For a little added excitement, some people go to night clubs- others go sky diving- and some tour the Louvre. Kathy and I go to Sendik’s Grocery Store.
Have you ever been there? It’s just about the fanciest grocery story you’re ever going to see. . . the kind of place where it would not seem terribly out of place to see Martha Stewart walking down its aisles, pushing a cart. (Well, maybe the pushing-a-cart part would be weird.) You walk in the door and the first thing you notice is the wall-to-wall carpeting. . . but beyond that is an incredible array of glorious food – and it sort of makes you want to run home, take out your Jacque Pepin cookbook, and whip up some Braised Goat Kidneys in Bernaise Sauce with mango compote and cilantro-steamed couscous. (The urge usually abates for me by the time I’m back at the car.) There’s one located about 40 minutes from our house (in one of the southern suburbs of Milwaukee) and every so often we will have the urge to walk its aisles and maybe even buy a couple of things. Actually, the big surprise is that the prices aren’t as Bill Gates Outrageous as you might think- although we couldn’t help but notice that a container of blackberries that would have cost us $4 at Pick n Save in Racine would have cost us $5 at Sendik’s- and if everything were that much more expensive and if we did all of our grocery shopping there we would have to walk out of there wearing a barrel. (Or opted for a bread & water diet.) The reason to go to Sendik’s is to pick up things that you are not going to find in the grocery stores of mere mortals. . . like Crumpets!
When I laid eyes on Crumpets in the dairy case, I made an executive decision that we would buy one package and give them a try. . . and if we loved them, great. And if we hated them, it was ony $3.88 down the tubes. And it turns out that crumpets are essentially one-half of an english muffin – but a little softer and squishier, even after being toasted. As I first pulled the first one out of the toaster, it felt like the cap of one of those really big mushrooms – or maybe something from the mollusk family. Ewwwwwww. Some raspberry jam on top helped the cause a bit, and because there are so many and such sizable pores in its textures, the jam – or whatever you choose to spread on it – penetrates the whole thing. But in the end it was basically half an english muffin but thinner and with more of the consistency of a spongy crepe. And maybe they’re better with Tea, but on their own Crumpets did not quite manage to live up to the big build up I gave them.
But at least we tried them. Just call it the latest adventure in Life With The Bergs.
pictured above: the crumpets right before the toasting. The headline, by the way, is a quote from one of my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoon, where he finds himself back in Sherwood Forest. At one point, Bugs Bunny – to distract the Sheriff of Nottingham – pretends the King is coming, and shouts “Sound the welkins and blow the crumpets! The King approacheth!”
Guess you had to be there.