Wegmans Loves Coquitos

I think that the obvious thing that must be done when getting acquainted with a new area, is visit the grocery store.  

Okay, maybe that's just me, but regardless, Cherry Hill has been an adventure because there are about a million grocery stores.  Alright, not a million, but in less than a week I've already been to three.  Acme?  Meh.  Shop Rite?  The Shop Rite near my parents' house was amazing, so this one couldn't really compare, but it was decent.  Wegmans?  Love.  Seriously.  I might leave my husband for Wegmans.

I really REALLY wanted to take pictures, but I thought that would look SUPER creepy.  Instead, you are left with my narrative.  

First, off, I didn't really *need* anything per se, I just wanted to check it out.  But I was immediately assaulted by pints of local strawberries.  They smelled delicious, they were red and juicy, and they were even in cardboard containers like when we used to go to the strawberry farm and pick our own (there has been a bit of sarcasm in this post so far, so I feel like I should tell that I did actually do that).  The rest of the produce section was amaaazing.  Three different kinds of eggplant, more types of mushrooms (fresh and dried) than I bothered to count, fresh herbs, dried chilis, huge heads of cauliflower, sprouted beans, organic berries.....et cetera.  The only thing that was lacking was...the avocado.  I actually went back to produce to buy one as I was leaving, and they were all quite overripe.  There may have been one or two that would have been okay if I was using it today, but I wanted it for tomorrow.  I went with a bright shiny red pepper instead.

Then I went into the specialty foods section.  They had a whole Asian section, not only with different sauces and noodles and whatnot, but Asian snacks and candy too.  Other ethnic food followed, and I sadly just passed it all by, because we are pretty much living in a shoebox and I don't have room for... anything.  

Moving on, I went into what I thought was the bulk of the store, the "normal" section.  So happy was I to see so many products that are so familiar to me.  Look!  Puffins!  Look!  Laura's Junk Food!  Look!  Sweet Riot!  You get the point.  There was a gluten free section, a baby section, a bulk food section.  In a word:  Freakingawesome.  

When I got past that, I went through the frozen/refrigerated section, found the tofurky, coconut milk yogurt, and baked soyboy tofu, and then...I was on the "other side".  I honestly hadn't realized that I was in the natural food section because it was so big that I just assumed it was the regular store.  Look at that.  A soda aisle.  Chips.  A candy store?  Yeah, there was an entire bulk-style candy store in the middle of the store.  Coming from a former candy-a-holic this was amazing and horrifying at the same time.  I didn't spend a lot of time on the "other side" of the store, although it still looked like they had a lot of higher quality stuff.  

So, I signed up for my Wegmans card, and skipped out of the store (not literally, that would have bruised my strawberries).  

Gosh if you read that, then you shall be rewarded with pictures!  

First, the strawberries.  Heavenly.  

The first one literally exploded in my mouth (in a good way).  It reminded me of this picture I have of me and a girl my mom used to babysit, sitting on the front porch of our house, with a pint of strawberries we had just picked between us, and strawberry juice all over our faces.  If I had the picture, I'd scan it.  But I don't.  Story over.  

Next, microwavable baby squash.  Hm?  What is baby squash?  

This is baby squash.  I also got some mixed veggies.  

I got these little bags of veggies because..well, I needed veggies.  They're the kind that you cook in the bag because I needed them to be easy.  To give you an idea of why, this is where we are currently staying:

Yes, I can fit the whole room in one picture.  And yes we are messy.  We got a sublet for the next three months though.  We move in this weekend.  We are very excited.

In case you were wondering (which I doubt, its random), Zoe is here with us!  

She is not very happy.  There are lots of young children running around outside, and she spends most of her time under the bed.  When I'm here, she comes out sometimes, but some kids just scared her back under there.  

One last thing.  Coquitos.  Cowhatos?  Even the cashier was intrigued.  

I had to do some research.  The package said they are:

Yes, baby coconuts.  The website claims the same thing:  Coquitos.  I am here to report that you can indeed eat them whole, although they are a *tad* difficult to bite into.    

But they sure are delicious.  They really do taste just like a very small coconut.  They suggest putting them on salads, or grating them as a dessert topping.  If you haven't seen them in a store near you, I hope you do soon, they're good.  If not, just feel comfort in knowing that they are listed under "amazon oddities" on Amazon.com, so most people probably don't have them in their local grocery store either.  

And if you're googling, there is also a Puerto Rican beverage called the Coquito, which is pretty unvegan, and similar to eggnog.  

As a short aside, today is graduation!!  I'm not walking, but I'm still graduated now, yay!  We are going to Candle 79 for my graduation dinner this Saturday.  I'm excited.  Any idea on the dress code?  I know a lot of you have been there before.  

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I have yet to hit up Whole Foods, or Pathmark...not to mention the many other Shop Rites in the area.  Also, I skipped an entire section of Wegmans, they have a whole prepared food section that I literally did not even step foot in yet.  Exciting!