I personally ease my ethical torment on this issue by studiously avoiding reading my cash register receipt. I accept that I will occassionally be overcharged on the assumption that other times I will be undercharged. It more or less evens out and significantly reduces the hassle factor.

On the other hand, I do read the receipt when I am buying a flat screen TV..........

Looks like Food Lion is "in bloom."

Has anyone been?

There's a thread on the subject.

http://www.donrockwell.com/index.php?showt...54&hl=bloom

If you don't care about how far your lamb travels before you eat it, Giant has a great deal on "free range" Australian semi-boned legs of lamb this week: $1.99 a pound. So, you can pick one up somewhere around $14.

I shopped at the Piney Branch Road Safeway today, just across the DC line, and I am never again shopping at any of the downtown Silver Spring grocery stores unless desperate. The Giant is a total clusterf*ck, the Whole Foods parking is a disaster, and the Safeway on Thayer must be the very last Safeway due for a remodel in the DC area because it looks like a shithole.

You think the one on Thayer is bad, you should check out the one on University, just West of Four Corners.

The one in Wheaton was always dirty and run down too.

Organics not profitable enough for Wal-Mart.
There aren't many Wal-Marts around here. Can anyone who's been in one tell us whether they offered many organic products to begin with? I shopped at the Germantown location a couple of times (reliable source of canning supplies) and don't recall noticing any.

They certainly never offered much of anything organic at the location in Charles Town, WV*







*where I used to shop on an account for some of the classes I was teaching, otherwise I try to never set foot in the store

You would think that ONE of the damned "gourmet" stores is this effing burg would sell slab bacon. But you if you did you would be WRONG.

When I needed slab bacon for something a few months ago, I went to Whole Foods and asked for however much it was I needed--totally airheaded and off in space somewhere--and when I got it, I realized the bacon was sliced. I had wanted it as a slab. I asked if that was all they had, and that was it. By coincidence, I was going to be near another WF the next day and asked for bacon as a slab, and they say they don't carry it that way, only presliced. I'm not sure if that's all WF or not, but it was the case for the two I went to looking for it.

There's always Niman Ranch.

Oddly enough, that's one product I remember I used to buy at Provisions, which was a gourmet shop near Eastern Market in the 80s-early 90s.

Whole Foods used to have slab. So did Sutton Place, once upon a time when they were still a decent store.

Oh, and Balducci's wild mushroom selection is pitiful.

Union Meat at Eastern Market had slab bacon, and I assume they will again when they occupy the temporary space now planned for the transition after the fire.

I call the Giant in Tall Oaks Center in Reston the "dirty Giant." I only shop there when desperate or if it happens to be on my way home (if, for example, I've taken North Shore home from work). I'm still a newlywed and my husband lived at home for all of grad school, the recipient of an army brat upbringing, where my mother-in-law shopped almost exclusively at the commissary and used their local Giant as a convenience store more than anything else. So his mind has been boggled in the last year by my use of:

BJ's Wholesale for meat (chicken, pork, red meat, which I freeze)
Trader Joe's for Greek Feta, Kalamata Olive Oil, Wine, Olives, Greek Yogurt, Salad-in-a-Bag, that cereal my husband likes, a couple other standards, and frozen fish steaks
Safeway for everything else, including most seasonal produce
Farmer's markets when we can swing them

It's not a perfect system, but it keeps the bills in check and I feel like I'm buying most things at the right places.

Also, it's fun to take someone who has never been in a wholesale club before into one. It's like bringing Rip van Winkle into 2007.

Allow me to take this opportunity to recommend Aphrodite Greek Imports, a food emporium specializing in, obviously, Greek imports. It's next door to Rabieng on Rt. 7 between 7 Corners and Baileys X-Roads. I haven't been in a couple of years (I used to work nearby but don't now), but they always had a variety of feta cheeses to choose from, not all from Greece. The feta from Egypt that I used to get there was the best I've ever had anywhere.

ETA: Their prices are great, too. The Egyptian feta used to be less than 2 dollars a pound, as I recall.

