expect that of pork, right?


The escargot was extremely garlic-y and onion-y. The puffed pastry was perfect for scooping up the juices of the snails. The snails were not tough. The sauce was a lot of butter and white wine. Yummy.


For dinner, we had a French gnocchi and the roast chicken.

The roast chicken was almost as good as mine :-) . Really, it was nearly perfect. The skin was crisp and not fatty, the chicken moist and perfectly seasoned, in that I couldn't taste any other flavor than chicken, which is just what I wanted. The potato puree under the chicken was sooooo creamy and buttery and wonderful. The one flaw of this dish was the red sauce on the dish. I assume it was a chicken drippings/red wine sauce with some butter but honestly, the sauce had absolutely no flavor. If you tasted it with your eyes closed you would pick up no discernible flavor at all. It wasn't bad, it was...nothing. The gnocchi was wonderful. It was made with wheat flour (no potato) and was light and pillow-y. It had a bunch of fresh veggies--zucchini, snow peas, and I think asparagus. It was a very well-cooked dish. 


Of course, at a French restaurant, I'm going to get dessert.

I had the chocolate mousse. It was a delicious mousse, as good as I've ever had in my life. It was topped with  sea-salted peppermint chocolate toffee. The toffee was DELICIOUS but I really really didn't like the salt. This apparently didn't stop me--my love of peppermint and chocolate was too strong--I ate every bite. I also had the best cappuccino I've ever had in Portland. The server said they have the best machine in town and I would believe it. My friend had the blueberry crepe and I thought it was exceptional, he said he could make it as good himself at home. Who am I to say differently? I feel the same about the chicken.


Overall, this was a delicious meal. Even disliking the bread, this was one of the best overall dinners I've had in Portland. Every course had a high point. No course had anything inedible. The service was friendly and the prices was very reasonable. This is more of a "date night" place than a "girls night" place. Bon Apetite!