(no subject)

[julesjones]

Gacked from dsgood:

demonstration of why when you're an author smarting over a review, it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than speak and remove all doubt.

In other news, yesterday I cycled up to the new WholeFoods store that opened while I was away. The general verdict: the food is very good, and the range is excellent, but methinks there's a certain amount of boutique pricing going on. I'm not just comparing the prices with the local Safeway, but with the local family-owned-not-chain greengrocer/cheesemonger in the next block. And when I see "normally $2 each, special offer 2 bags for $3" on a bag of organic baby carrots that costs $1.50 every day in the greengrocer's, I am inclined to think that the difference in price is not entirely made up of their proclaimed policy of "seeking out environmentally farming practices for *you*, yadda yadda". I'd also be slightly more impressed with the environmentally friendly practices if they included not hiding the bike rack round the back of the bottle recycling bins, where it takes a certain amount of determined searching for cyclists to find it.

However... the food *did* look and smell pretty nice, and while my fruit/veg/cheese/ex-pat shopping will continue to be primarily at the Milk Pail, and the Chinese supermarket close to home, I'll be going there for meat and the occasional specialist item. Amongst other things, they have dry-aged beef. Not something I necessarily want to buy every week, but it's there, and it will be sampled in the near future. Fish counter looks pretty good too, although that's less of an issue because the Chinese market is within walking distance rather than cycling distance and has a good fish counter as well. I bought some stewing lamb, which currently browning in the frying pan before going into the casserole for dinner tonight. And I finally remembered to buy some juniper berries, which means that I will soon be wanting desperance's duck confit recipe.

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Simplicity itself, and you're very welcome. I'll post it in my own LJ and on foodanddrink, but do by all means rip it from there and redistribute. It's hardly mine in any case, just - well, what you do...

[julesjones]

Thanks. When I decided to try it out back in summer, I Googled for recipes and found that they varied a lot, and some looked suspiciously as if they were designed to look good on a cookery show -- and of course, I failed to save the one that looked most appealing, and never could find it again. So one that I know a Real Person has used and found successful would be useful. :-)

Have joined the food porn community, thank you for the link.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

There is, actually, just the odd time you can stuff a reviewer, if you know your facts and he doesn't. One once had a go at me for putting into the mouth of a character, based on a famous explorer, a metaphor involving household affairs - totally out of character, he sniffed. By happy chance, I could show that the words in question came straight from the fellow's journal....

[julesjones]

[giggle]

Though it's probably a good way to ensure you get hate reviews from someone forevermore.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

I've seen Whole Foods referred to as Whole Paycheck.

[julesjones]

I can believe it, after what I saw yesterday. :-) It gave me the distinct feeling that the target demographic was people who either don't care what they spend, as long as it's the right food, or who care that it *should* be expensive. Since I'm willing to spend money to get good food, but not to boost my ego about it, I will be shopping there selectively.

This could get interesting, because we've now got Safeways, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and the aforementioned greengrocer/cheesemonger/imports all within two blocks. In an area with a *lot* of expats who have money and are willing to spend it when they're feeling homesick for Real Food, but not necessarily to spend it on deliberately expensive groceries purely as a form of conspicuous consumption.