A Tale of Two Grocers

To start off this assignment I decided to stop at whole foods first, so that I could capitalize on the cheaper prices at Langenstein's on cold cuts on the way back and avoid shlepping around with groceries in my backpack.  To begin to describe my experience at Whole Foods, I guess the best place to start is what I would call the grains and nuts aisle.  Whole foods was somewhat of a confusing store, just because of the sheer volume and variety of the items they offered, which often seemed unnecessary, an example of which can be seen in the grains and nuts aisle (pictured below).

I was blown away by the amount of different kinds of granola for sale in whole foods, (at least 6) as compared to the amounts of types of Granola I found in Langenstein's grocery, where I noticed one.  The sheer amount and variety of the various grains, legumes, berries, and nuts found in this aisle seemed absurd to me, but more absurd still was that somehow getting granola from a bird feeder made people feel like they were eating more healthy than by buying heartland granola by the box.  I found it confusing though that people were so willing to buy into the idea of organic granola merely because it came out of a bird feeder.  To be perfectly realistic, it's likely that the granola at whole foods was bought in quantities larger than the boxed granola at Langenstein's, yet somehow people are willing to believe that if something isn't in a box it must somehow be better.  To me this is indicative of the gross disconnect we have with our food in America, as corporations like whole foods manipulate the American consumer into paying more for organic with basic advertising tricks.  Multiple times I caught myself about to splurge on an item I knew I could get for less without even realizing I was falling victim to Whole Foods spending fever.  A good example of these inflatedly priced goods was the disparity in cold cut prices.  

Note the 25.99 per lb pricing

Solid bargain with the Langentstein's Roast beef at 5.99 per lb, as well as the 11.99 pricing per lb on their prosciutto.

Ultimately experiencing a true visit to Whole Foods for the first time was strange for me, particularly having been raised in a household where Organic was the standard without shopping at Whole Foods.  I was already biased against whole foods, but ultimately I didn't find any redeeming aspects to their store besides the abundance of prepared foods and niche items like quinhoa and all natural sweeteners (pictured below).  The problem I had with Whole Foods was that organic food as a concept is intended to get people to think about their food choices and understand where food comes from, and after looking at the five or six prepared food stations and eating a couple samples (the telltale heart of bulk sale stores), I didn't feel any closer to my food.  

My experience at Langenstein's grocery was significantly more satisfying.  Though Langenstein's at first glance looks like a warehouse for a canned food-drive, I found a significant amount of unexpected and niche items there.  Langenstein's selection for most types of things is pretty limited, for example they only have three types of peanut butter, (all of which are brand names and weren't accompanied by peanut grinding machines).  They also seemed to have a Kraft brand item on every shelf, which was impressive to say the least.  What was different though was the extent to which each shelf was packed with items.  Most of the time there was only one row of each item, as opposed to the rows upon rows of items at Whole Foods, which actually made it seem like people shopping at Langenstein's were buying all of the products they had to offer, making the items look functional instead of decorative.  In addition the approach to the management of the market was more traditional; they had a greeter at the door, people bagging groceries with paper bags, and used paper price labels as opposed to Whole Foods' electronic price tags.  

Our School at Blair Grocery

This Sunday I headed to Our School at Blair Grocery, an alternative school in the lower ninth ward that also sells organic produce grown right on the premises.  The first thing I noticed about O.S.B.G. was how much the experimental school and fledgling urban farming program that I had worked at in 2008 had grown and evolved.  The same plots of muddy land that I had helped shovel and hoe into rows four years ago now housed huge plants and vegetables growing in soil that looked far less devoid of nutrients, and even lush.  Though the school and market were closed upon arrival with no signs of activity within, the trip wasn't quite pointless, as the environment and the experience with the locals was indicative of much greater underlying issues within New Orleans and the lower ninth ward in particular, and the role that food plays between the two.  Our School at Blair Grocery is a perfect example of what it takes to overcome the years of neglect, and the aftermath of Katrina, in revitalizing and rejuvenating a community from the ground up.  Because of the shortage of true grocery stores in the lower ninth ward, O.S.B.G. provides a venue for fresh ingredients, and defies the status quo of deli sandwiches, hot links, and beer which seemed often to be the only places with foodstuffs in the lower ninth.  If food is an indicator of culture, then O.S.B.G. is an indicator in defying the pre-existing status quo for culture.  Upon arriving at the school, we immediately started attracting intense gazes of confusion/unwelcoming, which was never the case while I was at the school 4 years ago working on whatever it was that needed to be done.  That aspect of the trip particularly struck me because it showed just how significant a farmers market is in terms of societal and cultural cease fire.  This was where the major disparity between the projected image of the school and the complete picture ascertained from being there while it was closed first became apparent.  As much as O.S.B.G. is slowly making a change in the community and culture of the lower ninth ward, it takes longer for its surroundings and the community to catch up with the subliminal and physical change that abounds within the confines of the schools property.  Obviously thats no surprise to anyone, but the fact that the change is slow and even disapproved of is a sign of just how much this school symbolically seeks to undertake, that being a backwards american food culture that is the victim of its own globalization.

In Search of Sustenance (Interview)

Attesting to the size of the macho burrito.

“Id say probably half the week my mom would cook, a couple days my dad would cook and the rest of the days we’d go out to eat.  They're both pretty good at it my mom usually cooked the dinners, my dad preferred cooking breakfast. 

Family room back home, not usually I mean we all ate pretty fast so it was all like, the food is made and we were done eating it in like minutes, the food was made fast, we all ate you know in the same room, the family room, theirs a table in there.  We ate probably past seven, but usually before eight.  When my parents were getting home from work and stuff.” 

“I’d probably have to say the worst experience I’ve had was when I went to Outback steakhouse, which I love, but I ate too much.  I ate hella steak, and potatoes…and then dessert, and I was only in like fourth grade, it was a lot of food.  So I mean I finished it all, but I puked all over the place, in outback steakhouse, but I played it off like I didn’t do it.  That was probably the worst experience, but that was because I overate and it was in public.”

"In terms of a change in my appreciation for food, Well coming here I have been deprived of my favorite types of food, and…different types of food, and I have been limited to only using wolfbucks, so, my appreciation has exponentially grown, especially since I’ve been here, and I miss home cooking more than anything.  Also, having a car allowing me to go to different places around the bay, or around my city, allowed me to have a lot more of a cultural diversity in what I ate." 

"One appreciation that’s growns is that I appreciate Mexican food more.  I love its combination of strong flavors combined into one…I’m talking about spice, salsa, spicy salsa, guacamole, sour cream… I would say one of the best Mexican food experiences I’ve had would be one time after football practice, um it was one of the harder ones, we were all really tired, and uh I needed some sustenance so I went to the Mexican restaurant up the street, caravel street, called “El burrito” and uh, I got their macho burrito, and what made it so macho was that it was double the size of a normal burrito,  and was basically a foot long, like massive burrito, and there was nothing more filling and sustaining as a macho burrito, two burritos put into one, the most glorious burrito of them all.  A steak macho burrito, a lot of steak." 

"It has to be filling…not nearly it isn’t.  I guess for me it would just have to be the…its not even about portion size…It just doesn’t get all the pyramid groups for me, maybe it just gets a lot of fried fat, a lot of carbs, empty calories, but where’s all my nutrition?  I want to be healthy, I want to grow up and be strong, how can you do that with all fried food?"