If you don’t have a Whole Foods in your area - count your blessings. No, really! It’s a phenomenal store and if I had one in my immediate area, I’d have to get a second job in order to support the obsession. For those not familiar with it - the basic concept is an entire natural, organic grocery store - no artificial anything to be found within. Think of a trendy shopping mall.. except, instead of clothes, you have food.
I was introduced to it by my friend, Tom (who, as a physician, probably has no problem affording haunting the place on a regular basis.) The Whole Foods closest to me is about a 45 minute drive (60 minutes if the traffic is bad) down to the fashionable east side of Milwaukee. On my very first visit to the place, last week - I thought “Hey! My area could use one of these!!”
I picked up some wine, cheese and a few treats for the others here at home.
When Chris came home from his biz trip - I told him all about it. I said we HAVE to go down there this weekend and do some serious shopping! I showed him what I bought - including the two bottles of Riesling that I picked up.
He says:
“Organic Wine? Come on - how much was it? What’s really so special about it - - were the grapes crushed on the thighs of virgins?“
Funny man that husband of mine.
I talked him into visiting the place today. After telling him all about it - the only thing he was saying by the end of the conversation was ‘Cha Ching. Cha Ching. Cha Ching.”
Men. They can be so money conscience, can’t they? So I talk him into it - telling him it’s nothing like he’s ever seen in a grocery store before - - it’s awesome… he’ll want to return again some day soon..yada yada. He finally gave in, but said “You’re paying for this one….maybe after we’re done today - you won’t be so excited about it anymore.”
So we go. We shop. I pick up all the things I need: fruits, veggies..restock my olive oil and balsamic supplies… we hit the butcher counter and the fresh seafood…the produce section to restock my fresh herbs in the fridge… the usual shopping spree at the grocery store.
In total? I picked up 50 items.
The price tag? $411.10.
I’m thinking….it’s probably a really good thing that it would take me about an hour to get to the place. After coming home and unloading my 50 items into the fridge and pantry…I’m thinking that I surely can live with my regular, boring old non-organic grocery store here in town and shall, from this day on, dream lovely dreams about Whole Foods - but probably will not shop there again any time soon…unless they have coupon day - - then I might consider it.
I really hate it when he’s right.
Sounds like one heck of a week! Glad to hear you got...
8:41 pm on July 14th, 2007
My sister works for whole foods. I don’t know why I don’t shop there more often.
9:28 pm on July 14th, 2007
Maybe becuase it costs so damned much? lol
10:36 pm on July 14th, 2007
i love that store, but learned early that it is not for ‘grocery’ shopping… you said it was like a mall, but you should only get accessories there to avoid breaking the bank
5:04 am on July 15th, 2007
I LOVE that store. But the prices really chap. I think it’s sad that fresh organics have to cost so much more. I make a trip over when I’m in Florida for the produce department because produce at the regular grocery stores here are sorely lacking.
Reilly likes the mini blueberry waffles from there too.
Dammit, now I have to go ;p
10:38 am on July 15th, 2007
Surely you have organic sellers at your local farmer’s market and maybe even an organic butcher or two local that aren’t quite as expensive. Admittedly a store like that would be a culinary wet dream for me and were I independently wealthy that would be the only sort of place I would shop.
11:50 am on July 15th, 2007
There is one near my old job (So.Jersey), where a colleauge of mine loved to meet for lunch. Their salad bar, truthfully, was a site to see. But I could only afford to lunch their about every 4-6 weeks!
3:25 pm on July 15th, 2007
@daniel - it’s definitley not for regular grocery shopping, as I found out pretty quickly. It’s a shame, really . . I just adore the place. Organic accessories it is!
3:56 pm on July 15th, 2007
Kathy - sounds like you benefit, like me, from a Whole Foods that is far enough away so the obsession doesn’t break your bank. I don’t know about you - but I am thankful for this! lol
4:29 pm on July 15th, 2007
Chelle - yes, we do have a farmers market every Sat. morning, downtown.. if I can wake up and drag my ass outta the house early enough to catch it!
Plus, it’s seasonal and runs only through the months of June thru August. I do catch it now and then, though - and it’s a good alternative.
Whole Foods IS a culinary wet dream, to be sure!
4:53 pm on July 15th, 2007
@Charlie - their salad bar is awesome. So is their Sushi bar! Seriously, I could spend and entire weekend there and not get tired
8:52 pm on July 15th, 2007
I know there’s a couple of them in Minneapolis / St. Paul, but I haven’t had the pleasure of going there yet. I have a feeling I’ll be just as bad as you are there. Our main “bad” place to shop is Coastal Seafoods, who supplies most of the top restaurants around. The prices are good, the quality is fantastic, and there’s plenty of other great things to pick up. It’s an hour drive for us, but the quality is so far above whatever we’d get locally that if I want fish or seafood I’ll make the drive without thinking twice. Our last stop there I think I just picked up salmon. A little over five pounds of salmon, to be more precise, and a jar of their salmon rub that they were saying was really fantastic. I have yet to be led wrong by the guys at Coastal, so I picked up a jar of that too. It was Thursday, which is 20% off salmon day, and the bill came to a little over a hundred bucks.
