Shopping for Vegetables

I spent Saturday morning like I normally do. Sleeping in a bit; having a breakfast that is something other than peanut butter and jam toast to ration my Canadian peanut butter supply; started the laundry and cleaned the house. After listening to the CBC 6 o'clock news while cleaning the kitchen, which is really just a wall, I went to the supermarket to stock up on groceries for the weekend.

I was presently surprised today that many vegetables are finally going down in price. Since December, the saddest looking spinach was being sold for about $4 a bunch. Today that was down to 128 YEN and the quality was much better. I gritted my teeth last week and spent 450 YEN on 5 stocks of asparagus because I really wanted to use some in the pasta I was planning to make. Sure the asparagus was pristine but that's expensive. Today asparagus was down to 350 Yen for 5 stocks. I guess I will take this as a sign that spring is coming.

I did end up buying two bunches of spinach. I like spinach cooked nearly anyway and it's a super-healthy vegetable but temperamental in storage and preparation. What does the internet tell us about spinach? For one, all the important nutrients in spinach are quickly lost during storage, I try to by spinach only if it just arrived on the shelf. Days matter in buying spinach if you want to keep the valuable nutrients. Freezing is the only sure way to keep the nutrients from degrading and thus, if I want to eat it throughout the week, I lightly blanch it in boiling water, dry it off, and freeze it in small potions. Vegans will tell you not to cook anything because you destroy the nutrients while science is often less black and white (plus I rather eat cardboard with ketchup than become a vegan). While cooking spinach quickly does destroy a small amount of some types of nutrients, it has the effect of stopping certain enzyme reactions that lead to over all nutrient reduction.

The prices quoted are from Shikaoi's local Fukuhara supermarket. Normally, if I have time on the weekend, I go to Otofuke to a great supermarket called Hapio. It's kind of a trendy place to shop, playing classical music in the background, having fancy uniforms, and what not, but because they have the best quality fish and produce I perfer going there. There is only one place I go for baked goods, which is the panya-san just up the road from me run by a man-and-wife team. I hold Japanese bakeries in high regard and there are several good ones in Obihiro if I am there as well. Including one that makes excellent fresh tray buns, prefect for sandwiches.