Sunday

Sundays are a balance of things I have to do versus things I would like to do.  The things I have to do I won't mention, as everybody has to do these get-ready-for-the-week things.  As usual, these posts tend to be about food because I do most of my cooking for weekday lunches on Sundays. 

Yesterday we went to a neighborhood grocery store called Red Apple, way over on the East side, across town.    I realized I used to shop there many years ago when I lived in Mountain View (when it was a safe and happy place), but didn't recognize it because there is an overpass over the Glenn now, instead of an intersection and a light.  I wouldn't have recognized it except for the location.

In those days, I lived in a suburb of ranch homes just across the Glenn off Bragaw.  I rented a room from a pleasant teacher named Carolyn George who was just as sweet and pleasant a person as I have ever met.  She met and married a ne'er do well named George, sold her house for an RV, and traveled around the Lower 48 with him.  We had a falling out when I mentioned his interest in other women.  I often wonder how she is, where she is.  I have always regretted choosing to mention an incident and since then, I have tried to keep my mouth shut.

The Red Apple caters to the overflowing ethnic population of  mostly Asians and Polynesians and stocks basic grocery items most of us need.  We had such fun looking at all the strange things written in languages an immigrant might be ecstatic to see.  The Irish was definitely the only white male there, but I was in good company with other Native women, although they looked a lot tougher than me.  

The first thing I saw was a stockpot that would take three men to carry.  It nestled among 50-lb. bags of rice, rubberbands, chopstickes, bamboo mats, and huge stainless steel woks.  I was happy to see plantains, several unknown kinds of turnips, but not the kale we have been looking for since before the 1st.  

There was an enormous selection of various meats (some of which made me queasy):  goat, tripe, pig uteri, oxtails on special, squid,  octopus, pigs' and calves' heads, sweetbreads, and many frozen mysteries.

We did not find duck sauce, unknown also at Carr's, Costco, and New Sagaya.  The did have huge jars of Spring Roll sauce chock-full of red chili pepper flakes, but that is not the same...   There were shelves and shelves oyster sauce which must be terrifically popular and from the size of the containers of most everything, all most unsuitable for two people, Chinese restuarants must stock up here.  I also saw a huge bag of coarse MSG.  Hmm...

Our treasures included fresh Thai basil, Bonne Maman preserves from France (most unusual given the clientele), and jars of roasted red peppers.  Any non-Alaskan dweller may not realize how expensive perishable and glass items are.  The glass items were 'on special' on the end caps, waiting to be plucked.  Perhaps Red Apple will be our go-to substitute for Ocean State Job Lot.  The store gets a plus as they carry not one, but two kinds of annatto seed and large boxes of Goya achiote powder with cilantro which reminds me of an old co-worker, a large and sour ex-New Yorker, who bore a child with a man of color, moved to insular and isolated NE Kingdom to live among the loggers, and cooked only Latin-style food.

Today I have made potato-leek soup, there is a turkey in the oven, and I am finishing the candied peel I started several weeks ago.  The peels were in water in the fridge, taking up space.  It was time. It is good in coffee.

It is snowing, but the days are noticeably longer and it is light on the ride home now.  Lovely. 

(P.S.  I don't seem to be able to add any pictures, so you'll have to imagine the frozen lemongrass, four voluptuous jars of red peppers, and the Bonne Maman with their colorful red and white checked tops.)