When the renovation of the store at Van Ness was complete, Giant replaced Safeway as the supermarket I'd go to for things I didn't get at Whole Foods, independent grocers or the farmer's market which I usually skip late December-March. It was remarkably pleasant for a windowless space and the chain seemed to have made a special effort to improve the produce section where prices were cut to draw in new customers. There were weeks I didn't even bother to go to WF and in the winter, really good collards & kale were only 79 cents a pound, red bell peppers $2.29 unless less on sale and so on.

Produce prices have gone up everywhere since last fall due to fuel costs and freakish weather. Yet the attempts to steal away customers from other stores have either ended or been diverted to household goods. Remaining appeal: It's still clean. Avocadoes are still 99 cents daily.

The Harris Teeter in Darnestown is selling head-on, wild-caught shrimp (13-17s) for $6/lb through Tuesday. We grilled them this evening, and they were wonderful.

Anyone buy something other than wine or liquor at Calvert Woodley?

When returning from the farmer's market at Sheridan School on Saturday, I found myself close to the store and popped in to see mobs at the Deli counter. Promising. Much to my delight, I learned they carry Spanish products that I had previously traipsed out to Bethseda to buy at an excellent little specialty store.

Deciding to try them out, I passed over the rope of chorizo and asked for a few slices of Serrano instead.

"We sell by the quarter pound only."

Fair enough. I bit. Lesson learned. It was clear to me that there wasn't much of a turnover on the product. 2/3 of each slice were fine, but the remainder was dried out and becoming leathery.

The C-W deli counter was one of Mr. BLB's guilty pleasures when we lived at Van Ness. He would stop in on evenings I had late meetings. His only regret was not discovering it sooner.

It is also one of the things we miss most about our move to the burbs.

So I think you got a bad batch. He experimented his way through most of the offerings and didn't complain about any dryness.

Jennifer

I shop at the CW deli counter almost weekly. I've never had any problems with dried-out or otherwise past-it products there, but I'm sure they would have been glad to make it right if you'd taken it back. I know that's not always worth the trouble, of course. One thing to bear in mind is their weekly specials. Serrano ham wasn't among their specials last week, but it is this week, so they'll probably be moving more of it. Another thing, they are always happy to give you a taste, so you don't have to buy blindly. (I've only ever asked for tastes of cheese, but I imagine the policy extends to cured meats as well.) Their weekly deli specials appear in the Post food section on Wednesdays. You can also get on their mailing list and you'll get the ad via email (along with the Monday wine & liquor specials, which don't actually change much from week to week, and the Wednesday wines-of-the-week). They've had real parmigiano reggiano for $8.88 for a couple of weeks, which is hard to beat. I think CW has the best all-round cheese/deli counter in town, and since they also have the best liquor prices and a vast wine selection at fair prices, I love the place almost unreservedly. Oh, and they started carrying speck a few months ago, although they almost never put it on their specials.

Most important, they have bialys.

Thanks for your comments, everyone. I didn't see the bialys, but I picked up one of Breadline's ciabatta rolls. The man serving me told me to stop in this week and he'd give me the sale price on the mozzarella that they had just run out of by the time of my visit.

This is the same problem that bit me with the prosciutto from Cornucopia...in previously-sliced packages, the outside pieces and single-layer areas had dried. They seemed to be selling a fair amount of prosciutto in various forms however, and the interior pieces were moist and delicious, which leads me to conclude that the better the cut, the shorter the time between freshly-cut and glove-leather. Ironically a cruder slice should have survived the prepackaging better, as there would be more moisture escaping through nearly the same surface area. If a vendor has gone to the trouble of acquiring a hand-operated vertical slicer in order to get those beautiful paper-thin cuts, then the ham should be cut to order.

Not sure if this is the right place for the comment, however, I've noticed that the Giant closest to me has pretty good deals on seafood that looks very fresh on the days of delivery. (Sat. & Tues. at least.)

However, since I'm not up on the latest information about sustainable seafood, I find it useful to google around a bit once I check out weekly specials online.

For example, this week haddock is only $8 a lb: wild caught, N. Atlantic. According to one source, the World Conservation Union classified the fish as endangered in 1996. The situation has improved lately, but... (more details here). The tilapia ($6) might be a better bet, but Giant doesn't specify the geographical origins of the farm-raised fish.

