AH-HA! Now I’m Cooking With Broadband

I just got back from a shopping trip. My plan was to pick up some more butter and cream since I just discovered I was out of both. I figured that I would try out one of the local organic food stores and see if maybe they had some good chocolate in addition to the other ingredients I was after.

WARNING: Rant for the next paragraph.
I have a very strong opinion on organic food: I disagree with the concept as a whole. Not that I don’t like healthy, sustainable food sources but I grew up growing a garden that was just small enough to not be called a farm. I’ve seen what goes into growing food naturally – and I’ll take chemical fertilizers and genetically modified foods any day. I also find that the organic food idea of sustainability involves getting lower crop yields and allowing less than perfect land to go fallow. So, I really don’t think that organic food will make the world a better place. However I have found that so called organic foods are often of a higher quality and organic food stores have generally a better selection of quality ingredients. Plus, if you have never tried “organic” milk I highly recommend it – it seems to me that it stays fresh three times longer.
Now that my rant is over – on to the shopping. I was going to go to a Vitamin Cottage since they are the only organic food chain around, or so I thought. I decided that while I was looking for chocolate I would look for chocolate molds (look for an up coming article on cherry cordials) so I headed to a Sur la Table in a new shopping center a little ways from here. When I arrived I found a Whole Foods Market. I have a new favorite place to shop. I went in to look around for butter, cream and chocolate. Their selection of butter and cream was nothing special but their selection of chocolate was incredible. They have people who will guide you around the store helping you find the best ingredients for what you need and are willing to consult others or look up information to help you. After discussing it with three people I settled on a pound of Callebaut Belgian semi-sweet chocolate to make cherry cordials and they offered to cut any amount I wanted from the slab but I settled on a prepackaged block. They also have several varieties of French, Spanish, Mexican, Swiss and other chocolates. I decided that since they were so helpful finding the chocolate that I would so if they had some other specialty ingredients that I have been searching for. I ended up walking out of that store with my chocolate, a box of sweet rice flour, a tin of Spanish Smoked Paprika (Pimenton de la Vera), a box of Balinese sea salt (try it if you can find it, it has an amazing texture and flavor), and, of course, my cream and butter. The only ingredient that I couldn’t find was red bean paste, I’ve been looking for it kind of passively for almost a year. Interestingly enough I met someone else at the store also looking for red bean paste so hopefully they will look into carrying it.