So Many Stores…So Little Time. Plus Fresh Corn Salad Recipe.

Meal Monday

Meal Monday

Where I live, in the suburbs of Boston, we have a plethora of supermarkets.Within a two-mile radius of my house, I can hit Whole Foods, Shaw's, Stop & Shop, Trader Joe's and a local mecca called Russo's. Near my daughter's gym a few towns north of home, there is a Roche Bros. and another, bigger Whole Foods. In season, we also have some terrific farmers' markets to visit as well. The choices are unbelievable and we are very lucky to have them. 

What happens with all this choice, however, is counterintuitive. Instead of simplifying my grocery shopping, it complicates it. Rather than finding everything in one place, I end up running around to several each week -- picking up appealing things along the way that arguably I don't need. Inevitably, someone craves something from the one place I haven't patronized. 

Witness: a bright fall day, grocery bags in the kitchen, dinner preparations underway. Child Number One breezes through and pauses long enough to ask: "Mom, did you go to Trader Joe's today?" Upon hearing that I did not, in fact, make it to that particular store on this particular day, her voice goes up about five octaves and she wails plaintively: "MOM! I TOLD you I NEED the Himalayan freeze dried, chocolate covered, yogurt drizzled goji berries. I PUT IT ON THE LIST." Clearly, I have failed her.

Child Number Two only wants a certain kind of peanut butter and a particular brand of chicken nuggets, which are probably not at the store I happened to visit that day. My husband has his favorites from each place as well. You get the idea.

If we didn't have all these choices, we wouldn't know what we were missing and we could live in blissful gastronomical ignorance. But alas, we have no such luck. I liken it to the days of our grandparents and our counterparts in other parts of the world who shop in different stores for different things. The butcher shop, the greengrocer's, the bakery, the patisserie, etc. Nostalgia washes over me.  

Of course, I doubt the individuals doing all this charming shopping were/are also working, volunteering, driving school and after-school carpools, and maintaining their alluring physiques with frequent torturous workouts. (For more on cramming too many things into too little time, see Stacy Feuer's excellent 
Where Did the Year Go: Balancing Work and Family in 2011.)

There is a reason the supermarket came into being, it simplifies the domestic routine. Remember the halcyon days of one-stop shopping? 

However, I value my choice just as much as the next person. I prefer too much of a good thing to too little. I also get hooked on certain foods and ingredients from different stores. Some of my favorite, and easiest, meals rely on elements from different places. This week, in homage to the last gasp of this year's farmers' markets, I share a new dish my family loves: a fresh corn salad. You can find these ingredients anywhere, overwhelming choices notwithstanding. 

FRESH CORN SALAD 

4-5 ears of corn

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

1/2 pint fresh cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

sesame oil

rice vinegar

freshly ground salt and pepper 

Cook the corn and cool. Once cooled, cut the kernels off the cobs and put in a bowl. Add the chopped cilantro and tomatoes. Mix the dressing: two parts sesame oil to one part rice vinegar ("lite" rice vinegar works just as well). Toss the salad with the dressing and season to taste with salt and pepper. 

 

Comments

[Karen]

This is a sore subject for me too - and I don't even have as many nice choices as you do! TJ's, Whole Foods, Giant (when I'm feeling thrifty), Costco (the bane of my existence - as a family of 5 we should live at Costco, but I just hate it so much). I went to the new Wegman's in the next county over when it opened last year, and I was in tears before I finished perusing its aisles. It was just too big and overwhelming, with too many choices, and I couldn't absorb it all. And I'm a seasoned shopper. It reminds me of when I was first pregnant and I went to Buy Buy Baby - I also left in tears. It was just too much to take in without understanding what I really needed. I like having choices, and I like having beautiful markets and farmers markets in which to indulge my food fantasies, but I too, have shopping lists that incorporate items from many different places, and it's exhausting to keep up with all the various stops (especially now that I'm working almost full time.) I've also thought a lot about how to instill the filter one needs in order to live in this world of overabundance in my kids.

In the meantime, your corn salad looks great - can't wait to try it!

[Stacy]

Emily, I think you're on to something here. Like you and Karen, I often go to multiple markets in search of specific foods and ingredients from different stores. Plus, this year, during the spring, summer, and fall, I did a weekly pick up at a local CSA (community supported agriculture) that's not too far from my home but definitely out of the way. It does seem crazy given how busy my life is (although I admit that I don't spend much time maintaining an alluring physical physique) and how much time serial shopping eats up. I've recently adopted two strategies that do help. One is to use Giant's Peapod delivery service from time to time to stock up on basics so I don't have to run out to the store. For example, I've ordered several cases of no-salt-added diced tomatoes, which I often use in winter soups and stews, at a time. (You can also do this from Amazon and other delivery services.) I also buy products we like in bulk when I go to Trader Joe's, hence the lifetime supply of sweet and spicy pecans in my pantry. (And it does help that my husband actually enjoys Costco runs!) It does cut down on some of the shopping but I fear that my foodie instincts (and my family's strong preferences) will keep me on the run.