Dean & Deluca in Georgetown can suck it as far as I'm concerned. Why? They're trying to pass off old summer truffles as winter black truffles. And, they won't refund your money when you take the truffles back to the store and tell them you know what they're trying to do. Ask one employee, and he'll say they're from Italy and they're supposed to be white or a creamy beige in the middle. Ask another employee and he will tell you he doesn't know where they're from, but he thinks maybe France. Ask the charcuterie manager, and he'll pretend not to speak English. What an awesome experience.

I know, I know -- it seems obnoxious to bitch about truffles, but when you spend that kind of money on something, you expect to get what you've paid for. I called Dean & Deluca's executive escalation department, and they were incredibly gracious and said this isn't the first time they've gotten complaints about this store with regard to "mislabeling."

Dickwads. [/end rant]

I just moved downtown (near the Verizon Center). No more Uptown. There is a Safeway coming soon (in the City Vista building), but where should I do my grocery shopping in the meantime? I go to the P Street Whole Foods for produce and specialty items, but for the staples, I have no idea where to go. I think the Giant (?) on 9th Street is closed for renovations, but I could be wrong about that.

Welcome to the neighborhood.. and good luck. I do P St. Whole Foods, circulator to/from Trader Joe's, and the odd zipcar run out to VA. Peapod is pretty good too. I was using the Washington's Green Grocer CSA delivery for awhile, but wasn't pleased with the quality of the produce. The farmer's market is invaluable and I can't wait for its return to Penn Quarter in the spring.

Thanks! I have been meaning to try Peapod. Maybe now's the time.

was at El Grande this morning. Found Hanger steaks for $3.20/lb.

BTW, does anyone know what part of the beef does Rib eye com from? I saw rib eye primal today at El Grande for $3/lb and I expected to see bones attached to it but it look more like a large tenderloin. Any insight would be appreciate.

Rib eye is prime rib without the bones.

That is what had origionally thought but the cut look way to small compared to a prime rim without the rib. The cross section was no where near the size of the prime rib but more like the size of a tenderloin.

Small end of a rib roast from a small animal, perhaps. Or, it may have had a lot of fat trimmed off the outside.

GIANT
Feeling lazy, I picked up some 2% milk here last week instead of treking to Whole Foods, largely since the label proclaimed its farmers' pledge: no artificial growth hormones used in raising the dairy cows. The label for the whole milk did not make this claim.

When throwing out the last of the 365 brand, I realized that Giant does not vow its cows are not treated w rBGH. Quibble or significant?
* * *
Giant sells 5 lb. bags of organic potatoes for $3.99. Good deal, except some of the Russets have blackened patches right below the skin.

sometimes a chart and pictures are helpful - I also have found similar information in some cookbooks, but that rated the different cuts by most appropriate way to cook (Cook's Illustrated Family Cookbook is one). Try this chart - http://www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/pdf/BeefCutsEn.pdf

Given that I'm car-less for a few days and there's no grocery store within walking distance, I'm trying Peapod's grocery delivery through Giant. My first delivery is tomorrow. Will let you know how it goes.

I saw a commercial for the service and it advertised a promotion code ("TV1") for $20 off.

Just wanted to say I've been using Peapod for six or seven years now, and I've always been happy with their service. I've only had one occasion (out of what must now be several hundred deliveries) where the order wasn't right, and it was fixed right away. They don't have everything, but they do bring the heavy things right to your apartment. Which is great for my weekly seltzer habit.

Overall, it went pretty well. I had some technical difficulties with the web site, but the actual order was just what I needed.

I love Rodman's. So many Middle Eastern things I don't see elsewhere in D.C. Bags of wheat kernels, for example.

There's a whole shelf of Eastern European/Slavic sausages, Hungarian slab bacon.... Anyone here familiar with these products?

