Finding beauty and delight in life’s little pleasures
Bulk bins with hard-to-find legumes and spices, every odd ingredient a baker could need, a knockout butcher department, a deli that demands respect and all the best produce at very competitive prices — what’s not to love?
What? You’d want someone to greet you outside with a grill cooking burgers and sausages, too?
Good news – Sheridan has all of that, and then some….
What kind of idiot waits until weekend shoppers are in full force to grab a bag and join them?
This kind. Yes, that’s me – sometimes I just can’t help when the urge to cook a certain something hits, or, in the case of this weekend, I remembered New Seasons was having their annual Citrus Fest tasting this weekend and I wanted to jump in. Badly enough to brave torrents of rain, crowded parking lots, and longer register lines.
For those not familiar, New Seasons is a locally owned chained of markets that are gorgeously outfitted with beautiful meats, produce, deli and hot food bar, all the good stuff you want and then some. There are about 15 of these stores now, and at each one they host a free tasting Saturday and Sunday of some chosen food and they keep doling it out in small increments throughout the day.
What makes this so noteworthy is how beautiful these samples are presented, how complete the array provided, and the element of surprise; often times the tasting features something that you haven’t come across yet, whether in its raw form or in a recipe made right there (with thoughtfully provided cards offered alongside). Someone knowledgeable is always right there to keep the samples replenished, answer questions and unlike some workers at other stores, these people are uber-friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful.
Okay, back to sampling Citrus Fest. I remembered it fondly from last year, and this year’s was no disappointment. Ask the average Joe to name citrus kinds and he might come up with oranges, tangerines, lemons, lime and grapefruit. Above average Joe might note of satsumas and Meyer lemons. At this tasting, we had all that, but then so much more: Lemonade lemons, Persian limes, Buddha’s finger, blood oranges, and pomelos and the list goes on. I realized which kind of grapefruit I like best (Rio Star) and while I thought Honey tangerines would be the victor in the Peelable Lunchbox category, I actually preferred the Page tangerines, a narrow win over the ubiquitious Satsuma.
I stayed at that counter a good 20 minutes, sauntering back and forth, reading every sign, tasting, retasting, and even enjoying the reaction to others as they found new favorites or realized some were far out of their comfort zone (let’s just say finger limes are not likely to catch on with the under 10 set, at least in America).
After the tasting, I took a leisurely stroll through the store, enjoying my Vitamin D rush and all the lovely smells and sights herein. I came home with a small bag of treasures – a giant bag of Moro blood oranges, one of those lovely grapefruits, a wee bit of truffle butter (get ready, little red potatoes, I have got big plans for you), Albina City Nuts Snack Sampler and Dave’s Seed Bread – best under $15 purchase I have made this week.
Upcoming tastings include Chips and Dips (sweet Lord, hallelujah!) and Unusual Food Pairings (their website hints only at “unconventional tastes”). The possibility of trying dozens of chips and dips free of charge with like minded chiphounds?
Surely this must be what heaven looks like.
Know that feeling when you sit down for Mexican food – be it a taco from a hole-in-the-wall, a bowl from Porque No? or a burrito from Chipotle and you take that first bite of the chip… don’t you feel just a frisson of excitement in the moment as you lead it to your craw? Will it be wonderful? All crunch, minimum grease, pure corn? Will it be a starring player or an afterthought best relegated to the prop closet? I find there are few certainties in life and even fewer in the tortilla world, and even a place I have come to count on for killing it one day with the chips drops the ball the next time. Alas.
And then here’s the thing about a store-bought tortilla chips – if fresh, they run from decent to slightly above average, corny-ness arm-wrestling grease in a war to see which flavor wins. Salt anoints the result. Seemingly, most tortilla chips are purchased to be a Sherpa for their traditional journeymen – the brawny guacamole and the oft-sloppy salsas. With such weighty and strongly seasoned toppings to transport, their approval ratings are too often based on how well they fulfilled their role. How else to explain the big boys of the snack world morphing the tortilla chip into uniform strips, huggable boats, diminutive cups, and saucer like rounds? With such deep pockets, I am sure the multi-national snack scions have done sufficient research that has ultimately told them – AMERICANS WANT THE BEST DIP DELIVERY SYSTEM OUT THERE.
(Now I love my salty snacks more than the next girl, but for purity of the tortilla chip discussion, here I will not address the further adulteration of the tortilla chip that involves additional flavorings agents or powders).
Enter Juanita’s Chips. Made in Hood River (a cartoon-length drive away for out-of-state readers), these humble chips have cracked the code of crunch, and each bite is a revelation. Ingredients: “STONEGROUND CORN MASA FLOUR, TRACE OF LIME, VEGETABLE OIL (CANOLA OIL OR SOYBEAN OIL), SALT AND WATER.” Dare I say “and pixie dust”?
Ope
Open a bag and you will see what I mean. Breathe in deeply. Let the waft of corn aromas envelope you, look at the glistening beads of salt. Pick one up – they aren’t perfectly formed, all the better, and look at the little blisters on the chip which tells you somebody’s frying smart – and quickly (just a guess from my own experience). Prepare for the snap of the chip – don’t be surprised if parts and shatter upon first bite. Ride the mellow corn ride as you chew and savor the last snap of saline goodness and that tiniest bit of lime, barely discernable but sufficient to cut through the richness of the chip and leave you wanting more and more and more. Screw the guacamole – I could eat half a jumbo bag without stopping. And here’s the thing – tightly closed, this bag (if it survives initial plundering), continues to hold its charms for days on end.
Juanita, how do you do it? Have you made a pact with the devil to deliver such a binge-inducing product? Don’t you know once opened I am powerless to resist you? Do you know that I had to lie to my kids the other day because they caught me sneaking a handful at 7 a.m. and asked incredulously what I was doing—and all I could do was offer a pathetic “I’m testing them for freshness for your lunch snack reply”. Really, 8 chips are necessary for freshness test?
Oh, Juanita, whatever you do. Keep ‘em rolling – I can always buy bigger jeans.