Tightly Wound

We have stores like those all over Portland. The one near where we live, Fresh Seasons, New Age, something like that, does have a pretty good fresh fish and meat counter, so we do shop there. Surprising to me is how utterly dreadful the fresh produce usually is...anyway...I was shopping there once, and asked a clerk if they sold cigarettes...moment of stunned silence...look of disdain and sneering reply, that, no, they most certainly do not sell cigarettes...like you said...no matter what you do, you're going to die...but then Boomers probably don't believe they will...ever.

They have a chain out here called Trader Joes, not quite as bad as you describe but they're working on it. Unfortunately they carry a couple of things I can't get anywhere else around here, but every time I leave there I feel like going to a McDonalds just to make sure none of the snobbery rubbed off on me.

Myria

You gonna eat that? ;-)

It's a Raleigh thing. We have the same stores here in Greensboro, but they're in close proximity to Guilford College and UNCG where all the broke college students shop (Greensboro schools aren't as uppity as Raliegh/Chapel Hill and the students have less cash) Why the Fresh Market didn't run me off yet and I'm an old redneck/biker. They even let my '78 Ford van in the parking lot without complaint! Cameron Village thinks it's God's gift to shoppers. As for nitrate free bacon: the only way I know how to get that is to slaughter your own hogs which I could explain to you but you probably don't want to know. -Billy

PS. Now if it's nitrate free wines you're looking for then look to the Italian brands, especially the whites and rose'. They're the brands most likely to be nitrate free.

Myria,

You get food snobbery at Trader Joe's? Weird. I would've thought that a business whose original market niche was frozen burritos and $2 bottles of wine (and still stocks a lot of both — at least the one here in San Rafael certainly does) would have to kind of forgo food snobbery.

I'm very fond of TJ's. There are things they don't stock. (The produce lineup isn't what I'd call complete, for example. But then they only started carrying fresh produce at all maybe five or six years back; before that the entire inventory was dry, bottled, canned, or frozen.)

Around here the food snobs are across the street at Whole Foods, also the ultimate source for all your vegetarian-cat-food and recycled-materials-maxipad needs. They have got good produce, though it's generally pricey, and they have a huge bulk spice section that I've found useful.

Michelle -

Frozen burritos and $2 bottles of wine? Huh, whodathunkit? No wine here, but then grocery stores, with few exceptions, aren't allowed to sell any kind of alcohol in MA. No frozen burritos, either. They do carry produce, a fair variety but not a lot of any one thing and it's overpriced and not always in the greatest of shape. Vegetarian catfood as well, though I'd never insult my cats by presenting them with any.

Trader Joes has only been out here a couple of years, mostly they carry specialized and natural/organic foods - apparently as opposed to the inorganic food you get in a real grocery store.

As I said, not as bad as some places I've been in, but there's a definite food snob 'tude there. Doesn't help that it's in an upscale area and frequented mostly by 30- and 40-something women who spend way too much on kitchen items and fancy themselves 'real' cooks.

Sadly, a category I fit into.

Myria

Myria,

Oh. You're in MA. Maybe that's it. TJ's started out here on the West Coast IIRC, and at its inception the idea was basically good, cheap food (canned and frozen) and booze. As I said, they've branched out a lot since; our San Rafael (Marin County, CA) store now runs to little boxes of sushi and potted orchids and fresh bread from local specialty bakeries and the like. But the bulk of the stock, as far as I can see, is still basic good, cheap frozen and canned and dry stuff, most of it not at all highbrow. I have a freezer full of TJ's burritos and mini-tacos and teriyaki rice bowls and the like — they are extremely handy if you need something for lunch and haven't time to cook. But I gather that isn't what they sell in your neighborhood.

My parents (in Maryland) had the same odd idea that TJ's was a sort of upscale gourmet operation. Maybe that's what they thought would work on the East Coast.

Oh, and your last paragraph — that's me too. Do not let me into a Williams-Sonoma store, because I will spend $200 in fifteen minutes on assorted cooking implements that I have neither space to store nor time to use. (Williams-Sonoma is another West Coast outlet; if you haven't heard of it, substitute Macy's "The Cellar." Same idea.)

Michelle -

I expect you're right, it's probably a matter of TJs going more upscale out here for whatever reason. It may also be something to do with this particular area, I've not been to any of their other stores in this state.

As for Williams-Sonoma, sadly they're out here now as well. Sad for my bank account, anyway :).

Myria

Morningstar soy bacon is pretty good, as long as you don't overnuke it. If you do, it's death.

When my kids were (quite) little, they happened to be fussing when a contractor arrived to do a bit of work. He was an elderly man immigrated years ago from England.
He observed that when he was small, mothers used to mix grape jelly and brandy and rub it on the gums of teething infants.
I told this to a food nazi of my acquaintance, anticpating what I actually got:
"Do you know how much refined sugar there is in jelly?"

My favorite food snobbery is the euphemism for sugar you see on organic foods: "evaporated cane juice crystals," IIRC.

I've still got my Weaver Street Market card around here somewhere....

I've tried to go to the Wellspring here in Durham, but I can't make it through the parking lot without getting scared off.

Driving in a lot full of granola, foodie, Fresh Village Spring Market shoppers is like trying to navigate the bumper car ride on Blind Crack Addict Day at the county fair.

Maybe they're just too excited about getting their hands on some fresh organic feces soaked sprouts, but these people don't know how to drive.

Tom,

Driving in a lot full of granola, foodie, Fresh Village Spring Market shoppers is like trying to navigate the bumper car ride on Blind Crack Addict Day at the county fair.