Okay, to be even more precise it was Yukon Salmon which we’d heard is probably the best salmon which will ever pass your lips. Where the Copper River stuff is $13 a pound, this stuff was almost twice that. I told him about what I wanted, he showed it to me, I said yep, it hit the scale and whammo, five pounds just like that.
The salmon was easily the best either of us had ever tasted and my mouth is watering just thinking about how good the rub is. You know how much better the Copper River tastes than the farm raised stuff? Take that jump above the Copper River and you have the Yukon stuff. We looked at the smaller piece we left out and considered inviting friends over to join us (the ones we know could appreciate it). We decided it was just too close, too late… we could use the leftovers on a salad the next day since it was probably about two pounds. We polished it all off and were about to start picking off the little pieces that were still stuck to the skin after grilling it. Yukon salmon is probably in its last week (two max), so if you like salmon check with some of your best fishmongers around to see if they still have it and enjoy!!!
Oh, and to get back a little more on topic, be a good wife and listen to your man better next time!
8:54 pm on July 15th, 2007
Mmmmmmmm. Sushi. Had to go out to LA a few weeks ago and I’m not sure how many times I had it. I think there was one day I didn’t have cooked meat once…
9:11 pm on July 15th, 2007
See, a true friend would’ve offered to fly their friends from Milwaukee up ASAP to enjoy the Yukon Salmon.
Yukon sounds phenomenal - I’ll have to seek it out around here.
and, hey, I thought I was being a good wife - I let him buy 4 Ribeyes while we were there - that accounted for $55 of the $411.10.
9:44 pm on July 15th, 2007
Mmmmmmmm. I’m thinking it might be steak night Wed. The Mite was asking for steak and mushrooms the other night and my sister brought me a bottle of “Love My Goat” this week that would probably go darn good with it. So I’ll offer up steak, mushrooms, and goat wine Wed to make up for it.
12:59 am on July 16th, 2007
I just knew I’d get you addicted to goat wine! Everyone makes fun of me for my goat wine affections
Steak night on Wednesday. You know, I’m tempted. Chris leaves for Minneapolis early tomorrow morning - - but even if I went with him, he has to fly out of there on Tues evening and heads towards Houston for the rest of the week. I suppose I could always stay in the Twin Cities for shopping and steak
11:20 pm on July 16th, 2007
Yeah, she brought me a bottle of that and a bottle of the pineapple apricot one, IIRC. She also brought me a bottle of Riesling from a different vineyard out there that the guy at the liquor store (who didn’t like the goat wine much so she only picked up two bottles for me) said was really fantastic.
I’m sure you can trust your teenagers with the house for a few days…
9:37 am on July 17th, 2007
We have Whole Foods — but also most of our grocery stores have an organic section, too. My favorite store is a place called Mother’s Market. I can get my raw milk there and they have some really good organic canned soup — potato leek. Mmmmm.
I wrote a post for you.
11:02 am on July 17th, 2007
Potato Leek soup sounds lovely. . . but raw milk? I have a friend who drinks that stuff. Raw milk sales are, however, illegal here in Wisconsin - - so she participates in leasing a cow. Yep! Rent-a-Cow LOL She shares the cow with other raw milk lovers and buys directly from the farmer.
Me? I just buy the organic stuff from StonyField Farms…pasteurized and homogenized.
And thank you for the post, you little sweetie!
12:14 pm on July 17th, 2007
Funny you should mention potato leek soup, J, since I’ve been really hungry for Vichyssoise lately. Mmmmmmmmmm. Vichyssoise. Don’t ask me to pronounce it, but you can find Anthony Bourdain’s fantastic recipe for it here. It’s one of the few things I’ve made from his Les Halles Cookbook, but it’s also the most entertaining cookbook I’ve ever read. His personality comes out throughout the entire book and I got many dirty looks reading it at night in bed while Mrs. Knight was trying to sleep.
12:40 pm on July 17th, 2007
Oh, and that post reminds me. Did you check out the Whole Foods Cookbook? I’ve been really tempted to check it out, but Amazon had something about it needing a lot of revisions…
1:21 pm on July 17th, 2007
I saw the Whole Foods book at the store, but didn’t buy it for fear that it would require me to shop at Whole Foods again - - my budget can’t take it! lol
I did, however, pick up the Eating Well cookbook - haven’t made my way through it yet, though - but it looks like it’s full of good ones!
1:46 am on July 18th, 2007
Oh and Astro.. dammit, I don’t think I’ll be making it for steak night this week.
8:44 am on July 22nd, 2007
We have a whole foods down here in Boca and you are right, it is totally addictive. We just stumbled upon your site today because we used your butterfly wordpress theme on a new site we launched today. Great job on the theme! I may have some work for you later on down the road if you are interested.