"We exclusively cooked at home this week; we’ve had no takeout or delivery since last week’s edition of this column, although I’m counting down the hours until my Bisq fried chicken pickup, so I’m sure you’ll be hearing about that here next week. So, I don’t have any restaurants to mention here this week, but instead I’ll give a shoutout to one of my favorite local markets, Reliable, Union Square’s excellent (and yes, reliable) Asian market. It’s been so essential to my household’s social distancing strategy. We typically end up doing delivery or takeout once or twice a week; we’ve been getting produce and a few other items delivered by Imperfect Foods twice a month; and we do very occasional giant grocery store visits only when we’re really running out of everything, probably every three weeks or so. In between, if we need anything, Reliable is there — it’s never uncomfortably crowded, and it has everything we ever need: every kind of rice and noodle imaginable, plenty of meats ideal for stir-frying, lots of freezer dumplings and other snacks to store for later, some produce, giant bottles of green tea, and a really incredible local beer selection. If you live in Union Square and somehow haven’t ever been to Reliable Market, check it out. If you don’t live nearby, I encourage you to explore your own local markets and corner stores. These past weeks, I’ve found small local markets to be significantly less overwhelming than big grocery stores. You might not find every single thing you need, and you probably won’t find bulk amounts of toilet paper or cleaning supplies, but you’re definitely going to find a few things you didn’t know you needed!" - Rachel Leah Blumenthal
