Pasta whore

Last night I had fresh pasta from Pasta Puttana -- or Pasta Whore.  This is a small business started by Jessica Volpe (not a Chicago native but living here now).  She makes a few varieties of pasta and sells them at the Edgewater Farmers Market, the Green City Market, and at Green Grocery (where I got mine last night).  The pasta was different in texture and flavor than I am used to.  It also cooks in 10 seconds.  How's that for fast food?  It's $8 for what amounts to a serving for two people -- if it's not all you eat for dinner this really is for two people -- so it's not that expensive.  The ingredients are not 100% organic but many of them are, and with one or two exceptions all are locally sourced.  The pasta can be frozen and just dropped into boiling water to cook still in 10 seconds (otherwise it spoils quickly).  You can read more about Jessica and her company here.  

This is the sort of business that deserves supporting: quality artisan products but someone who loves that type of food so much they want to dedicate their life (or at least their free time) to making it.  This is also the type of product you'll never find at a Whole Foods or a Trader Joes with a national buying system.  Shops like Green Grocer bring things products within our reach.  They spend the time finding them, and all we need to do is find the shops.  I know there are more artisan food shops near me.  I just need to find them now!

Green Grocer (check it out!)

I finally checked out the Green Grocer in Chicago's west town neighborhood.  This is definitely going to be my "go to" store once the farmers markets shut down (and a great store even while they're open).  The shop is small and the staff are extremely friendly and very knowledgeable about the products.  Some of the packaged goods are sort of a mini-Whole Foods or more akin to Olivia's Market in Bucktown, but here either organic or local.  Then there are some very unique packaged goods that are locally produced or just a bit more special than you might find elsewhere.  They have a pretty good cheese selection and a good amount of raw cheese.  Not as many blues as I might like but that's just me.  All of their meat is pastured and local -- no Argentinean grass fed beef here.  I know this from recognizing farms I am familiar with and otherwise from asking them.  Most is frozen as I expected but they did have fresh whole chickens from T.J.'s (which I mentioned in a previous post -- I've had their chicken legs, turkey legs and pork tenderloin and loved all of it).  Green Grocer has pastured chicken, lamb, pork and beef (and perhaps more that didn't catch my eye).  They also sell Blue Marble dairy which I hear is amazing (and I've seen them at the Green City Market).  I haven't brought myself to actually drink milk yet but if you do I recommend trying this, which they also have in chocolate (as well as yogurt products from Blue Marble).  Finally there's a good wine and beer selection for a shop of this size -- with much of the wine being organic and the beer being local and/or craft beer.  In short, I definitely recommend checking it out all year round, and consider it an indispensable resource for pastured meat in the spring, fall and winter.

Spending more on my food

I'm looking forward to checking out a little shop in Chicago this weekend called the Green Grocer by Grand and Ogden. From what I understand they've got grass-fed meat, raw cheeses and a host of great stuff (who wouldn't want an organic locally made doughnut?!). Places like the Green Grocer (sort of the anti-establishment version of Whole Foods) and Whole Foods itself, are certainly for the wealthier residents of this world. Particularly in our current times, spending $9 for a jar of pickled tomatoes or $3 for an avocado is nothing short of comical to most Americans (who are of course overall some of the wealthiest people in the history of the world -- or dying middle class aside). It is not hard to spend $300 on a 45 minute trip to Whole Foods or spend $150 filling up a little basket at a place like Provenance, Olivia's Market, etc. Yet perhaps it is not that simple. There is some evidence that we has slowly but surely been spending less on food (as a percentage of our individuals incomes) as each century and decade goes by. Indeed, we spend less on food than anyone in the history of the world (or anyone else in our current world) -- that comes out to less than 10% of disposable income. Just in America, in the past 35 years, we have gone from spending on average just under 13% of disposable income on food to just under 10%.

What does this mean? I don't know if it means more of us are taking our families to McDonald's instead of Chili's or if it means that we buy the same eggs and bread at the same stores but the prices have overall come down relative to inflation. Maybe it means that we reach for the cheaper brands and economize on the bulk stores that let families pretend they are readying a bunker. Or maybe it means that we just don't consider food as much of a priority. That bread over there is certainly better for us and tastes better, but it's literally twice as expensive -- so this bread will be fine for little Jimmy's lunches. Have our taste buds been dumbed down to enjoy what's cheapest? Kids want white bread not some artisan whole grain loaf, or bologna over real prosciutto, American cheese over fresh mozzarella, Sunny-D over fresh squeezed juices, a Snickers bar over Dutch chocolates.

It's a complicated issue but it brings up one important point in my mind -- I can justify spending more on food. I can make high quality food a little bit more of a priority. Spending a couple hundred dollars at "Whole Paycheck" hurts, but gosh it tastes so much better and I believe it will pay for itself in the long run when it keeps me out of the hospital (though I'll ignore that dying prematurely is probably the best way to save money). My grass fed steaks from Tallgrass were pricey -- about $26/lb, but they are FAR healthier than the ones right next to them from corn-fed cows for $9/lb. If we want, we can make food more of a priority in our budgets and our calendars (I acknowledge that these little shops don't sell everything I need so the idea of one-stop shopping goes out the window). I look forward to spending some good, hard earned money at the Green Grocer tomorrow.