stew-art

This is all assuming that we know what we are talking about. Part 1.
After he placed the bag down the chute, he slid backwards and fell into a pose...
But really:
i had an idea of what i wanted to cook ever since saturday. i wanted to make the stew with the sage and the chicken. i wanted to have it ready to be eaten monday night and then available for lunch on tuesday and perhaps even dinner on tuesday. i wanted each meal to be equally robust and nutritious. and i wanted the scent of cooked tomatoes to find its way into the cracks of the walls and through the emerging holes in the wooden floors - down to the mouse family hide out - drawing them out of obscurity into my awaiting glue trap. but that was a secondary concern.

on sunday, i walked outside to get the necessary ingredients. i did not want to spend much money, always a pitfall in my proper execution of plans, and did not want to walk too far in search of a good, inexpensive supermarket. i had been able to enjoy the weather earlier in the day because i was playing basketball and warm from action. in the evening, the breeze became a bit harsh and i had already hung up my jacket. it was not so bad out that i could not walk outside with a t-shirt, but only so bad that i could not walk far without a jacket. trader joes might have been helpful, but the spector of waiting on line to get in helped me along to option 2. fine fare would have been perfect, but was too far a walk for the time of day and for my specific purposes. in all the places ive lived, ive always been just far enough from a fine fare supermarket that it is not my local supermarket. but on a nice enough day when ive been able to save up enough money that i can go outside without fear of spending it all, a healthy walk will usually land me in the vicinity of fine fare, and it is always very pleasing to return from such a walk with a couple bags full of well priced meat and other storeable foods. such a gesture denotes my diligence in planning for the future and makes me feel good about all i have done throughout the day.

key food would have been worth walking to, but it is always a risk of wasting your time since their vegetables are so often wilted. their chicken would have been cheap and abundant, but i would almost certainly not have found the vegetables i would have needed. though generally a well priced store that i am happy to be in the neighborhood of, key food suffers from two very specific things concerning their supply of vegetables: the first is that the variety is very random. they will often have more basil than youve ever seen in your life, but yet lacking in potatoes. also, the pricing of the vegetables is very uneven. you may be able to find a good head of cabbage for $.59 per pound and be happy and wish to continue chopping at key food. however, you will then find that the okra, packaged in cellophane and styrofoam, and lacking in abundance, costs $3.00. this incongruity leaves the shopper inevitably in either one of two positions: the first being that you have, in the end, overpaid for as many items as you got good deals on. the second being that you have to make two separate shopping trips for vegetables: one for what you could get cheap at key food, and one for what you could not get cheap at key food. you will have to carry your key food bag into another store, as the plastic handles dig into your fingers. another thing about key food is that their baskets full of fresh herbs are always near empty. this can be explained either by their being very rarely restocked, or by a community-wide dietary longing for green herbs that leaves late shoppers such as my self with the last of the choices, every time. either way, they are always unappetizing and produce shopping at key food is never a sure thing.

the met supermarket suffers from the same negative qualities as does key food, plus some, and without any other distinctive features that would make it worthwhile in any way whatsoever. like key food, the pricing and quality of the vegetables are very uneven. unlike key food, the meat section is very basic. the met supermarket is only good if you want to buy very basic things, such as apples, lettuce and chicken, or hamburger meat. there is no seasoning meat other than bacon. in fact, the seasoning meat and strange parts of animal section at fine fare, replete with hearts, livers, feet and intestines of chickens, pigs and cows is larger than the entire meat section of met. however, met is closer to where i live, and considering the chill in the air, it was certainly a consideration. the problem is, there is almost no chance whatsoever that i would have been able to find the vegetables i needed for my stew. plus with the uneven pricing, i may have felt that i was getting a deal on onions, but since i would have been getting a bad deal on tomatoes, i would inevitably have spent more money than i would have thought i was going to spend and have been upset about it. as well, the met supermarket is one of those places that does not accept american express. and since i am currently trying to accrue vast amounts of points on my american express card, i have been considering less and less shopping at met. all in all, the met supermarket is goog for those times when you happen to be walking by and want to buy something that you know for a fact they will have, and that is very cheap. so cheap that the use of any credit card would seem embarrasing and tacky.

closer to me than any of these other markets is the st marks market. the st marks market is where i usually go to buy things. you can be sure that they will have, in substantial stock, every bit of produce that you could want. it may not be cheaper than everywhere else you could find things, but enough of it is cheap enough and all of it is there. the colors burst out at you and the vegetables are moist and crisp looking - colors that you want inside your body. powerful ones that are not wilted. there is really no element of chance or surprise in shopping at st marks market. never will they have $.50 bags of carrots, but then again, never will they have wilted collard greens that you cannot buy no matter how much rationalization and have to go home empty handed. yet still, me being cheap, i have found all of the cheaper foods at st marks market and have adjusted my diet to accomodate my wallet. for instance, in my morning smoothie, i put a banana, yogurt, juice and a good sized chunk of melon. ever since i started shopping at st marks market, this melon has been canteloupe. canteloupe costs $1.99 at st marks market, which is cheaper than i might find it elsewhere. if it is not cheaper, then it is certainly not more expensive, and if other places have canteloupe at that price it is usually because of a special deal or because they are becoming soft. these canteloupes are not soft and they are alwyas the same price. however, honeydew, which i like better than canteloupe, costs $3.99. though i would like to put honeydew in my smoothie i do not because the honeydew at st marks market is more expensive than i could expect to find it at other venues. however, the cheaper honeydew i do find elsewhere is also more likely to be bruised and soft than is the canteloupe at st marks market (we are assuming that it is an instance where i dont have the time nor inclination to trapse up to fairway for an overall high quality shopping experience in every way imaignable). i have therefore told myself that i am better off drinking canteloupe during the winter and waiting until the summer to buy my papayas and pineapples and honeydews and watermelons from the vendors with their carts that sell fruit on the street for much cheaper than at any store and where a bruise on the rind that does not affect the quality of the overall melon that would mark a supermarket as inferior only instigates cause for haggling. so i usually wind up at st marks market. the problem, as it relates to my stew is that the meat section is meager at best. st marks market is clearly built for selling produce and prepared foods, however, there is a tiny meat sectioon in the back that will sometimes have chicken legs and sometimes not and when they do, they are usually organic and sold 4 at a time for the same price that fine fare would sell 12. if you are going to st marks market to buy meat, then you are simply lazy, or you have disposable income, or you do not really relish i nshopping for good meat. in shopping at st marks market i had prepared myself mentally for the fact that i may not be able to get chicken, but since i was prepared, and since i knew that they would have available for me everything else i wanted, and at a high quality, i knew i would not be dissappointed. i would have to make slight, but joyful alterations to my recipe. in the end, it was more worth it to me to be able to buy all of the vegetables i needed with the possibility of not being able to get meat than it was to definitely get the meat i wanted while most likely having to compromise the inntegrity of the vegetable portion of my stew.