You'd be surprised

Whenever I get something in a store that gets weighed, I always pay attention to the scale. I'm not sure why. For the most part, the accuracy of what I'm buying doesn't really matter. I guess I'm watching to see how good a feel for weigh the person behind the counter has. The guy that butchers our steers is amazingly accurate when packing ground beef. A lot of people behind the counter are really good. I suppose I'm just curious to see how close the initial guess is.

Recently, I had asked for about a third of a pound Percorino in an Italian market. Before I could say 0.27 was close enough, a little more was added to the scale. Now it was over 0.33 pounds. A pair of anxious eyes looked at me for a thumbs up or down. I said, "I'm not fighting you over a couple hundredths of a pound." His response: "You'd be surprised."

Yesterday, I picked up some sausage at Hannaford. I had never seen this particular name before. It was Parillo out of Saratoga. I figured I'd give it a shot. I actually prefer bulk sausage like this if I'm not grilling it. I asked for a pound and had a nice conversation about the sausage with the person getting it for me (he likes it and some other Parillo products too). He put the sausage on the scale: 0.98 pounds.

Me: "Damn. That's pretty good."
Him: "Would you like me to top that off for the full pound."
Me: "Within two hundredths is close enough."
Him (while kind of rolling his eyes): "You'd be surprised."

There are people walking among us that apparently berate the staff at deli and butcher counters about hundredths of pounds. These people have thrown enough tantrums over grams of cold cuts and ground beef that the market employees are afraid to be off a tiny amount on anything weighed.

To these people I say: stop it.

Seriously. Stop it.

Sorry, we're out

Price Chopper isn't my main grocery store. It was once, but I go through phases. I still go to Price Chopper, it's just not a weekly thing. So far, they are the only place I've found Hofmann German Brand Franks and I like them. When I go to get franks, I'm sure I'll grab a few other things.

When I find myself in the Market Bistro Price Chopper, I grab a Cobb Salad (no onions) for my wife. Yeah it's 10 bucks, but it's pretty big, I'm too lazy to make it, and the salad lasts for at least two meals.

I ordered one tonight, and was told they were out of bacon and blue cheese. Another person working behind the counter corrected the person waiting on me about the bacon. So they've got bacon but no blue cheese. Now sure, I get running out of things. My brother tells a story about when he was working in a restaurant and the owner ran out for a 5 pound bag of onions during a dinner rush. It happens. But running out of something in the middle of a supermarket? There's plenty of blue cheese for sale less than 100 feet away.

It's not just Price Chopper. I don't mean to single them out. I was once told they were out of plastic forks in a Shop Rite. I forget the store, but a deli counter in a grocery didn't have mustard for a sandwich. Crazy, right?

Watching what you eat...literally

Alright, this need to start with a confession. I'm really not proud of this and I probably die a little inside every time I do it but...

My kids love tacos and quesadillas. With our beef supply, there is no shortage of ground beef and these can be pretty quick dinners. What haunts my dreams is that the kids prefer Ortega's 40% reduced salt taco seasoning mix over any spice combination I have ever put together from scratch...sigh...oh, the shame. Must be the autolyzed yeast extract and the caramel color. On the plus side, they really like my pizza, which to be honest, is much more important to me.

I gave up trying to make my own seasoning mix and usually you can find 2 or 3 packets of this in my cupboard. Turns out, Ortega recently had a voluntary recall of these spice packets. Apparently one of their third party vendors sold them some spices with traces of peanuts and tree nuts and none of that information made the label. If you aren't allergic to either, who cares? But my oldest can't eat peanuts. It's a mild allergy. A spoonful of peanut butter will make her sick and pretty uncomfortable. Tagalong Girl Scout cookies look a lot like Thin Mints and that mix up happened once. She has been fine eating things "processed on machinery that also processes peanuts and tree nuts" which seems to be a lot of labels as companies appear to go into full cover your ass mode. It's not one of those extremely severe allergies, just something we watch.

