True Food Porn

As I mentioned earlier, Whole Foods opened up a store in my neck of the woods. I was dying to get over to the store so Friday after work, I cruised by on my way home and bought some treats for Tony and me.

Let me tell you…This place is to food what the Lion’s Den is to adult entertainment. I was amazed by the variety and quality of the foods. In the produce section, I picked up a half dozen Honeycrisp apples and some eggs that were right out of the chickens’ butts! The last time I had an egg that fresh was the time my mom and I got lost on our way to Lancaster and found a chicken farm. (A real chicken farm, not an egg factory.) You know eggs are fresh when you crack them into the pan and the yolk stands at attention, with a rich golden yellow tone to the yolk.

I wandered past the fish area. Besides having filets and shellfish in cases, Whole Market has the whole fish on ice where you can inspect them. This makes me very happy. You can check first hand whether the gills are red and eyes look bright. There are a couple good fishmongers in town, including Ray Johnson’s, but none on my end of town.

On to the butcher shop…and Neiman Ranch pork. Ok, you know me…I do not usually go for froo-froo status items. However…in this case the beautiful marbling of the meat caught my eye. It has been years since I have seen intramuscular marbling on pork and quite frankly, I am sick of too lean pork. So at $6.99 per pound, I bought two big rib chops for me and Tony.

Next, the antipasti and olive bar: at $8.99/pound, they are cheaper and better than any of the local groceries. I picked up a nice selection of olives (I can’t remember which ones offhand) plus some cornichons and pickled onions to go with…

a variety of cheeses and some pork terrine from the cheese shop. A great selection…I did my happy cheese dance of joy. I picked up several selection including a raw milk fourme d’ambert, an aged goat cheese (Cana de Cabra), Parrano Originale, a nice runny Pont L’eveque and a soft sheep’s milk cheese I cannot remember the name of.

Lastly, I went to the bakery. I chose a baguette and another more rustic loaf. I was a good girl and avoided the luscious desserts as well as the chocolate counter.

All told, my purchases set me back about $50.00 – definitely not frugal, but as a celebration dinner (I just got a raise!) I managed to get 4 meals out of everything over the course of the weekend.

The honeycrisps were devoured within 30 minutes of arriving home…Annie ate two right off the bat…

The terrine, cheeses and bread, plus the remaining apples were our dinner on Friday.

The fresh eggs were cooked up for breakfast on Saturday…yum yum…

And lastly, the pork chops were dinner on Sunday along with a rice pilaf and some braised Swiss chard I picked up at the Worthington farmer’s market.

There is sufficient cheese left that I am planning a light meal on Monday night of tomato and bread salad, cheese and cold roast beef .

Would I go to Whole Foods every week? No.

Since I am not caught up in whole vegan/organic/free range deal that is sweeping the nation, I will only go when I need to pick up something special. If I have time, I’ll head down to Curds and Whey in the North Market, go to Schumann Meats in Grove City for my protein needs and the local farmer’s market when I can for my veggies. The rest of the time I will pinch Abe until he cries and stock up my pantry and freezer at Meijer and Kroger.

Oh, by the way, found this site via Google…I guess just because you are bringing the world organic, PC food doesn’t mean everyone loves you. Whole Foods Workers Unite!