One of the things we miss about our old place is the fact that we could walk to the grocery store from our house. Here, however, unless we want to buy some staples at the dollar store (spaghetti, say, or ranch dressing), there's really no kind of grocery store in walking distance. And there's not much in biking distance either, though there's a Kroger's in one direction and an Aldi in the other.
The only time we ever bought any groceries while we were out on the bikes, in fact, was at the Aldi, when we bought some hot dog buns after riding down the Mon River Trail. It's just about the only thing we've ever bought at the Aldi here in Morgantown.
The first time I was ever in an Aldi, on the other hand, was in Germany: Rose and I were driving around and we decided to stop in at an Aldi and get some bread, cheese, and some other basic food items, and also some toothpaste, because we'd run out. So, there we were, looking at the odd selection of toothpastes in the German Aldi, no brands we recognized, and finally decided on a tube of "Eurodont": it was cheap, but as we said at the time, "How bad can it be?"
Well, within about two days, we'd crossed the border and gone to another store to buy a tube of Dutch Crest: the Eurodont (now referred to as "Euro-don't") was so unpalatable that we literally couldn't stand it. And it wasn't even the kind of taste where you can say, "Well, it's bad tasting, but it's gotta be good for you." It was our last visit to an Aldi until Morgantown.
And somehow, biking distance or not, we really haven't wanted to buy much at Aldi here, either, although there always seem to be plenty of folks in there doing their shopping. But that Eurodont was some bad stuff. The joys of Globalization.
3 comments:
You might want to re-think your eschewal of the Dollar Store for groceries. There's a blog called "The 99 cent Chef" that has had a lot of media attention recently, since we're all headed for Hard Times. It's not prison food, as I thought it might be--the guy has some good ideas and can cook!
http://the99centchef.blogspot.com/
Count me among the ranks of Aldi fans. They sell some amazing dark chocolate bars for cheap, cheap, cheap, and the selection of cheese isn't bad either. The frozen food section is good for ideas, if not for occasional lazy Tuesdays where you can't face breaking out the pots and pans. Give it another whirl--maybe with a challenge like the 99-cent chef Historiann mentions (I've followed a similar set of blogs and been mightily impressed by those creative cooks)---and report back.
You'll probably pique Tom's interest with the cheap dark chocolate lure, Christy (and with the bonus of good cheese, well...). I will admit, I bought some good jam there once.
Off to check out the "99-cent chef" site!
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