Supermarket shopping

Anyone who really knows me, knows that I love supermarket shopping.  I love to eat, and a store that is full of food is right up my alley.  All the possibilities! I have to admit though that I kinda hate Wegman's.  Sure it has quality food, and the cheese selection is great and their seafood is better than other supermarkets.  But I can't stand their aisle arrangement. It takes me twice as long to find the things I usually buy. For one, it's not laid out logically like a normal supermarket with like things near each other, or things that complement each other next to each other. Like they have peanut butter and jelly listed on the aisle markers. They shouldn't do that.  The aisle markers should only be for categories, such as Condiments.  Peanut butter and jelly needs to be with all the other condiments like ketchup, and mustard, or they should have some near the bread aisle. Good luck finding anything.
Anyway, I am getting tired of the "foodie" culture.  The other day I went to Talula's Garden in the city.  It's a fancy-schmantzy place on Washington Square that serves great local fare. I was just really put off by all the food stories the waitress was telling us, like "this cheese is locally sourced from free range cows in lancaster county where the farmer milks his own cows and goats and they are hormone free, and we get them once a week by a little old amish guy"  But every cheese had a story.  I was waiting for her to tell me that the "cheese had a good time on it's way here, and likes nothing more to be spread onto bread gently by a tiny cheese knife, and just can't wait to be eaten."

But going back to the point, I saw this in the bagel aisle and was put off by it. "Ancient grain?" ancient grain my ass. I wanted to ask how old it was.  Is that in bagel years? Aren't all grains pretty ancient? As far as I know, my ancestors were eating all sorts of grains 3,000 years ago. Just because you were eating Wonder Bread up until 3 years ago doesn't mean I was.

Nawlins'

Ninth Ward

beads in the trees

catfish po'boys

crawfish

Jackson Square

John Boutte at DBA

Superdome

Just confirming my closet baller status... I took a weekend jaunt down to New Orleans to visit a dear college friend of mine.  She showed me the ropes, and all that is good about the Crescent City.  My itinerary was to eat, drink and listen to jazz.  Check, Check, and Chizzeck.  If you've never been, it's probably not what you expect.  It's got beautiful houses, colorful people, great food, great drinks, and not too humid weather this time of year. And Crawfish! I really fell in love with New Orleans.
beignets, etouffe, po'boys, char grilled oysters, raw oysters, gumbo, shrimp remoulade, abita.

Eggs

I don't know why I keep thinking about this, but I have probably thought about this for the past five years.  I've always wondered what would happen if you baked an egg.  I love eggs.  Hard boiled, over easy, scrambled, fried, poached, truffled, nogged, fertilized... but you never hear about a baked egg.  Why not?  What happens to it? I need to just do it and find out. And for some reason I've never questioned what nogging an egg meant.  I question it now.

Something that drives me crazy

I was talking with someone over a year ago about this. The whole foodie thing drives me crazy. Hate is a strong word but people that consider themselves "foodies" are annoying to me. Just because you eat at the fanciest restaurants or eat anything the local food critics say is good, doesn't make you a foodie. Actually maybe it does. Foodie is a dumb term. Foodie to me means someone who doesn't know jack about food and only eats out but has never actually cooked anything for themselves besides a microwave dinner because "they don't have time" to make anything else. I don't want to sound like a snob here, but most of this food everyone is raving about these days is old hat to me. My mom was making me asparagus and egg sandwiches when I was in elementary school. I wasn't trading my prosciutto/arugula/sharp provolone/roasted pepper sandwiches for gushers fruit snacks. Gourmet baby. But that isn't what this is about. What drives me more crazy is when people say the names of restaurants and pluralize/possessivize it. Like Bistro DiMarino. I went to Bistro DiMarino not I went to Bistro DiMarino's. Sapori isn't Sapori's. Verde isn't Verde's. I don't say I went to the Irish Pubses... Dumb foodies.