Victoria E.
Yelp
I spent the weekend doing not much else but reading Tyler Cowen's An Economist gets Lunch, New rules for Everyday Foodies. So on a late holiday afternoon, after lounging for a good part of the day, we decide to put his theories to test by heading out to an ethnic food store in central Richmond and looking for things that were priced just right for what they are.
The first stop fell short of expectations due to its somewhat sterile and unwelcoming environment, but the second one, this one, was exactly what I was hoping for. For untrained eyes like mine, this seemed very Russian. Everything was written in Russia and English, which allowed us to stroll up and down, from aisle to aisle, and read the labels without having to fire up Google Translate.
Blood and tongue sausage at $5.49 / pound, a fraction of what you'd pay in an American speciality store. Moscow Sausage, at $5.99 / pound, looked more like Kielbasa, but slightly larger in diameter, it also just so happens looks like the same kind of sausage my family grew up on in Haerbin, the capital city in the northeastern part of China that borders Russia. A ton of smoked fish, one particular kind, also sold at $5.99 / lb, was something I'd seen in Zabar's (in upper west side) and purchased, at $24.99 / lb. There were a number of different kind of smoked fish. I liked mine salmon and collar. Never seen it outside of the ethnic food shops of lower east side until now.
My companion was carrying my increasing large pile of food. I felt bad for he was already manning the backpack that had my scarf, his extra jacket and coffee mug in it (mind you this is winter weather for the rest of you folks as we enters summer here), but we continued marching up and down the aisle in hoping for something else unusual. And then I found it. It was behind a refrigerator, near front, it looked too small for an ice cream bar and too large for a candy. I chose the one with a picture of hazelnuts. The lady at the check out counter says that it's sweet cheese.
Loaded up on our finds, we walked out of the store 10 lbs heavier than when we arrived. We sampled the sweet cheese treat on our way out, and it was like nothing I'd ever had before. Creamy, sweet and filed with hazelnut flavor. A winner in my book.
Tyler Cowen did an experiment whereby he consumed produce at an ethnic supermarket for a month exclusively, and refrained from buying anything from mainstream supermarkets. He concluded that "when it comes to ethnic markets, most of the shoppers really are very well informed. Most of the shoppers come from cultures - including China - where food preparation receives a lot more attention than in the United States. These shoppers are also largely immigrants or children of immigrants. Either they come from cultures where most food prices are lower than in the Unites States, or the immigrants have lower incomes themselves, or both." Combining these characteristics, when shopping at ethnic market, one tends to get better quality food at a lower price, his experiment taught him. Tyler then takes a step further and argues that rather than focusing on locally grown food where the cost of growing food (where the climates did not permit) could be significantly higher than the cost (of carbon footprint) of transportation, we should all try to reduce carbon footprint by walking instead of driving wherever possible.
By that account, we did just as well: walking from 7th to 18th, stopping at a community garden on our way, then at this Russian store to pick up some ethnic find, back to 7th and Clement for our next step at Kamei (a Chinese run restaurant supply store, quite popular among the Inner Richmond crowd) before heading back on 7th, but not before stopping at our regular spot Cinderella Bakery on Balboa.
As a everyday foodie like Tyler Cowen, I would highly recommend you to check out this lovely market for your every day Russian food cravings, at a price an immigrant can afford.
