The Supermarket

I love to cook and I love to shop for unusual ingredients. In Baltimore there are a variety of supermarkets, delis, fish markets, farmers markets. Here in San Antonio there is HEB. For those of you who have never been to Texas that is an unfamiliar name. For those who live here it is the only game in town. Don't get me wrong. It is a great supermarket with a terrific selection (in some areas) and the prices are wonderful. When I arrived you could get avacados for 68 cents. Figs are $4.99 a pound! But if you want some fresh fish you can forget it. So I started to research other places and found a great store called Central Market. Wow! What a selection! Probably 20 types of mushrooms- many I've never seen before. The bad news is that some of those mushrooms were $38.99 a pound! Still, at least it was an option other than HEB. But as I wandered the aisles I noticed that Central Market was selling HEB cottage cheese (actually the best cottage cheese I have ever eaten) and wait..HEB ice cream...and HEB butter! Guess what? Central Market is owned by HEB! Of course it is! To be fair, there is 1 Whole Foods here...no Trader Joes though. There is a market nearby called Sprouts. It's like a Whole Foods wannabe and the selection really stinks. So do the prices. And no fresh fish. But check out the sale on fake crabmeat! Yuck! I guess I can start trying the Indian supermarkets and heaven knows there are plenty of Mexican markets! If anyone knows where I can get some reasonably priced fresh fish let me know.

I knew that Texans eat a lot of meat but check out the size of those sides of cow!