Rodman's DC store is great. By virtue of its location, it has customers from all over the world, and carries South African products, British, Middle Eastern, Russian, Brazilian, Argentinian and Colombian, Mexican, Spanish, lots of Italian stuff--mostly canned and packaged goods that are hard to find anywhere else. And they also have that small refrigerated section of Polish and Hungarian sausages and smoked meats. Did you see the Italian butter? There is a great selection of teas, in with the British Isles goods, more in the Middle Eastern section, and even more in its own section, next to the coffee. They have a large selection of beer and their wine department sometimes serves up some interesting bottles from France Spain and Italy--plus they have lots of South American wines, Portugese, Eastern European, South African and Greek, which can make for interesting browsing--though I have to say that the wine aisles are very cramped and on a busy day, fuggedabout it.

Seen at Rodman's today: Goya brand canned huitlacoche. This is a very unusual sighting--the last time I saw this on a store shelf was at least two years ago at the Culmore Latin market. It's not cheap at $4.99 for a small can, but this is just about the only way to get huitlacoche. It's been a couple of years since I've been able to get any fresh from New Morning during corn season. Canned is not bad at all.

AHH! Great minds (and palates) think alike! We had the most delicious huitlacoche dish at Cafe Atlantico on Sat. night; my mom revealed that she ate it every day for breakfast in Mexico. I found it on Mexgrocer.com and shipped her three cans this morning

Needing to make dolmades yesterday, my wife went to Wegman's Friday in search of grape leaves (among lots of other stuff for other dishes), but came up short. So I hit My Organic Market -- no dice. Then Weis, no dice. We finally were successful at the run-down Giant near where we live. Odd. Very odd.

This is just the sort of thing you can find at wonderful Rodman's.

I needed to get a number of specific products--mostly canned--for a camping trip. Safeway (14th and D, SE), surprisingly, had more than I thought they would have. I had weighed whether to stop there or to walk the extra blocks to Harris Teeter. When I got to the checkout, I realized that the can of mushrooms I picked up had an expiration date of Nov 2007. The cashier was wonderful about letting me go back to get another can.

ALL of the canned mushrooms I checked (both pieces and whole) had a Nov. 2007 date. The cashier said that she would have someone pull them. She was a great cashier. I'm sure the people behind me in line didn't like me very much, though. If I'm eating expired foods, they're coming from my own pantry .

Oh, but, no...it gets better. This discussion reminds the woman in front of me of the milk she bought that was bad and turned out to be past its expiration date when she bought it. She still had 1 gallon of unopened expired milk at home, and the cashier (who was really a pro at customer service) encouraged her to bring it back, even without a receipt.

I found a nice can of sliced mushrooms (exp date in 2010) at Paik Produce in Eastern Market. She also had a small bottle of soy sauce--the smallest I'd been able to find. She was out of the canned evaporated milk I needed but had condensed. Oh, well. Two out of three.

Fun news, I sent my husband out with a list and he ended up at Bloom. They sell cardboard six pack holders with the logo "Diversify Your Beer Portfolio". You can pick any six of whatever their group is, I didn't see it, but this is what he came home with..

1 Jamaican Red Strip
1 Pete's Wicked Ale
1 Bass Pale Ale
1 Harp Lager (this one's mine but he doesn't know it yet )
1 Newcastle Brown Ale
1 Heinekin

Maybe he'll go to the grocery store more often for me now.

That describes pretty much every Giant, Safeway and SFW around. These grocery stores have become a disgrace for signage, cleanliness and stocking conditions.

I am doing most of my fruit/vegtables at either Whole Foods or local farmers market.

The tongue, breast, and sweetbreads were just in the regular Wegman's vacupacks. And yeah, they've really expanded their D'Artagnan offerings, too.

I find it interesting - I feel like a lot of those are things that would really only appeal to food hobbyists. I really don't see your hockey moms and your average joe sixpack walking through the grocery store, planning the week's dinner, and saying, "Hey, veal sweetbreads! I think I'll whip something up." I'd have to do a lot of research into recommended preparations and look at some recipes before I felt ready to work with tongue. They had about 10-15.

The sweetbreads are a little unusual, but you can walk into any Shoppers or Bestway in the area and find beef tongue, occasionally with jaw. Think tacos de lengua rather than langue de boeuf en gelee. I suspect Wegmans is just looking at the demographic split in the area, as well as what's selling elsewhere, and stocking accordingly.