Well, I had no idea the taco seasoning mix had been recalled until the phone rang. It was a robo-call from Price Chopper letting my wife know about the recall. I must have bought some seasoning there, swiped my Advantage Card and that data went off into the little tubes of the Price Chopper computer databases. So thanks for letting me know about the recall, Price Chopper...but it is a little creepy you remembered I bought it.

Market Bistro's Cooking School

I was invited to attend a cooking class at the new cooking school inside the the revamped Market Bistro Price Chopper in Latham. The cooking school is right behind the full service restaurant near the front of the new food court area. I had my doubts about how successful this full service restaurant would be when I toured the new Bistro section of store when it opened. There were several tables of diners and while I didn't eat any of the restaurant's offerings the plates of food being served looked pretty damn good.

On to the cooking school... I was invited to a 90 minute class titled Two Guys and a Grill with a focus on Certified Angus Beef. The school kitchen is pretty sweet. There are three islands that hold up to 5 students each for the hands on classes. There are also long tables for more of a lecture style class.Here's a picture I took from the second row. You can see the three islands and a pretty slick kitchen setup.

There's a camera on the back wall that projects onto the two screens for close ups of the lessons.
 

The beef was cooked by Chef Michael Ollier (from the Certified Angus Beef organization) and the side dishes were prepared the the cooking school's Chef John Winneck. First up was a top round London broil. This was marinated in a Central Market Marinade named Neil's Favorite Marinade, apparently Neil Golub likes it. These steaks got an overnight soak in the marinade, a sear on the stove-top grill, and then a bake in a 225 degree(F) convection oven.

Then a sweet corn souffle was prepared. During this preparation, each chef offered their opinion as to why eggs should be separated cold - Chef Winneck says the albumen doesn't stick to the yolks as much and Chef Ollier says the yolks are firmer and less fragile. News to me, and that's the kind of thing I like about cooking classes. Just some spontaneous, off-topic pro tip.

The souffle was had an interesting texture. The bottom turned into a corn spoon bread and the top was a soft egg. The beef was thinly sliced and still had a nice chew to it. I thought the marinade had a nice flavor but was a little sweet for my tastes. I gave the marinade bottle a quick look and MSG and high fructose corn syrup were on the ingredient list. Neil and I differ in opinion here. I don't think the marinade needs either but that's a matter of personal taste.

The next up was a petite sirloin seasoned with Central Market's Quebec seasoning, some bacon caramelized Brussels sprouts, and a twice baked potato gratin. The Quebec seasoning looked to be a Central Market riff on Montreal seasoning. Here's the petite sirloin and potato gratin.

Both were good. I'm a food snob, so I'll nitpick a little - I forgot to look at the ingredient list on the Quebec seasoning. It had mostly a coarse cracked pepper flavor and none of the garlic, onion or mild heat that I associate with Montreal seasoning. But in fairness, it wasn't advertised as Montreal seasoning. I really liked the flavors of the potatoes, but if I were to make the recipe at home, I think I would make mashed potatoes and then just stir in everything else. Again, a personal preference...and a completely different recipe.

Then some trimmed up New York strip steaks were grilled. It looked like all they got was some salt and pepper, which I would argue is all a good strip steak needs. You could probably even skip the pepper. The steaks were grilled and served with the caramelized Brussels sprouts and a chimichurri sauce.

I liked everything on this plate. I was also impresses with the amount of char Chef Ollier was able to get on the steaks while maximizing the amount of medium rare in the steak with what looked like and over sized grill pan. Again, some more personal preference, I'd probably skip the chimichurri sauce with a strip steak. A good, properly grilled strip steak doesn't need dressing up.

