Hello Cruel World...

.. and welcome to the Sunday night post. Sunday nights are like torture, especially when the weather was as beautiful as it was today. It was one of those perfect days in the mid 70s with a very slight breeze off the lake that kept things smelling sweet. I went for a long walk today - to the video rental place to return From Hell, and then I walked west through the more affluent parts of Edgewater and then went to my favorite grocery store called the Devon Market. It used to be called Dino's Finer Foods, and while I prefer that name, I love the changes that the new owners have brought to the place.

This grocery store has actual tomatoes that have been grown on vines and are the color red, and are smaller than the ones you'd find in a regular grocery store. This is because the tomatoes are grown in real conditions - outside, and are not waxed. The cucumbers aren't waxed and the apples have a wax on them that washes off with warm water. They sell all kinds of produce here, like fresh papaya and jackfruit. The broccoli is trimmed before it is weighed so you don't have to pay for long-ass stalks that you aren't going to eat anyhow. Since I wanted to make a big-ass pasta salad tonight, I spent some quality time in the produce section.

But that isn't my favorite thing about the store. Why I love to shop here is because it is a store like the kind I grew up with. A relatively small store, maybe 7 aisles. They sell food and stuff you associate with the kitchen and bathroom (perfectly logical, I mean, if you use the kitchen you will eventually need the bathroom, right?) and nothing else. No tires, no toys, no plastic chachkas no patio sets are to be found at the Devon Market. They do sell fresh bread, and I understand they have pastry in the morning on the weekdays.

Also, the items they do sell at this market reflect the Eastern European population that has come into the area, which means I can find some of the products I learned to enjoy while living on that side of the Atlantic. It also means I get to induldge mysef in one of my guilty pleasures - Tetra Pak. I don't know what it is about this kind of packaging, what I associate it with or why I trust this kind of packaging over any other, but I do. Maybe it is because when you put something in Tetra Pak, it doesn't need to have preservatives added to keep it fresh, the contents are fresh when you open them and have a normal shelf life for the product inside (unlike a twinkie, which has a half life of 87 years) and when you are done, you can recycle the packaging. Well, ok, we don't have Tetra Pak recycling in the US that I know of, but it exists.

So check out what I bought: Sour cherry juice from Bulgaria. Have you ever had Bulgarian produce? Laugh if you must, but I am convinced the original Garden of Eden was in Bulgaria. I have never had such wonderful fruit in my life as when I was there. Ok, so I got the juce, in Tetra Pak of course. I also got a multi-vitamin juice (the red kind) that is better than any kool-aid, also in Tetra Pak, also from Bulgaria. I found Kas Kaval, a wonderful hard, yellow cheese made from cow's milk I think. Now this cheese came in a tin, not in Tetra Pak, but I'm sure that it will be wonderful. Ajvar, which is a spread made from eggplant, red pepper and tomato, from Bulgaria, sold in glass. I got Maggi vegetarian broth, which is great for making rice or kasha in. Then I bought Dr.Oetker's chocolate pudding mix! (Man nehme Dr. Oetker!) This is the best pudding in the whole world for three reasons: 1. It is made with real chocolate and no stabilizers or crap like that, 2. It mixes with soy milk 3. It has a heavenly texture. Now this wasn't from Bulgaria, Dr Oetker is German. I also got low fat mayo in a tube, also a German product.

Wasn't that a fun trip? Of course I bought a bit more than I had planned on buying (bottled mineral water was on sale) and I had to walk with these heavy plastic bags the six blocks home. Everything made it safe in sound if you were wondering.

And now it is 10.15 pm, and I am off to la-la land.