I remember being in Paris once when I was a kid. I was amazed that between our Metro stop and the flat where we were staying — which was about a block — there were a variety of markets. And I would see people coming home from work, exiting the Metro station, and ponging between market and market. They’d pick up a baguette at the boulangerie, stopping at the fromagerie for cheese, picking up some veggies at another market. Each day on their way home, they would pick up everything they needed for that night’s dinner. What a revelation this was for a kid used to going to the supermarket once every two weeks with his dad to stock up.
I often stop at three or four markets a day, myself — although I’m driving all over Los Angeles versus walking the block between Metro and home. I’ll hit the Japanese market for fish and ponzu sauce and croquettes for the kids and rice and sake and beer, go to the Sanchez carniceria for their killer salsa roja and tortillas, stop at Bay Cities Italian Deli to get pancetta and dried pastas and bottarga di mugine, and drop into Trader Joe’s for everything else. I may even stop at Whole Foods for a $15 piece of cheese. I go to the Farmer’s Market a couple times a week to get the produce that I am unable to grow myself — which, to be honest, is most of it.
If you go to the market fewer than three times a week, you are doing something wrong.
skinny girls & mayonnaise 