Grocery adventures

[rebeccmeister]

I skipped rowing this morning (and at any rate, practice was canceled), so I got to go on errandonee with scrottie instead. First stops, we went out to check out an African grocery store and an Indian grocery store, to see if they might carry a few things we've been wanting (berbere and other spices, mostly).

Well. We forgot to translate what we meant to East Coast names. I believe that "African" may actually mean "Afro-Caribbean." It was still great to check out but the clerk looked at me strangely when I asked about berbere. Whoops.

And then when we got over to the Indian grocery store, we discovered that it was a "West Indian" grocery store.

The West Indian grocery did have some really fantastic-looking pumpkins, though, so we brought one home. Not exactly a fairytale pumpkin, but close.

Caribbean food is outside of my culinary wheelhouse. I guess that's a direction I should explore. I believe there are a fair amount of vegetarian possibilities in that realm.

We knew what to expect at the Asian grocery store, however. We've been there before, but we somehow kept forgetting to check out the beer store next door, which turned out to be a great place with a big selection. They may even have one of S's favorite beers in stock most of the time, although when we checked today there was just a single bottle left out of a six pack.

Comments

[conuly]

If you have a spice grinder (that is, a dedicated coffee grinder you don't use for coffee - ruins the taste of the spices, eventually) you can make your own berbere pretty simply. I have a recipe I use and mmm it's good.

[rebeccmeister]

Oh, recipe, do share!

We do have a spice grinder. I really want to know what the folks in Oakland have put into their berbere blend because it is AMAZINGLY good. It's all about the types and quality of peppers involved, as far as I can tell. I don't think we have access to as good of peppers out here, which means we'll never be able to make berbere that's quite as good.

[conuly]

To be honest, I mostly just google "allrecipes berbere" and then sorta mix and match their recipes until I get something that smells/tastes right. Lots of onions. Lately I've been trying grains of paradise in it.

[bluepapercup]

Yelp tells me there's an ethiopan restaurant in Albany, just roll up and nom some food and then ask for the deets on where to get berbere! Winning all around!