Grocery Shopping, NYC

From Farm to Table with the Click of the Mouse

FD

Growing up, if you needed groceries you went to the store and got them. The only people I ever heard of getting their groceries delivered for them were elderly people. Anyone else who sat on their computer and ordered groceries was just completely lazy. . . then I moved to New York City.

While on our search for a place to live this summer I tried taking all the little outside things into consideration. I wanted to know what kind of stores surrounded me so I knew how far I would have to travel for certain things – such as the closest grocery store. Imagine my delight when I discovered that we were not only close to a Whole Foods (and by close I mean three buildings down from us), but we also had a huge Food Emporium about three blocks away and a D’Agostino about the same distance in the opposite direction (because I definitely can’t buy all of our food at Whole Foods if I want money still in my bank at the end of the month!). I had this perfect little image in my mind of me taking my little grocery bags to the stores, getting what I needed for a couple days, then walking home (haha yes naive, I know).

While making this perfect little picture in my head while roaming the streets of our neighborhood I would see this truck that said ‘Fresh Direct‘ on the side. I was quite in awe when I learned that this company delivered people’s groceries to their front door. I mean, I know this is a big city, but with that comes some kind of little grocery store at every corner! My husband suggested  we try it out for our first load and I had to agree with him. I could just picture my first grocery run, asking the store if I could just keep returning for bags as I shuffled my way between our apartment and the store (what a non New Yorker thing to do). But I knew I would only do it that once. I didn’t need a website to get my food from!

FD Delivery

While I have only ordered from the website twice, I’ll admit that I’m completely converted. I probably spent a good hour and a half my first time ordering just looking at all the options I had. Then there was the local options. I could pick areas and farms, read about them and their methods – I knew exactly where my food could be coming from! I finally got my first order in and delivered and it still made me chuckle seeing them at my door. Thanksgiving came around and I knew there was only one place I was going to go for the essentials – Fresh Direct!

While I still enjoy going to the grocery store, Fresh Direct is definitely bookmarked and will be used frequently. And with so many local options (and yes, I know grocery stores are great at local as well), it’s helping make this big city a little bit smaller – just what this Mountain Girl needs!

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NYC, Uncategorized

Festivals and Food Poisoning

Celebrating our first weekend in the Big Apple I wanted to do something to really bring us into this new life. Fortunately for me, the city responded tremendously Saturday with celebrations and festivals galore. From an Oyster Fest across the street from our place to the San Gennaro festival in Little Italy and more, New York gave us plenty to take in.

As we headed out for a morning run, my husband and I saw tents and signs going up across the street from our place. My husband got really excited as we returned when he noticed the signs read ‘Oysters’. While my husband is a fan of food in general, oysters, clams and crab are three things that he could eat for every meal, every day (won’t he be excited to hear that this festival continues this weekend)!

Oyster Fest

Research has told me that this annual Oyster Festival is a New York staple celebration. Nestled on Stone St, a brick-laid avenue lined with restaurants and bars of all types, it takes one look to realize that may be an understatement. I’m rather certain the Park City population of 10,000 was crammed into this one brick-laid street with Snyderville Basin overflowing onto Pearl St. I didn’t know that many people could fit into such a small area! So my sister-in-law and I headed into the chaos, coming out 40minutes later having shared a bottle of Prosecco with some wonderfully nice strangers and finally getting the two beers we went in for, while my husband satisfied his oyster craving (he even saved us some!). Satiated and slightly overwhelmed, we left the crowd to the locals.

San Gennaro

Fast forward to dinner and we found ourselves in another massive group in the heart of Little Italy. If I thought Stone St. was crowded I don’t even know what do consider this! Rather than one street, it was simply people as far as you could see in all directions. Eventually we found a place to eat that didn’t have an hour wait – turns out there may have been a reason. While our food was delicious, our stomachs didn’t think so later in the night. I guess quantity comes over quality when at the demand of 100,000 people. Our stomachs didn’t turn before our personal bubbles popped however, and we quickly decided moving two feet every two minutes wasn’t quite worth it. However, we did not escape before trying Deep Fried Oreos! Shoot they were so good. Thank God I don’t go to fairs often, I would be in trouble!

Even if my stomach didn’t agree with all of the choices I made on Saturday (and yes, it was the Italian dinner, not the Oreos dang it!), I am slowly getting closer to the realization that this is my permanent residence (not quite ready for the ‘H’ word yet) and that’s not horrible – just a bit of sensory overload.

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