The intersection of Lawrence and Kedzie is possibly my favorite in the entire city, so far. Its ethnic grocery stores are a rosy vision of what the world could and should be. Would that all nations could exist side by side as harmoniously as the halal butcher, the Israeli liquor store and the Latino grocery store! And as cheaply, even down to the parking meters!
The excuse for our trip was a pound of lamb. I couldn't get it at the regular Middle Eastern grocery store -- the butcher there said in Spanish that he would have to sell me a whole leg -- so I tried a butcher down the street. While she was cutting up the meat for me I saw what appeared to be a meat sculpture of a miniature pony, complete with bright eyes gazing with interest at the cuts of meat surrounding it. After a while I realized that it was a lamb carcass with nearly all the meat stripped off of it -- probably my dinner's carcass, in fact. Truth in advertising is not always a good thing.
Andie's Fruit Ranch was having a big sale on
Cockta, "the first Slovenian registered trademark among non-alcoholic beverages" which is also "CAFFEINE and PHOSPHORIC ACID FREE!" But the main event was produce. Did you know you can buy green chickpeas in the pod, kind of like edamame? I didn't. I don't know how I thought chickpeas grew, but I certainly didn't know they grew in pods. I bought some and cooked them like edamame and they tasted almost exactly the same. M-spot thought they were gross, so I guess edamame is one soy food he doesn't have to worry about missing.
The Latino store sold cactus in every conceivable form -- canned, bottled, fresh and frozen cactus, cactus rolls, cactus-sauce with cinnamon, cactus slaw . . . I exaggerate but not much. I've never eaten cactus and don't plan to unless a trained professional prepares it. Anyone know what it tastes like?
We actually didn't make it to the Korean store since we bought too much other stuff. One place had like 7 kinds of frozen kubba! (Kubba are Iraqi dumplings, pretty much the same as kibbeh.) And a whole room of Turkish tobacco which I mistook for coffee at first, because what grocery store needs two full aisles of loose tobacco?
That's probably enough rhapsodizing for now but suffice to say, this is one of the more exciting developments of my 28 years.
