grocery store adventures

While New York has its conveniences like the subway and incredible delivery service on anything you could ever want, some normal routine occurrences become grand escapades that require a great deal of problem solving, optimism, and humor. Case in point: the grocery store.

I'm sure the subject of this post sounds a little sarcastic, but in New York (especially when you don't own a car) the weekly trip to the grocery store truly is an adventure. We are lucky to have a Fairway Grocery about 6 blocks from our place. Fairway is known for its great selection and decent prices (not so decent if you compare to Kansas prices...but that’s how just about everything is here). This grocery store is huge! But, don't let that sentence fool you; while it has a large square footage relative to New York, just about every square inch is covered with every food you could imagine. Nonetheless, for me, being the self-proclaimed foodie that I am, it is a divine weekly treat just to walk the aisles.

Alex doesn't quite picture our weekly walk through the store as such a treat. He is a great sport because he realizes that he has to come because I can't possibly carry all of the bags home on my own. He pushes the cart along the main walkway while I scurry through the narrow aisles and strings of people, returning to the cart with the goods. He doesn’t get excited until we get to the cold room.

The cold room, in my opinion, is Fairway’s successful attempt at conserving space. Rather than having large, bulky coolers set side by side, they have a gigantic freezer (a big room that they pump freezing are into). The room is so cold that they even have ski-jackets on hooks by the door for people to borrow while in the cold room (side note: I think borrowing these jackets is a little gross, but then again…so is the subway. Regardless, I still choose freezing temperatures over used-coats). Al’s eyes light up like a kid on Christmas morning when we enter the cold room because the first thing he sees to the left is the seafood counter. Huge crab legs enter his peripheral vision and as he turns to the right he sees massive racks of ribs dangling a few steps away.

After a chaotic run through the Fairway, the second and more comedic portion of the adventure takes place: the walk home. With $150 worth of groceries and a 6 block trek up-hill in 90 degree heat, it did take us two times to finally get an efficient system in place. The first time, we didn’t have one of those pop-up carts that people here use. We laughed the whole way home as we each maneuvered seven stuffed bags. I thought my fingers were going to fall off from the twisting plastic. The second time, we had back up. We bought one of those carts the day prior and the walk home was so much easier.

In an attempt to prove my cooking skills, as well as an attempt to compete with the cold room for making Al smile, I agreed to try my hand at steamed crab legs for dinner on Sunday. These aren’t your Midwestern crab legs either. We purchased two pounds thinking we’d get a couple of legs for each of us (how it would be in land-locked Kansas) and we got two HUGE legs. Alex pulled the meat out of his in one fell swoop and it was the equivalent of two fillets of fish. Not only were they big crab legs, I did a pretty good job at cooking them (if I do say so myself). You would have thought the Royals had won the World Series or something when he tasted them. All in all, a yummy celebratory dinner after ‘conquering’ our grocery store adventure.

Love and miss everyone back home!
-Katie








Me with the cart. (Not nearly as full as when we go to the grocery store).










Happy Alex and his crab leg Sunday dinner.