Shelburne Supermarket

I was driving to the less-than-thrilling grocery store, and Stigs fell asleep in the car, so I just kept going until I ended up in Shelburne, the next town over. I stopped at a place that looked like it might be a grocery store/hardware store, and when the baby woke up we went in. As I walked up I had a sinking feeling that I would not be actually buying anything because it looked from the outside more like a Ben Franklin than an actual grocery store.

But how pleasantly surprised I was! They had a nice little wine section (I found a German Riesling for about $6 that was quite pleasing), a coop-comparable cheese section for about half the price, totally adequate other stuff, and a meat section that kicked ass over any that I have seen in town so far. They had the only Murrays' chickens I have seen in this area, at normal prices, local grass-fed beef at human-scale prices, good looking pork chops for cheap and a "yucky stuff" cooler full of odds and ends. That's what really sold me on the place. I bought a big bag of oxtails (at about $5/lb) and a big bag of veal bones for stock at something under $3/lb, I think. Try doing that anywhere else in town. They also had a huge bag of chicken necks for something like $1.39/lb, Squid, shinbones, nice roasts and various other delicious cuts of meat. Finally someone who knows how to cut up a cow in this town! I got skirt steak at about $6/lb and some fat porkchops for about half that price. So good! I ended up spending $130, by the way.

Pictured here is tonite's dinner: Poulet à l'estragon avec Gravy, Salade des Tomates, Asperges avec Sauce Citron-Buerre, Gratin Dauphinois and Watercress Salad. It practically cooked itself.

On the other hand, after Shelburne Supermarket we drove up to the local CostCo (after consulting Cha Cha about its whereabouts) to inquire about the possibility of joining. I have been to a BJ's before, and had thought that CostCo was somehow a more upscale alternative, but it turns out that's not really true. It was full of cranky overweight people buying huge rounds of shrimps with cocktail sauce in an attractive plastic container, giant 80-piece toilet paper packages and obscene two-inch thick rib and sirloin steaks. There were some real bargains in there, to be sure, but there was also a lot of waste built into the system, and what seemed like a fair amount of regret just lying there waiting to happen.