Its Saturday...yet again...and its half past 1 on a saturday...yet again...and I just finished my breakfast...yet again...and now I am passing time on my laptop...again. This is the typical schedule I have been following, whatever be the situation for a saturday morning. I get up by noon and then take a quick breakfast (brunch really), coz I cannot imagine myself missing even a single meal; the kind of routine-freak I am, atleast I try to be one ;-)
It not very cold today, just 13C outside but its cloudy and dull. Usually saturday mornings mean - a visit to the Farmer's Market - where we buy all the vegetables and fruits for wholesale rates, and we fill our cartons with all the stuff. I must admit that I love going to Farmer's Market. Multiple reasons for this fascination: Firstly, we get good cheap fruits there, secondly...it forces me out of my apartment in the first half of the day and finally the most important one - I love the bustling, busy Indian "sabzi mandi" type environment there; the only one of its kind you will ever find in US (atleast I have discovered just this one till this day of my stay). Else everywhere you just see shopping malls, superstores - all big labels like The Walmart, The Circuit City, The Target,The Home Depot, The Office Depot, where we all ("The Desis") just drop in there and start off with the sophisticatedly ingrained sequence of actions: Carefully giving a last thought to what all we need to get from the store, discussing the status of all household grocery one LAST time with the roommates sitting in the car just before reaching the parking lot of the store, THINKING HARD, coz if we miss out something then "WHO WILL COME SO FAR AGAIN TO GET STUFF- It will be atleast another week's wait", Then we pick up a shopping basket/trolley, deftly we maneuver ourselves with the trolley, quickly glancing at the Item-tags hanging above each lane telling us what products we may find in that particular aisle, we zig-zag out of this labyrinth of branded products, our hands grabbing onto the correct numbers of packets of the items we need - theres the Milk can(the one with the red cap - Vit. D), Eggs(Large/small, brown/white), Oreos, Chips Ahoy, Lays, Kelloggs, Fruit Juices, Yogurt. Then there comes the final 2-3 lanes - all of which display frozen ready-to-use preparations - Pizza crusts, Fish sticks, Ice-creams, Any meat item u can imagine, all kind of desserts (Pies, brownies etc), I think of picking up something, but then, strangely theres a pause here: A seemingly quick but thorough analysis is done on the contents of this processed food (Whats the trans-fat content, how much of saturated fats??). After verifying all the expiry dates, esp. for the milk and the egg, our astute vision shows us the way to that check-out counter which has the shortest line (not queue). After completing the credit-card payment we rush back to our car when the sick feeling sinks in "Oh My God - Its been an hour", we shift everything in the trunk, most half-heartedly setting the trolley back into its designated location in the parking lot, we dash ahead - back to the apartment.
Sometimes I am forced to think - "when was doing grocery such a big deal?", with a hundred shops contiguously placed just as you walk along the road, ready at your service ;-)
It not very cold today, just 13C outside but its cloudy and dull. Usually saturday mornings mean - a visit to the Farmer's Market - where we buy all the vegetables and fruits for wholesale rates, and we fill our cartons with all the stuff. I must admit that I love going to Farmer's Market. Multiple reasons for this fascination: Firstly, we get good cheap fruits there, secondly...it forces me out of my apartment in the first half of the day and finally the most important one - I love the bustling, busy Indian "sabzi mandi" type environment there; the only one of its kind you will ever find in US (atleast I have discovered just this one till this day of my stay). Else everywhere you just see shopping malls, superstores - all big labels like The Walmart, The Circuit City, The Target,The Home Depot, The Office Depot, where we all ("The Desis") just drop in there and start off with the sophisticatedly ingrained sequence of actions: Carefully giving a last thought to what all we need to get from the store, discussing the status of all household grocery one LAST time with the roommates sitting in the car just before reaching the parking lot of the store, THINKING HARD, coz if we miss out something then "WHO WILL COME SO FAR AGAIN TO GET STUFF- It will be atleast another week's wait", Then we pick up a shopping basket/trolley, deftly we maneuver ourselves with the trolley, quickly glancing at the Item-tags hanging above each lane telling us what products we may find in that particular aisle, we zig-zag out of this labyrinth of branded products, our hands grabbing onto the correct numbers of packets of the items we need - theres the Milk can(the one with the red cap - Vit. D), Eggs(Large/small, brown/white), Oreos, Chips Ahoy, Lays, Kelloggs, Fruit Juices, Yogurt. Then there comes the final 2-3 lanes - all of which display frozen ready-to-use preparations - Pizza crusts, Fish sticks, Ice-creams, Any meat item u can imagine, all kind of desserts (Pies, brownies etc), I think of picking up something, but then, strangely theres a pause here: A seemingly quick but thorough analysis is done on the contents of this processed food (Whats the trans-fat content, how much of saturated fats??). After verifying all the expiry dates, esp. for the milk and the egg, our astute vision shows us the way to that check-out counter which has the shortest line (not queue). After completing the credit-card payment we rush back to our car when the sick feeling sinks in "Oh My God - Its been an hour", we shift everything in the trunk, most half-heartedly setting the trolley back into its designated location in the parking lot, we dash ahead - back to the apartment.
Sometimes I am forced to think - "when was doing grocery such a big deal?", with a hundred shops contiguously placed just as you walk along the road, ready at your service ;-)
