Shaw’s

Where to Shop Now: Hard to Find Items like Leaf Lard, Veal, Green Peppercorns, Post Grape Nuts Cereal, Bleached Cake Flour and Other Esoterica

January 24, 2021 / / Baking & Desserts, Discoveries, Recipes

I’ve decided that Shaw’s is my least favorite supermarket of the Big Three (Whole Foods, Hannaford and Market Basket). My reasons were firmly planted after a visit to the Falmouth Route 1 Shaw’s recently where I went to buy two items: Hershey’s cocoa and Karo light syrup.   I’ve never done a complete shop at any Shaw’s. Though if you want to finish fast, the Shaw’s at Westgate Shopping Plaza in Portland is the best because hardly anyone is in there. But I was in Falmouth and it was convenient to go there.

Route 1 Shaw’s in Falmouth

 

Read more…

Where to Shop Now–At Supermarkets and Other Local Food Stores Amidst an Inventory of Errors and Omissions

May 23, 2019 / / Discoveries

My favorite potato, available during the winter at farmers’ market, has been the pinto potato–red-skinned with blushes of beige and golden flesh within.  It bakes, boils, sautés well yielding an ultra-creamy texture.  Alas they’ve disappeared as a storage potato early last month at farmers’ markets.  Locally Goranson and Dandelion farms sold the potatoes until their winter stash was depleted.  They’ll be back in the markets by mid-summer.

By the end of May winter storage crops like potatoes, onions and carrots are truly getting long in the tooth.  The famous spring dug parsnip moreover is still not available at farmers’ markets. Farmers say that the ground is still too tough to dig them up.

“New” (?) potatoes from Hannaford

Read more…

Biddeford Bound: To The Market Basket, the only store in Maine to sell the product that I wanted

January 25, 2016 / / Discoveries

What prompted my Sunday morning excursion to the Market Basket in Biddeford was that all of Hannaford’s stores stopped carrying a product that I’ve purchased there for years.  I immediately researched all of the likely stores that could conceivably carry it.  No luck at Shaw’s, Walmart (even the supercenter), IGA Pond Cove Market in Cape Elizabeth and Smaha’s in South Portland.

Sunday morning at The Market Basket in Biddeford

Sunday morning at Market Basket in Biddeford

The Market Basket is the only store in Maine to carry the almighty, if not elusive, Benecol.   It’s in the dairy case next to the butter and butter substitutes like Earth Balance and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter and other locums of limited appeal. When I would do Google searches to find the product all that would come up was Beneful, the dog food!

Two types of Benecol at Biddeford

Two types of Benecol at Biddeford Market Basket

Read more…

Where to shop now in Portland: What’s new at Hannaford, Shaw’s, Whole Foods, Portland Food Co-op, etcetera?

December 14, 2015 / / Discoveries

I wouldn’t give up your holiday dinner reservations at Fore Street, Back Bay Grill or any of our other great Portland restaurants.  Nor should you cancel your holiday catering orders from Aurora Provisions.  But for perfectly good basic prepared food,  take a look at the new Hannaford Kitchen at the Forest Avenue store where everything from full dinners, sandwiches, pizzas, pastries, sushi, stir fry and more are cooked onsite.

The various food stations at Forest Avenue Hannaford

The various food stations at Forest Avenue Hannaford

Read more…