I went to check out Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods in Union Square on Friday after getting my hair did. Instead of me ranting and bitching to you at length, I’ll just say that both experiences were very unpleasant and I didn’t even buy anything at either store. Whole Foods in Manhattan is a total rip-off compared to their Long Island locations (the Union Square olive bar was $9.99 / lb compared to $6.99 / lb at their Jericho location). I highly advise against going to both Union Square supermarkets unless you like dealing with crowds and long lines. Which, surprisingly, a lot of people don’t seem to mind.

I went back to Fairway today and bought that goose fat.

An update on the Fairway olive bar: Correcting my earlier post, their olive selection is more like 25-30 different kinds of olives. The best part is that you get to sample them! No one yells at you! You don’t even have to ask! Just pick away! You can stand there all day and just eat olives! This is a smart idea on their part because unlimited, unsupervised sampling led me to spontaneously buy some atlas olives, which are massive and yield copious amounts of meat.

(Side story: There was this kid at the supermarket, probably around nine or ten years old, fucking around with his dad’s shopping cart. His dad was ignoring him and trying to pick out hams. The kid kept saying, “Dad! Dad! I have a farting car!” and then proceeded to make fart noises with his mouth as he pushed the cart around the meat department. I burst out laughing.)

For dinner I made fresh store bought pumpkin gnocchi and made my own sauce (garlic, button mushrooms, thyme, chicken stock, heavy cream). It would have been a perfect dish had I added bacon. It wasn’t a very Springtime dish (the gnocchi tasted like pumpkin pie), but it was delicious nonetheless. Especially considering I have extremely limited experience cooking Italian.

The restaurant called me (despite them being closed today) and want me to trail again tomorrow, so I’m really psyched about that.

And regarding the Food Network Awards, I have nothing to say. Maybe you do.