As previously mentioned in an earlier blog, I do thoroughly enjoy the Hispanic grocery store near me La Chiquita. The endless variety of items you don't see in super chain grocery stores leads to a lot of potential "NEW" things in my world. I think I can easily spend an hour looking around and be entertained by that. Must be what it feels like to be Karen shopping at Bath & Body Works. The same can be said for local farm stands/farmer's markets. So here are a bunch of items that I previously had not tried/seen before but in chronological order unlike the start of this blog.
On the way back from Great America there was a small farm stand that I decided I wanted to check out. Also helped that my iPod had fallen under my seat and I couldn't get to it so figured two birds one stone. Like a sucker I didn't take a pic of the actual place as they were closing up shop as we got there but was pretty cool set up. They apparently love Halloween as they had a lot of decor for sale in regards to it. The first thing that caught my attention was a white sweet onion. I have never seen one personally so sorry for my lack of culinary wisdom.
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| White Sweet Onion |
I think this was a highly misleading label for an onion as it really wasn't that sweet. I mean compared to a regular onion might be a tad but this thing made me cry like a sappy Hallmark channel movie does to certain folks I know. I mean it did what an a regular onion does so can't really complain other than the name.
The other item from the farm stand that was of interest was this new version of sweet bell pepper I've never heard of. Karen said she thought the lady said it was a called a ghost pepper- which if you know peppers- that is not a sweet pepper. Looking up I couldn't find it being listed as one.
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| Ghost pepper? |
Closest I could find in terms of color was an Aruba sweet pepper. Doubt it's that. I'm guessing it was probably some crossbreeding between a green and yellow sweet pepper. Possibly this farm stand was just bad with naming things? Who knows but ended up using both with steak to make these delicious tacos for Taco Tuesday.
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| Reef's Steak Tacos w/ onion, pepper, and carrots |
The other day while I was hanging out with my friend Hamid he had asked me about the tortilla warmer I had previously mentioned in a blog. Figured I share pictures of that. Was kind of funny remembering how back in the day you heated up tortillas one of two ways- wrapped in wet paper towels or on the oven burner.
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| Tortillas go in here |
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| Cooking times |
So in case I didn't state it before this was something I had seen hanging in a random aisle in Jewel I believe. As can be expected it was new at the time. I got this a couple of years ago and still running strong. Whoever invented this is a genius and dare I say "saint". Look out Mother Theresa! Definitely well worth the investment cause dry ass tortillas are unacceptable. #ReefPSA #DontRuinTacos
La Chiquita store is probably my favorite as a foodie adventurer in the immediate area. There are other Hispanic grocery stores in Naperville and Aurora I suppose but a 5 minute drive beats a 20 minute drive. So found a bunch of non-healthy items to consume.
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| Totopos Caseros Con Sal |
First up this was the cheapest tortilla chips the place had. As you can tell it actually is served in a tin pan and saran wrap. Freshly made (per my accounts and the date sticker on it) Definitely well worth the purchase as I love me some chips and salsa. I suppose outside of salt content its not too shabby at 150 calories per serving for you health nuts out there.
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| Chili & Lemon Flavored Fritos |
Growing up Fritos were my favorite. i would get the chili cheese variation all the time. So while looking for tortilla chips I came across these. If you want to imagine it just picture me walking down the chip aisle, coming to a dead stop, and uttering "Well hello there..." Busted these open and Pretty much the dominate flavor is the lemon and not spicy at all. I highly enjoyed it though. Karen did not in case you were wondering.
La Chiquita has an excellent bakery and that had to be perused for some calorie killers. I'm not really even sure what most of the items in the bakery are classified as/named. But I don't believe I've had anything terrible there. Can you guess who picked what?
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| Chocolate Cupcake |
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| Cheese danish type pastry |
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| A monster of a pastry |
Two of the three pastries were never tried before. Karen enjoyed her danish like pastry. The monster pastry was like a combination of pound cake, cheese, jelly, nuts, etc. I have no way to describer it other than it was actually very tasty. Lily loved her cupcake of course. She asked what a gummy bear was made up. Karen pulled her best Reef impersonation and responded with "a souless bear candy". SMH She gets a an A for effort and creativity.
Definitely a fun time at the grocery store for sure. Saw a bunch of items that are on the "Next Time" list and no doubt contributors to future blogs.
#Foodie4Life,
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