Everyone in the class was given a folder with all of the recipes and a shoppping list for the menu. Some of the items on the shopping list don't exactly match the recipe (I'm nitpicking again), like apple wood smoked bacon on the grocery list and Hatfield bacon in the recipe, but I'm being a jerk here. Although on the comment form, I mentioned that there was a lot of product placement in the recipes. Several Price Chopper brands were called out, the Hatfield bacon, some Cabot cheese, Eggland's Best.This class listed for $40. Most of the other evening cooking classes run longer and seem look to cost $55. I'm sure prices will vary by course.

My favorite part of my time in the cooking school was the discussion about what qualifies to be Certified Angus Beef. It starts with genetics, the steer needs to be Angus. Then it comes down to marbling which is determined after the animal is slaughtered. One in four Angus has the proper marbling to be Certified Angus Beef. I had to ask, if you are packing large cuts to be broken down in the store, how do you know what the marbling is going to be like?  A cut is made between the 12th and 13th rib, which is the cut made to quarter the side of beef, and the view of the prime rib is used to make the marbling decision. They've even done studies to make sure that view is an accurate insight to the rest of the cuts on that side of beef. Who knew?

Certified Angus Beef was my go to beef before I got mixed up in raising our own so I used to eat it all the time. This was probably the most beef I have eaten that wasn't ours in over two years. The beef was good...I like ours better. But I'm biased.

Back to the cooking school, they are planning to do quite a bit of teaching there. The schedule is available here. They do private events - got 10 people that want a class in something, that can be arranged. They also do some kid classes and it sounds like they had their hands full with a Frozen themed class.  The kids classes are going to broken up by ages, 5-to-8 and 9-and-up. The staff was very friendly and Cooking School Chef John Winnek is a capable teacher. Not everyone that can cook can teach. He can.

Full Disclosure: Besides being plied with beef, I was given a Certified Angus Beef gift bag. I don't know if that's a standard practice at all the classes. I know some local programs either send you home with food or have an in-store discount after the class. Anyhow, the gift bag contained an instant read thermometer, a spice rub, little pad & pen, a chip clip, a little meat guide that you can probably pick up at the meat counter and a coupon. I'm keeping the stuff this time because I'd like to try the spice rub and my mother-in-law needs an instant thermometer. So, it's hers. The kids will do something with the rest.

The Supermarket War Continues

While under construction, The Price Chopper in Latham now has a free valet parking service.

I didn't see anyone use the valet service and doubt it will be long lived. If only they could use this energy to bring their seltzer prices in line with other stores...

A Shop Rite Visit

I was walking around Shop Rite, wandering through the frozen vegetable section, when out of the corner of my eye I saw it. I haven't seen it in years. Wasn't even sure they still made it. Seabrook Farms Creamed Spinach.

Sure it is highly processed and has lots of ingredients it shouldn't, but I loved this stuff. Back in the pre-microwave  days, you'd simmer the frozen ice-cube pouch of creamed spinach in water. I just nuked it.

When it's good and hot, you cut the top off the bag and pour it into a bowl. Since I love the stuff, every drop is squeezed out of the pouch.

As a kid, we always ate this with Near East rice pilaf. The rice dish is less processed than the spinach although it has just the right amount of autolyzed  yeast extract to make you eat the whole bowl.

Also in Shop Rite during that visit, I heard a series of loud popping noises while I was in the produce area. The staff at the cheese counter had their Magic Pop machine running. I had seen Magic Pop before, but I never saw it being made. It was kind of impressive and reminded me of the pancake machine I ran into at a Holiday Inn. Dough gets squirted into a little contain, the container closes, I'm guessing a combination of heat and pressure makes it pop, and these little popcorn-esque Frisbees come flying out.

If you look midway up on the left hand side of the next photo, I managed to capture the Magic Pop in flight.

After a bunch, the machine jammed up and need to be cleared out. The woman running the machine happily offered to bag me a fresh package of Magic Pop. These were cheddar cheese flavored.

Not a bad lite snack. I think a cracker was only 15 calories. I would describe them as a rice cracker with knock off Smartfood flavoring. Excuse me, I have to go clear out some space in the freezer and get a case of that spinach.

