Monday, August 27, 2007

Greenmarket blues

I sneaked off to the Union Square greenmarket this afternoon. Why? I was out of food, dumbass.

I'm staring to wonder if I should have bothered, though. It was the first time in five months or so of semi-regular attendance that I've been thoroughly disappointed. I'd been looking for greengage plums ever since I stumbled upon them one Sunday morning in Tompkins Square. They were fantastic -- glowing chartreuse pearls that when you bit into them tasted like confectioners sugar left out in the sunshine. I've never had a better plum.

These ones were beaten up, cracked, bruised. It looked like they'd been rolling around the back of a pickup truck on the drive into town. I picked out as many marginal ones with unbreached skin as I could. The whole pile of them was sticky from the cracked ones. It was disheartening, to say the least.

Then I found some okra and plum tomatoes, and bought some cherry tomatoes and organic lettuce -- just enough to make a BLT. And with the cherry tomatoes, the 'T' won't try to slip out all at once, leaving me with a BL.

I also bought a half baguette and some sort of rosemary-goat cheese and dill-gorgonzola bread from a ridiculously sweet and nice lady on the way out. She was sweeter than a greengage plum -- the good kind.

I've had worse Mondays.

9 comments:

dmbmeg said...

Flop I told you this before, but your obsession with tubers and various other fruits and vegetables is really starting to scare me.

Anonymous said...

dmbmeg - Don't try to get between a man and his tuber. Until he keeps a pet yam (as my brother did), let the man ride.

Did I mention that my brother's pet yam was canned? Yep. Don't worry at all...

Flop said...

Nah, no tubers until fall, dmbmeg.

dmbmeg said...

I just like saying tuber.

Anonymous said...

Would have never guessed.

blythe said...

cry me a fucking river. try shopping at albertson's or some other god awful chain for your produce. the bodega below your apartment that smells of five spice powder and lysol has better produce.

sorry. i hate the grocery stores here in ok.

Todd said...

I had to go shopping today, so instead I made myself sloppy joe's. It was the first time I've ever made them for myself. I feel like I'm 6 years old.

blythe said...

isn't it fun, though! manwich! what was that stuff?

Anonymous said...

Blythe -- I'm totally not complaining. The Union Square Greenmarket is my salvation. I love the place.

And there's probably better produce near you than you think: www.localharvest.org

Apropos of almost nothing, a friend and I once drove non-stop to the OKC from Ann Arbor. Oklahoma smelled like smoke as soon as we crossed the border, and giant bugs began hurling themselves at our earwax gold university rental station wagon. Your state is surreal.

We also went to Norman and sneaked into the stadium.