Smugly self-satisfied

I waffled around for a while this afternoon, doing laundry and surfing the web. Suddenly, it was 7:00pm and there was a) no food in the house, and b) no food our bellies.

I threw on my coat and ran out into the brisk, cold night, tugging my silly little rattly shopping cart behind me. First stop was Frank's "gourmet grocery store" which, in my experience, means they have mostly what the Associated has, but for a buck more. Still, they have some things you can't get at the Associated, such as:

- Nice olive oil
- Bread flour
- "intense mint" Lindt chocolate
- baked-not-fried blue corn chips
- Tofu-basil ravioli
- Boca vegan sausage (SO DELISH, btw)

After that, I hit Ahn's greengrocery. I don't know what Mr. Ahn's former occupation was before he brought Mrs. Ahn to Manhattan and started up the best Korean deli in the neighborhood, but the man is an inspired greengrocer. Also, he has two adorable shop cats and speaks rapid and jovial Spanish with his South American stock boys.

At Ahn's I picked up:

- Apples
- Pears
- Broccoli
- Kale
- Parsley
- STRAWBERRIES.

Strawberries! In February! Perry and I ate them for dessert and they were totally decent, too. It's hard for me to feel cranky about globalization when there are good strawberries in February.

Nota Bene: My spellcheck doesn't recognize the word "globalization". Awesome.

Also: I know they say you shouldn't go grocery shopping when you're really hungry, but I have to say, I think that's bunk. I buy more than I would normally, sure, but I never (OK, almost never... I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the frozen pie crust I got tonight) regret the more... *imaginative* purchases I make while under the influence of hunger. And the pleasure of it is so great... walk into a store with $40 bucks in your pocket and you have the power to walk out with SO. MUCH. FOOD. Shopping when I'm really hungry makes me feel wealthy and invincible.