Super Market Wars Continue

In what I would believe are retaliatory renovations, both the Hannaford and Price Chopper in Latham are under construction. The Price Chopper is annexing some adjacent space and growing. It's already pretty big and I'm curious to see what they do with the space. A large portion of their parking lot is blocked off for a staging area. Other than some changes to the entrance and the removal of the little flower shop in the corner, the inside of the store is business as usual.

Across the street at Hannaford, they have completely rearranged the aisles. For awhile, I was in this Hannaford fairly regularly and knew my way around. Not so much anymore. The cashier told me they are arranging the aisles the same way tho Wolf Road Hannaford was reorganized. No more healthy foods section - everything is going to be mixed together. So that granola that used to be in the healthy section, that's in with the cereals now. Or the organic frozen broccoli, that's with all the frozen vegetables now. Personally, this is a huge pain in the ass. I used to know where the things I bought were and now I end up walking up and down aisles looking for them. It's the difference between shopping with or without a list. The way the store is set up now, I need a list or something will definitely be forgotten. Ironically, I stopped by the Latham store instead of the on on Wolf Road so I could just grab a few things and go. Instead, I spent at least an extra 20 minutes looking for stuff and got frustrated and picked up some soda at a different store because I was sick of walking in circles. I noticed a few other people in the same boat - roaming around looking at the aisle signs and sighing. I shrugged my shoulders sympathetically at a fellow lost shopper and she said, "They mooooved everything!"

One bright side to the Hannaford remodel, I was told they are not going to re-arrange the checkout like they did on Wolf Road. On Wolf Road you wheel your cart up to a greeter that directs you to a checkout line. Apparently I'm not the only one that really doesn't like that. I'll come back and wander around the Latham Hannaford once they are done, but I think I'm going to give them a little time to sort it all out before my next visit.

Supermarket wars

For reason's that are completely unknown to me, I am occasionally sent a press release. It was from such a press release that I learned Shop Rite began its 42nd "Can Can" sale earlier today. The sale goes from today until January 19th. In an amazing coincidence of timing, Price Chopper is running a "Go Can Crazy" sale. Haven't heard from Hannaford. Perhaps they are playing the role of Switzerland in this canned goods battle.

New Arrivals at Price Chopper

Every so often, I get an email from Price Chopper letting me know about some new products or an event. The first thing I would have been interested in knowing about and not a word from whoever send the emails....I was hurrying through the Latham Price Chopper and this new display in the meat section caught my eye. Several small shelves filled with D'Artagnan products. I had wanted to try some of their stuff during the Charcutapalooza challenge, especially since they were nice enough to offer participants a discount each month. I never got around to it. Couldn't believe I was looking at their stuff in a Price Chopper. First shelf, Jambon de Boyonne ($7.49 for 4 oz.), small container of duck fat ($5.99 for 7 oz.) and a duck leg confit ($7.99 for a 5 oz. leg). I bought a package of the ham.

But wait, there's more....smoked duck bacon ($10.99 for 8 oz.) and more duck legs confit.

And still more... lamb merguez, saucisson de canard and wild boar sausage (each $5.99 for an 8.5 oz package).

A bit on the pricey side but my hope is that the products are of very high quality. Wow, duck fat and duck confit at Price Chopper. Color me impressed.

Completely off topic side note: All Over Albany did a nice little write up on the Schenectady Curling Club.

And last but certainly not least... Happy Birthday Ma!

Shopping at the new Shop Rite

This morning I made my first shopping trip to the new Shop Rite on Central. The place was hopping this morning at about 11:00. Even Fly 92 was there. Between the crowd and the having to be back at the house for lunch, I didn't have the time to thoroughly explore the store. And I was just shopping by impulse, didn't have a list together.

