Flying fish
I woke up flying this morning. Perhaps it's the magic of finally eating enough animal. And organs, at that. I go through slow waves of waking up feeling hit by a truck and waking up feeling ready to gallop through the book of my life, and I have been on the "truck-collision" wave for a week or two. I had a lot to do this morning, and I even mentioned in my evening prayers, hey, I wouldn't mind a wake-up call before my 4am alarm, if that's possible. I woke up feeling so awake and rested that I feared I had slept through my alarm. So I checked the clock... no, it was only 1:30. I was able to sink back into a light and excessively dreamy sleep and woke up again --- bang! --- totally alert and ready to go. And this time, it was 3:40am. Perfect.
Today was shopping day, and it was pretty good. I suppose. Of course I always wish I could get more, more, more, though I enjoy the discipline, also. I also got another bag of free food at a local food pantry; I made sure to dress down this time. You just walked up to the door and a guy handed you a reusable bag full of food. Really easy both physically... and socially, importantly. Today's bag had two apples, two GIANT carrots, a big onion, two potatoes, three bread rolls, a small bag of rice... I'm forgetting if there was anything else. It's nice, though. A shot in the arm. I like not having to think about what I'm getting. I just have to think of uses.
Then I walked down the street in Astoria to an Arab grocery store which turned out to be one of the nicest and cheapest "ethnic" (a word I dislike, as everyone is an ethnicity, are they not?) grocery stores I've been to. Today is Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, so I wondered if it would be either closed or crowded, but it was actually open and quite empty of customers, so I browsed ve-ry leisurely through all their fun offerings, enjoying all the Arabic labels I could sort of read. I would have loved to buy some camel milk which was on offer, but it was on offer for $15 for less than a quart, so that will have to wait for more liberal monetary policy (on the part of me). I got some dates again, which I got two weeks ago out of curiosity and came to really love! This time I got Sukkari instead of Medjool ("Sukkari" comes from "sukkar"... sugar... they're sweet). They are totally delicious, and are super convenient for taking along when you plan on needing a midday carb and magnesium boost but won't be at home, and don't have the wherewithal to pack a fancy lunch. Just throw some dates in a bag. Anyway. I also got a pound of beef liver for $6, which I now have to find a way to disguise and use. I don't think I have enough onion to rely only on onions to eat a whole pound of beef liver. But that's good, I'll need to be creative. I also got a can of sardines, and a bottle of, um, rosewater? because ChatGPT mentioned it once and it sounded cool and it was only $2. It smells really good. I can't remember what it's actually used for in food but I'll sure learn! I also got six lemons for $1.50 (from the "ugly" section) and some ginger (for disguising organs). I really blew the budget with my coffee though. It's one of those things that you have to buy in chunks and so doesn't lend itself super well to parceled $40/wk shopping. But besides that, I also got Turkish coffee with cardamom in it... for $9... for not very much. Hopefully at least a week. I am almost out of what I had. If I starve to death because of coffee I want to at least have, you know, the coffee, to ease the pain.
That came to $26, which wasn't too bad but didn't represent a big quantity of food. I nixed plans to continue on to Trader Joe's because time was running short and I wanted to get back to things at home. But once I did get home, and talked to my mother for a while (one of the things I was trying to get back home to do), she reminded me that Aldi exists and said they (Midwest) have canned sardines not for $2.99 but for $0.99! I quickly decided to put off the rest of the day's agenda and hurry to the nearest Aldi 20 mins away by subway to see for myself. Aldi in Rego Park is right next to Costco in the same shopping center, so I went to Costco, too, to which I already have membership from sometime last year, took my notebook, and made tons of price notes for future reference.
I can read it, really.
I bought one gallon of milk---oh, how happy that made me---because it was only $2.84 (the going rate in Queens seems to be $3.99), and because they mercifully allow you to buy just one, unlike everything else in the store (you have to buy something like 4-5 dozen eggs at a time!). I hurried across the plaza to Aldi and repeated the performance, but also got more butter (which was cheaper, unit price, at Costco but I would have had to have bought 4lbs at once), some cream cheese, those sardines!, which were $1.19 here, higher but still very good, and some cinnamon, as a $0.95 bonus.
I still have 2 or 3 dollars left, which is nice, but we'll see where I can go from here. I really don't know exactly what my plan for the livers are.
Perhaps I can pivot to buying some things in bigger chunks to take advantage of Costco pricing when it's good. But honestly, Aldi was usually within a few cents, and much more practical for hauling on the subway, so I may stick with them.
I'm sure I could be doing better in making judicious use of available affordable (animal) proteins. My fridge and cabinets are quiet fiber-heavy now. At least I have the milk.
I was running late with everything this evening so didn't want to start down the liver road just yet. So I warmed up some leftover rice in butter, put in in a bowl, put some lettuce on top of it, heated a can's worth of sardines in their own olive oil (Aldi's come in brine; how am I supposed to work with that?), then put those on top of everything, washed the pan out with shaoxing, dumped that all on top of the bowl, and ate it all doused with fish sauce and soy sauce. It was actually very good. Hot sardines are becoming one of my favorite things. I can't wait to see how Aldi's are. $1.19/can is something I could indulge in multiple times a week.
Tomorrow I may be more adventurous.