Avoiding Safeway

Buying Locally Offers Better Prices & Selection

I avoid Safeway as much as possible. I used to think I didn’t have much of a choice for buying groceries. Now I’m learning that there are plenty of options that beat chain grocery stores for both price & selection.

Growing up in a nuclear family, I always thought that big grocery stores were necessary to supply my house with staples. Mom made the weekly trip to Stater Brothers or Alpha Beta and collected Blue Chip Stamps to save up for free appliances, long before the days of club cards. It seemed like back then, there were more major grocery stores as well as plenty of small markets you could choose from.

Nowadays, in San Francisco, you’re pretty much limited to Safeway and the Vons that’s out on Sloat. Calla Foods closed up a couple years ago. So are we stuck buying groceries from huge national chains that truck in supplies lord-knows-where and set prices however they please? Hell No!

San Francisco has plenty of small mom-pop markets with much better selection of produce, meats, and seafood than the Mega Marts. You just have to be willing to look for them.

While Safeway charges fifty cents per lime, my corner market sells them ten for a dollar. El Chico markets have wonderful produce and a fantastic meat counter too. I frequent the one on Mission in the Excelsior but they have locations all over town. Chain grocery stores also tend to have a very limited seafood selection. Try J.R. Seafood on BayView or Mission Meat & Poultry Market at 22nd & Mission for unbeatable quality, price and selection. In fact, Mission Poultry only sells sushi-grade fish. Your neighborhood Asian market is also going to be a great place to pick up fresh seafood. My favorite butcher, also at 22nd & Mission is Mission Meat Department. The staff is always so friendly and ready to offer recipe suggestions. They carry a variety of delicious hand-made sausages, too.

The best part about avoiding Safeway is that I am supporting local businesses and directly affecting the local economy. I may have to make a few more stops, but in my opinion, I get a much richer shopping experience and the access to greater variety of foods that chain stores just don’t carry.

I’ve listed a few of my favorite stores. I’d love to hear where you shop, whether or not you’re in San Francisco.

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Cilantro Cumin Salad Dressing

I whipped up some super yummy salad dressing tonight. Try it over a mixed green salad with bell peppers and red leaf lettuce.

1 bunch cilantro
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup olive oil
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp chili powder
2 drops mega hot sauce like Dave’s Insanity

Put cilantro & apple cider vinegar in food processor and finely chop cilantro. Pour into bowl and add other ingredients. Whisk vigorously until oil no longer separates. Serve immediately or if you store it, whisk again right before serving. Can be saved in fridge or freezer.

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Mmmm Bacon

Just a little something to make you hungry…

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That’s Really Vegetarian Lasagna

Because Cat asked me not to forget vegetarians, here’s what I cook when I really want to impress herbivores. I have a meat variation of this, too, but both get big smiles. The big secret is that I use feta cheese rather than ricotta.

1 onion
olive oil
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 portobello mushroom chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
6-8 large crimini mushrooms sliced
6-8 large white mushrooms sliced
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh oregano
salt
pepper
1/4 chopped basil
1 small can tomato paste
1 heirloom tomato chopped up
3 8-oz cans tomato sauce
1/2 cup red wine
4 or 5 small zucchinis (or equiv) –sliced into long 1/8″ ovals (slice round at an angle)
1 lb lasagna noodles – boiled and drained
1 lb fresh spinach
12 oz crumbled feta cheese
1 lb shredded mozzarella cheese
dash dry oregano

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Toss in the onions and then the garlic and sautée over medium for a couple minutes and then add in mushrooms, oregano, salt & pepper. Sautée over medium until the mushrooms begin to soften –but don’t cook them too much. Stir in basil, heirloom tomato, tomato paste, tomato sauce and red wine. Slowly bring to a boil and reduce heat. Simmer over med-low heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In a 9×13 baking pan, lay 3 lasagna noodles across the bottom. Scoop on a nice thick layer of suace. Add a layer of spinach leaves & then a layer of lasagna slices. Then sprinkle on a layer of feta. Repeat this until you fill the pan. Cover with a last layer of noodles and then sauce. Then generously pile on the mozzarella. Finally, sprinkle on a little dry oregano.

Bake for 20-30 min or until the cheese is melted and crispy all the way through. Cool just a little bit and dig in!

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And it burns burns burns…

M&D Ring of Fire Hot Sauce

I’m so excited! My package from Mike & Diane’s Ring of Fire Hot Sauce just arrived in the mail. Steve and I were visiting San Diego this winter and happened to pick up a bottle of their Garden Fresh Chile Sauce at a touristy hot sauce shop in Seaport Village. Wow! It really knocked my socks off. It wasn’t all vinegary like most bottled sauces. It tasted fresh, like I made it in my own kitchen. So I simply had to order more.

I got a bottle of their Tomatillo Roasted Garlic Sauce which is quite tasty! I can’t wait to try it over some breakfast potatoes. I also bought a bottle of the Original Habañero Hot Sauce. You can really taste the serrano peppers in there. This one is a little more vinegary but still delicious! I can tell I’ll be cooking up spicy food this week!

The sauces are a little pricey at $8.75 bottle, but they’re 12.5 oz bottles and the quality of the ingredients really stands out when you taste these products. The box came with a hand written thank you card—nice touch—and some freebies: M&D Ring of Fire Jerky, a magnet, and a “travel bottle”. Cute.

I am going to make one tiny little nit. My hot sauce was shipped in a ton of old fashioned pink foam peanuts. Not only are those messy to unpack, more importantly, they’re environmentally awful. I’d like to see them use more responsible packing materials.

All in all, I’m still pretty impressed with these delicious sauces. The quality and care put into making them really stands out. Now go out and grab a bottle of two!

http://www.mikeanddianes.com/

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My Discovery of Speck

I recently dined at Zuppa, 2007 winner of the San Francisco Boss of the Sauce competition where I was introduced to the best thing since bacon: speck. I was so excited after dinner that I got on the phone and called all my bacon fanatic friends to tell them I’d met bacon’s match.

Also called Speck dell’Alto Adige, it is a delightful thinly sliced Italian meat that has characteristics of both bacon and prosciutto. The wikipedia entry on speck says that this meat has been around since the fourteenth century. It’s both salt-cured and wood smoked and comes from the hind-leg of the pig.

We tried it by itself as an appetizer and for an entrée I had roasted quail wrapped in speck. My toes curled! I’d never even heard of this fabulous treat, but it was definitely love at first bite.

Since then, I’ve been on the look-out for a pound of speck. I hear that they sell it at Lucca. I’ll keep you updated once I get my hands on some. I’ll certainly blog my kitchen experiments with it!

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Is this thing on?

Today, I got the Yelp Review of the Day for my review of the San Francisco restaurant, Spruce. How exciting! I really love posting on Yelp but lately I’ve been wanting a place to post thoughts on home cooking, recipes, and wine, too. So, I got the idea to start my own foodie blog.

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