The deli ordering system by the door worked very well for me. The order is brought to a cooler by Register 20 and the other end of the store. I had seen that on the ticket and went by the register, saw the line was closed and was a little confused. Once I was directed back to the register (Patricia Cruz and Tom Urtz - who both remembered me and my name from the tour), I found my order immediately. And this cooler is in the perfect place. I walked right past it earlier. Anyhow, you walk in the front door and the machine is right there to enter your order. You go shopping, working your way across the store. And when you get to the far end and start to head to the registers...the cooler is right there. And so was my order. Lovely.

As I said earlier, there was a good sized crowd shopping. There were a handful of things I probably would have taken pictures of, but I'm still a little self conscious of public food pictures and I didn't want to take photos that included random people. But, I couldn't resist this one. Right next to the cheese display, a man was making fresh mozzarella. Behind him, a small CD player was pumping out Italian opera. When I picked up the ball of cheese I purchased, it was still warm.

Even with the crowds, I was able to walk directly up to a cashier without any waiting. Before all the groceries were in the fridge, I had a slice of that mozzarella cheese. The texture was a little rubbery in comparison to the better mozzarella I've had but the flavor was good and there was a nice saltiness to it. It couldn't have been too bad, it was gone before 1:00.

Overall, I enjoyed the trip and will certainly do it again. Once you get the overall lay of the land in a market, shopping is easier. Kind of makes it your home turf. Some prices were better than the other local markets. Some were the same. And some were a little higher. I think the price of the same cart of groceries in Price Chopper or Hannaford would have been about the same-except there were a handful of things you can't buy at those stores. Like the warm mozzarella and those Guss' pickles I spotted during the tour. I'll be back.

The Fresh Market

If you are into food and never leave your cave, you will be surprised to know that The Fresh Market opened in Latham today. I love going to new super markets. I didn't write about it, but I was horribly disappointed in the Davenport, Florida super markets outside of Disney.I just can't believe locals do their weekly shopping there.

I didn't go to the actual 9 AM opening. I love new super markets, but not enough to use vacation time. So, I stopped on the way home. The place was packed at 4:15. So packed, that it was more of a once around the store look, than actually going shopping. The store looked nice. Produce looked good (better than what is in most local markets). The prepared foods looked good. Everything looked good. In fact, I would say this store is nearly identical to the one I visited outside Raleigh, North Carolina.

The main goal of the visit was go quickly poke around, grab some stuff that could go on the grill and get out. I saw some very nice apricots that the kids would love - grabbed 4 of them. The prepared food counted had a line that was 10 people deep. Peeked at the case and moved on. The seafood counter was packed - didn't really even get a look. There was a lady heating and passing out crab cake samples as fast as she possibly could. Missed that too. Looked good though. The baked goods looked nice. Meat counter looked good too. I don't buy beef out (got half a cow in the freezer), but there were several cuts of veal, pork, chicken and lamb. They actually had a flanken cut of short ribs. I've only seen that in Asian markets up here. Several kinds of prepared sausage. I got 3 kinds of chicken sausage and 1 turkey sausage to try. The 3 chicken sausages were much better than the turkey sausage (nothing special about that one). Wandering into the cold section I saw a few kinds of yogurt that I never heard of. In the home good section, I grabbed some cheesecloth - I'm was out of it. And with my 3 items in tow, I wandered over to try and check out.

That took a little while. And with nothing to do, I turned into that guy on his cell phone. I was talking to my buddy Joe. He and his wife are starting to freak out about having a kid in kindergarten. The idea of their kid being on the bus scares them. Anyhow, we talked for about 25 minutes (he's got a long commute) and then I was at the register.

I am pleased to have another market in the area. I expect to be in this one regularly. I am also curious to see how their pork tastes in homemade sausage. I also hope the Times Union article today is correct in theorizing that if this store succeeds, others like it will follow. Based on today's turnout, people want this store around. Maybe we can all coordinate days to go shopping there. The "everyone in the world show up on Wednesday" won't work in the long run.