Sunday, May 20, 2007

Grocery Shopping in NYC

Today was my first visit to the Trader Joe's in Union Square and I have to say for how much people rave about it, I was not that impressed.
What I liked about it: they had a ton of gourmet frozen foods, a great trail mix section, reasonably priced tomatoes, and friendly staff.
What annoyed me: I wanted to buy 1 zucchini and 1 yellow squash but they they only sold them in packs of two, the grapes were sold in plastic crates- I couldn't choose my own bundle, the same was true with broccoli, they only sold it in pre-packaged bags, and the space was very small with too many people (typical in NY but especially annoying in this setting).

Leaving Trader Joe's a bit annoyed I treated myself to a visit to Whole Foods! Where I tried a new type of cheese from Canada- Oka, it was soft and very flavorful (I put it on my sweet potato tonight for dinner, so good!) and stumbled upon products from the raw food restaurant I wrote about a while back, Pure Food and Wine. I bought a bag of the company's organic snacks- Cinnamon Crispies, made from organic buckwheat, organic mayple syrup, organic cinnamon, vanilla extract, Himalayan crystal salt. I know buckwheat doesn't sound like it would be anything special but it seems to be a pretty amazing "fruit." Buckwheat is not actually a "wheat;" it's the fruit of Fagopyrum esculentum. Since it is gluten free therefore much easier to digest than grains, and full of high quality protein. Plus buckwheat has been shown to prevent the accumulation of fat in the body, reducing blood pressure and slowing the aging process! Sounds pretty great to me... I'll keep munching on this snack for sure.