You Better Shop Around

Bored with what's in your cupboard or on your grocery list? Or hopelessly devoted to your local neighborhood market?

It's easy to get into a food rut, buying and cooking the same food and dishes due to time constraints or just plain OCD-esque habits. But friends, I'm here to tell you there's another way.

Shop around. 



The next time you need groceries, don't automatically hit up the same Harris Teeter or Food Lion (can you tell I'm North Carolina based?), Safeway or Giant (hey there, DC/MD/VA peeps), Publix (all y'all these days), or whatever spot usually does the trick.

Instead, switch it up with a store you haven't visited before.

Recently we heard from a friend about a South African market in our area that sells sausages that we'd tried last year on our trip to Australia. Our hosts at Tara Guest House in Enmore, Sydney made dynamite breakfasts for us and served boerewors and Mrs. Ball's Chutney along with eggs one morning. After telling my South African-born supervisor at work about eating this, she gifted me with a bottle of Mrs. Ball's Original Recipe Chutney. So then I needed the sausages for the chutney!

Enter the South African Food Shop on Independence Boulevard, Matthews, NC. There a reserved but polite clerk showed us through their small range of frozen meats, meat pies, and a range of condiments, biscuits (cookies), wines and more. We wound up buying several small meat pies, a lamb curry roll (kind of like a fancy Hot Pocket?), and a package of boerewors, along with some sweet chili sauce and Peri Peri sauce.

South African treats 

My supervisor says boerewors are typically served in South Africa as a summer meal, with lightly-dressed cold potato salad and salad greens. But this was winter in North Carolina, USA, so I made mashed potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts instead to go with the grilled sausages. The beef steak & mushroom pie will probably come in handy on a night when we don't feel like cooking, and I can't wait to marinade some chicken in that peri peri garlic sauce.

In another instance of branching out, this past weekend I visited our neighborhood international store, Atlantic Farmers Market here in Charlotte, NC. It's a misnomer - no one is there hawking the produce. It's like what you'd find in a traditional grocery store, but with more Asian and Latino foods. The lower cost of limes, mangos and avocados is what keeps me returning there. They also have a wide selection of hot tea brands and bottled drinks like the Topo Chico that is so hot right now.

Atlantic Farmers Market Finds

On my last trip, I bought a round of crumbly cotijta cheese to go with tacos for this slow cooker chicken mole, some Topo Chico, and what's pictured above - quinoa, a Jamaican ginger lemon tea, coconut water, and some delicious non-GMO white corn tortilla chips.

Typically I shop at our nearby Food Lion with supplemental trips to higher-end Harris Teeter or hippied-out Healthy Home Market. Trips to Trader Joe's happen occasionally, though I usually avoid the one near us due to parking lot rage. So I can't say I am fully devoted to one store only, but I think it's good to spread food dollars around and try new things.

What's your shopping strategy? Have you visited a new market that you love? Let us know!