My visit to Whole Foods
Jan. 21st, 2006 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yrmencynI have been avoiding Whole Foods for a while now. I know, I know, why. Basically I had become convinced that the whole store was an excuse to get the trend-conscious pseudo-healthy consumer to buy OMG!Certified!Organic!LOL foods at jacked-up prices with no commensurate increase in quality: that is to say, I thought it was yuppie heaven. However, spurred on by my need to get juice that wasn't practically sugar-water (well, high fructose corn syrup-water, but who's counting?), I finally ventured out to Whole Foods. I was already pre-disposed toward being a little more favorable toward it, thanks to the Alpharetta, GA location's frequent appearances on Alton Brown's Good Eats (yes, I am a sheep), but I was still unprepared.
...Y'all.
I was on good behavior, so I managed to suppress it, but all I really wanted to do walking around that store was squee loudly. Was there some of the sort of behavior I feared? Sure, but it wasn't all that. They had bins upon bins of various apple varieties. They had lotus root. They had quite a number of dried and fresh pepper varieties. They galangal root. They had fuckin' sunchokes for god's sake! I have NEVER in my life seen a Jerusalem artichoke in the flesh, yet there they were, three to a bag, right next to the zucchini. And shall we not praise the aisle o' grains, with their bulk containers of various flours, sea salt, beans after beans after beans (even uncommon ones like mung and adzuki), multiple lentils, and various pre-mixed granolas and bean soup mixes. Their cheese counter was sublime. Their fish counter was the first one I've ever encountered that didn't smell vaguely fishy. They had heaps of store-prepared sausages. Their chicken and beef? Not pre-packaged. They had heaps of separated chickens and cows, ready for you to say that you'd like, say, 3 pounds of the boneless skinless chicken thighs and 2 pounds of the beef short ribs.
And then we finally come to the teas and juices aisle. In addition to Sweet Leaf tea, which I've never seen outside central Texas, and a broad variety of loose-leaf teas at multiple price points, they had a ginormous wall of juices, of which I think not a one had seen the barest hint of any maize-based sweetener. I ended up getting some Knudsen brand black cherry juice, which is made of -- get this -- black cherries. And that's all. Just the juice of black cherries. It only cost three and half bucks, and considering that I drink it half-and-half with water, it'll last a reasonable amount of time.
This is dangerous. Very dangerous indeed... I have to be careful, because while some of the goods at Whole Foods are equal or lower in cost to the more mainstream chain stores, some are higher... I could throw my budget all out of wack. But the tuna steaks did look delicious, and I've got some sunchoke recipes (from my American Indian cookbook) that I've been wanting to try.
Oh, and did I mention that they had pecan oil in with the other oils? I'm familiar with walnut oil, but pecan oil's a new one on me. I wonder if it's similar to walnut oil in fat/smokepoint/taste/etc.
...Y'all.
I was on good behavior, so I managed to suppress it, but all I really wanted to do walking around that store was squee loudly. Was there some of the sort of behavior I feared? Sure, but it wasn't all that. They had bins upon bins of various apple varieties. They had lotus root. They had quite a number of dried and fresh pepper varieties. They galangal root. They had fuckin' sunchokes for god's sake! I have NEVER in my life seen a Jerusalem artichoke in the flesh, yet there they were, three to a bag, right next to the zucchini. And shall we not praise the aisle o' grains, with their bulk containers of various flours, sea salt, beans after beans after beans (even uncommon ones like mung and adzuki), multiple lentils, and various pre-mixed granolas and bean soup mixes. Their cheese counter was sublime. Their fish counter was the first one I've ever encountered that didn't smell vaguely fishy. They had heaps of store-prepared sausages. Their chicken and beef? Not pre-packaged. They had heaps of separated chickens and cows, ready for you to say that you'd like, say, 3 pounds of the boneless skinless chicken thighs and 2 pounds of the beef short ribs.
And then we finally come to the teas and juices aisle. In addition to Sweet Leaf tea, which I've never seen outside central Texas, and a broad variety of loose-leaf teas at multiple price points, they had a ginormous wall of juices, of which I think not a one had seen the barest hint of any maize-based sweetener. I ended up getting some Knudsen brand black cherry juice, which is made of -- get this -- black cherries. And that's all. Just the juice of black cherries. It only cost three and half bucks, and considering that I drink it half-and-half with water, it'll last a reasonable amount of time.
This is dangerous. Very dangerous indeed... I have to be careful, because while some of the goods at Whole Foods are equal or lower in cost to the more mainstream chain stores, some are higher... I could throw my budget all out of wack. But the tuna steaks did look delicious, and I've got some sunchoke recipes (from my American Indian cookbook) that I've been wanting to try.
Oh, and did I mention that they had pecan oil in with the other oils? I'm familiar with walnut oil, but pecan oil's a new one on me. I wonder if it's similar to walnut oil in fat/smokepoint/taste/etc.
