While Jameth was checking out at Foods Co (above), Sexpigeon was checking out at Rainbow Grocery (below). Luckily for all of us, both were moved to snap pictures of the parties ahead of them in line. Now please pick the winner, or debate the merits of the two markets. (And you may click either picture to link to its post of origin.)
, Sexpigeon was checking out at Rainbow Grocery (below). Luckily for all of us, both were moved to snap pictures of the parties ahead of them in line. Now please pick the winner, or debate the merits of the two markets. (And you may click either picture […]</p>
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More Sunday fun at Rainbow: http://twitter.com/le/status/1147898174
i cannot pick between the two, you nazi officer.
i should add that the family in front of me had 4 children and two shopping carts and the debit card wouldn’t go through. they had to call a manager and the person’s bank. my stuff was already on the conveyer so i couldn’t back out. it wasn’t too bad though. i had a lovely conversation with the cashier in spanish. she was nice.
Darn it, I was at Trader Joe’s at the same time. Too bad I’m not much of a moblogger.
This is the battle grounds of the class war. Alice Waters is telling us to spend more on our food and eat only organic local. Next time, whisper that at Food Co.
it is a class war. too tired to go there. that said, LOTS & LOTS of great places to shop for food in the hood.
food co. is super crowded these days with all kinds of people that – a year ago – you’d never see in there. sign of the times. personally i go in there to buy all the crap i’d get at safeway: tin foil, plastic wrap, ammonia, crisco, campbells, cheerios….all sorts of CPG crap. etc. i don’t actually buy much raw food there. one time i bought phyllo.
rainbow i buy loose spices, vitamins, fish oil, etc. not much raw food. the occasional veg or piece of fruit. i dont really like going in there, i had a bad experience when they were up on 15th, and i never forgave them. they have nice cheeses, and pretty reasonable.
my new butcher (for beef) is the mexican place in the back of the fruit stand just north of weird fish. the guys that run the place are very nice, and they have a nice little selection of packaged middle eastern products (i am not sure where they’re from). usually a dad and a couple sons. the family that runs the butcher are SUPER nice. both are spotless.
for pork the place is the “meat & fish market” just south of 23rd. west side. not the place on the corner, one in…it has fish in front and an entire universe of pig parts in the back. you can buy your pig head / face in 3 different ways, stock, straight out of the case. i mean it’s amazing. i recently bought half a pork belly for like $8.
mission market at 22nd is also really good, meat market, fish, poultry, and a nice veggie guy. (not to mention the Salvadorean antojito stand…the steam table is hit & miss, but fresh)
bi-rite has real nice, small batch local, organic meats. very very high quality, and you fuckin pay for it. you can get goat sometimes, berkshire pork sometimes and they’ll order anything for you. top quality though. really top. same for veggies. lovely, perfect & pricey. i shop there on a lark, or for something special. we all know the glories…
for fish, sun fat just above 23rd is really good. really really. not a huge selection but i like going there. many kinds of shellfish, fresh.
oh and costco has good quality meat if you need a big quantity.
for veg it’s easy, my fave is alemany farmer’s market. we try to go 2x a month, more in the summer, decent selection of organics….or any of the veg stands along where i happen to be going. there’s a million of them, some latino, some asian, all pretty OK.
that’s my version of ‘local’.
that coat beats all. wish i had it today it was COLD.
funny..I was at Food Co. this morning at around 11. It was my first time in there. Though I have shopped many times at the Food For Less stores in Los Angeles – The best one was in Highland Park, brand spanking new and had a great Mexican products and meat market. I haven’t stepped into Rainbow ever…I don’t know…just never had the inclination to go in there. A lot of my shopping lately has been from El Chico on 24th and Alabama. Hey zinzin…I love ‘meat and fish’on Mission and 23rd. My family goes there all the time. And yeah that meat market in Mission Market on 22d is excellent…one of the few places that you can buy rabbit. Has any one tried the Peruvian food in there? It sure looks good.
But my biggest shopping experience today was out of the Mission in Ingleside…Pacific Super on Alemany. An Asian market, the day before the Lunar New Year – It was insane in there!!!
the peruvian food is the steam table i guess. next to the fish / poultry / rabbit guy. hit & miss far as i can tell, tried it a few times. i dont have much experience with peruvian food, maybe i dont know what to order.
pacific super on alemany is a great place. i used to live out there for a couple years. fish market is nuts, and whole roast ducks too. that’s something we dont really have in the mission.
‘meat and fish’, all i can say is holy shit. i’ll never buy pork anywhere else again. i think they even have pork blood, which is really hard to find (pacific super has it too i am pretty sure).
There’s something kind of perverse about wearing a fur coat to the vegetarian grocery.
I wanna go home with the second family and let them feed me and dress me in fine furs.
Buying spices at Rainbow is a waste of money when the San Francisco Herb Co. is just between S. Van Ness and Mission on 14th. That is the place for cheap bulk herbs and spices.
Foods Co is the best for fortified cereals — I don’t know why hippies won’t fortify their organic whole-grain whatever-Os, but they don’t — and their giant bags of off-off-brand stuff are so incredibly cheap you are stupid not to shop there. Even name-brand cereals like Wheaties and Kix &c. are way cheaper than anywhere else I’ve shopped in the city. They also sell Florida’s Natural and Odwalla brand orange juices for less than other stores, and not at “near-expiration” prices either, they’re just cheaper, and that is pretty great.
Of course Foods Co can’t replace Rainbow, but it does fill in some gaps, and on the cheap, which is amazing. Valencia Farmers Market on 24th is good for fresh produce and the soy products I tend to run out of before making a whole long trip to Rainbow (especially when it’s not coupon day).
thx for the tip on spices. i have been buyng at rainbow since lincoln was president, so i’m happy to find another source.
Uh Tim, they don’t actually let you make leopard skin coats any more so my guess is that it’s a fabulous fake.
@LindyLula I have no doubt, but it’s still a strange image.
I’ll bet those two carts at FoodCo cost less than those ten items at Rainbow. So FoodCo family gets the WIN.
Girl does get points on the jacket though.
uh, zinzin you can’t get fish oil at Rainbow.
uh, flubbertown sure you can.
they sell it in pill form (like those gel-tabs), and in bottles. they have cod liver oil too, both ways.
i buy this one (shown here at an imperialist non-local online retailer):
http://www.amazon.com/Carlson-Laboratories-Norwegian-Liver-liquid/dp/B00012NF5Y
it tastes bad, but it’s really good for you. filled with good EPA & DHA.
actually it’s this one (note the different bottle):
http://www.amazon.com/Carlson-Laboratories-Finest-Flavor-liquid/dp/B0001VKNSM
oh doi I thought you meant fish sauce, sorry.
Rainbow is obviously the post-Church place to shop.