Shopping of various kinds

There is a gas station in New Jersey just after you cross the George Washington bridge called "Snaxit". In addition to selling gas,

they are Shomrei Shabbat and all of the food that they sell is certified kosher. I have been whining to my husband about stopping off at Snaxit on our way out of the city for years. A couple of weeks ago as we sped along the West Side Highway my husband mentioned that our rental car needed gas and this would be the day we we finally stop at Snaxit.

I know that there are women who would be really excited by a visit to Tiffany's. I was jumping up and down in the front seat and making up songs about the the possible wonders of Snaxit. While my husband got the car filled with gas I went in to check out the wonders of kosher gas station food shopping. My husband was hungry so I got him a bagel. I could have gotten him a pastrami sandwich, but he wasn't in the mood. In addition to the two fridges filled with cold sandwiches, a not quite exotic enough for my taste of frum packaged snacks there was a hot case where I purchased a large square of Yerushalmi kugel. I could have purchased potato kugel as well. When I went to pay the clerk asked me where I was going. I told him. he then asked me where I was coming from. "The City.", I replied. He asked me to narrow down exactly where I live ( a bit nosey for a gas station clerk). He then asked me if I had already been to the new schwarma place that was opening in my neighborhood. The gas station attendant is apparently the schwarma maker and cousin to the owner of the new place. I promised that I would visit the new schwarma place and he made me promise to buy gas from him again. It wasn't the usual gas station food purchase.

The Yerushalmi kugel was pretty good but not as good as the one made by my friend Kobi. It will be a while before I have Kobi's kugel again since he and his wife have moved to Pittsburgh. The Snaxit kugel will have to suffice for the time being.

Last Friday as we were once again going out to the country, my husband made another shopping suggestion that made my heart sing. No, it wasn't Tiffany's or Cartier. It was the Paramus branch of Netcost, the Russian supermarket. We had been in their Rego Park store about a year ago. The Rego Park store was pretty wonderful but the Paramus store was way bigger (but alas, didn't have a kosher meat department).

While they didn't sell kosher meat, one could purchase things like

I was impressed by the ingredients.

I wouldn't have guessed that a tomato sauce would have apples as the first ingredient.

I regretfully didn't take enough photos. There was an entire farmer cheese department. Most supermarkets in the neighborhood don't carry farmer cheese at all or just carry the blocks made by Friendship. At Netcost there must have been thirty different kinds of farmer cheese. I purchased a container made in Israel.

We didn't purchase any of the many varieties of sour cream. We didn't get the kind mixed with dried apricots although it was probably delicious. We also didn't purchase the Canadian style sour cream although it did raise a whole lot of questions of what that might be.

We bought a can of ryebread soda, because why not? When my youngest was about ten or so he came up with a beverage and a tag line for it. The product was "beer water". The tag line was "Beer water, you will get used to it." The rye bread soda tasted like beer water. I was glad I tried it, because I never have to drink it again. My son's tagline is true, by the end of the can i had gotten used to it.

I didn't buy the canned sturgeon head soup. I suspected that it would join the unopened can of cod liver that I purchased at another Russian market years ago but have been afraid to open.

I also didn't purchase this.

I loved the graphics on the can. Aside from being treif it also sounded kind of gross to eat.

I loved the graphics on this brand of grains.

We had purchased this crudely extruded snackfood for our kids during our last Netcost adventure.

If you ever had a giant urge to eat packing peanuts, this snack is a healthier alternative. It isn't unpleasant but it is kind of low on flavor of any kind. We did eat an entire bag of it between all of us.

We didn't buy this chocolate this visit., nor did we buy the box below.

We did buy some excellent plums, some really wonderful sour dough rye bread and a beautiful bunch of fresh dill and a large jar of fig jam. We also bought a two liter bottle of tarragon soda.

This soda is the color of Lestoil and the flavor is hard to describe. OK, it's a little weird. It is improved with a shot of vodka and it is a family favorite.

If we were in the mood to purchase caviar or smoked fish or pelmeni or halvah we could have gone wild. We will probably stop off at Netcost before Rosh HaShanah to buy goodies . If you are like us, and love supermarket tourism stop off at your local Netcost (there are several here in the NYC area.)

For the last shopping related topic for this evening, my continuing series of things I didn't buy in the thrift store.