Hell, tell me about it. Just walking into the parking lot of Whole Foods or Trader Joe's here in the SUV Capital of the Universe is taking your life into your hands.

ks: Want produce? Find the nearest Zupan's.

Great meat and food, moderate high prices, and caters to yuppies more than to hippies, so less bastard attitude.

The real question to my mind is, what is nitrate-free bacon?

Nitrate-free bacon is just bacon without the preservatives. It looks and tastes just like regular bacon, except a lot less salty. Atkins recommends it, and since I have apparently joined the low-carb cult I figured I'd give it a whirl.

Frankly, if I'd known that purchasing bacon was going to be tantamount to a religious or political manifesto, I would've stuck to my Smithfield's center cut. Bring on the toxic preservatives!

I started the Atkins diet two weeks ago and have had outstanding results just by folowing their suggestions at http://atkins.com/

Here is a link where you can find nitrate free meat/bacon/cold cuts

http://atkins.com/helpatkins/newfaq/answers/WhatAreNitratesAndWhyAreTheyBadForYouAndWhere.html

I've noticed that all of the pepperoni I find in super markets also have nitrates.

Here's a hint, if you drink diet soda, make sure there is no aspartame in it. In a test conducted by Atkins it was shown to slow down the fat burning process. Waist Watcher is sweetened by sucralose or Splenda(sp) which has been approved by Atkins.

What are nitrates and why are they bad for you? And where can I find meat/bacon/cold cuts without nitrates?

Nitrates and nitrites are added to meats (such as bacon and cured ham) and smoked fish to produce an appealing color and inhibit growth of germs and poisons. While these chemical compounds are not themselves carcinogens, they can yield byproducts such as nitrosamines, which have been implicated in higher rates of cancer—particularly colon and gastric cancer—in animals. For this reason, we feel it is prudent to limit your intake of foods containing nitrates or nitrites. You can find nitrate-free products in health food stores and some supermarkets. Fortunately, an increasing number of nitrate-free meat products are available in stores or by mail-order including Coleman Beef (800-442-8666). Your local butcher or health food store may also carry nitrate-free products or stock them for you upon request.

You want good bacon, spend the extra cash and order from Grateful Palate.com. Snobbish perhaps, but no expense should be spared for bacon. And they have BLT-scented candles.

Gaaagh! And here I struggle with how to get RID of the bacon smell in the house...

Nitrate is just the dayrate plus shift differential.

I dislike going to Whole Foods because I have never encountered such rude, sharp-elbowed shoppers anywhere else. (The staff, on the other hand, seems very nice)

It's Wild Oats around here. There are some people with 'tudes but it's really OK. But I only go there for certain things: Celestial Seasonings Tummy Mint Tea, Rice Dream (the grocery store carries it but it's much more expensive) and wheat-free snacks for my allergic child.

I cook chicken or beef for our lunches rather than buying prepared sandwich meat, because I don't want us to have a daily dose of nitrates. I figure the occasional nitrate-laced hot dog or BLT won't kill us. But if the nitrate-free stuff was available locally, I'd probably buy it.

As much as people have had success on the Atkins and other low-carb plans, I simply cannot STAND having people walk up to me at a potluck or a snack supper or somewhere where I am preparing food (as a volunteer and very often the person who purchased the food being prepared) and starts lecturing me on the evils of carbohydrates. It's free food, buddy, you didn't pay for it and you don't have to eat it.

I also can't stand it when the size minus 2 woman in the office won't ever partake of birthday cake for fear she will get fat, and lets everyone know, loudly, about that situation.

I don't mind if people can't or won't eat something, I hate it though when they feel the need to make it All About Them by loudly and complainingly advertising that fact.
If you're not gonna eat it, as my mother always said, just pass the plate. You don't need to explain why you're not gonna eat it.

As for "organic markets" and snob-produce and all, try living in a town where the only food store is the super Wal-Mart where the stockers have apparently been instructed to leave the produce on the loading dock for five full days before bringing it into the store. I'd (almost) kill to live near a Trader Joe's or a Whole Foods.

beakergirl, fifteen years ago I'd've practically killed for a Wal-Mart I could walk to. I lived in a dubious corner of Emeryville, CA (sort of Bay-wards of Oakland, if that gives you any idea). The closest thing you might call a grocery store was called Janta International; it specialized in canned chutneys and Bollywood videos. The next-closest was called Bottoms Up Liquors. I'm afraid I never actually ventured in there. The third closest was Black & White Liquors, which I did enter once or twice, looking for spaghetti sauce and the like. The fourth closest was one of those pathetically sad little groceries that you find in poor neighborhoods, full of wilting lettuce, dubious meat, and lots of flies.

Discovering TJ's (not walkable, but with practically door-to-door bus service from where I was) was a godsend. This was in their pre-fresh-produce days, so if I wanted that I had to go yet farther afield, but their stuff was good, and also cheap. I'll take frozen peas over no peas.

Of course, the moment we moved to Oakland, an enormous shopping mall including a Pak-'n'-Save opened about three blocks away from our old place. Typical Dulak luck ;-)

Do I even want to know what "veganaise" is?

Two things :
1) Trader Joe's started out very different from what it is now expanding to be. Right at the start it was buy a few containers of bankrupt stock, pile it high, sell it cheap. That worked, then they started doing own brands, then.....but they started out by being very good at buying cheap, soon to be out of date or bankrupt stock. As they expand eastwards they seem to be forgetting that.
2) Bacon. Used to own a deli in SLO CA. As a Brit , very conscious of the importance of good bacon. Don't know whether it is nitrate free or not, but the only stuff we could find that was even half way acceptable was "Boar's Head ". Maybe things have got better in the past few years.

Tim