I just got back from a longer visit to my home-country (which is somewhere in South-Eastern Europe) and I am downright frustrated with the quality of basic ingredients that I can buy here as opposed to what is available at home.
There is no comparison under the sun between one basic tomato there and one here. Or any other vegetable. Cabbage, celery, carrots. You name it. I am not even going to get to the meats part.
Those are not only very fragrant compared to what I can find but one other thing I noticed is that when you cut them they leave in their juices right away. For example, my mom makes a basic cabbage salad which involves cutting a small cabbage head in very thin slices, adding some salt, pepper, olive oil and fresh lemon juice and mixing.
The raw cabbage starts leaving its juices in almost immediately and the result is phenomenal. I could stuff myself with that salad without one single "healthy eating" intention. It is just darn good and the goodness clearly comes from the ingredient itself (the cabbage) and not any kind of amazing recipe or cooking technique. Most such veggies come from the local farmers' markets and the farmers are all small producers and not giant agro-businesses. .
If I repeat the same thing here, I get cardboard. Period. The cabbage or any other vegetable I work with doesn't leave its juices in. My mom makes very simple recipes and generally uses very little salt and sugar - and few herbs...yet the results are fantastic. Same applies to food at restaurants and in other people's houses; so it's not my mom - it's clearly the darn local ingredients.
It is pretty clear by now that in the US the vast majority of vegetables (including the touted "organics" and all sorts of high-qual "Whole Foods" produce) are engineered to stay hard and NOT leave any of their natural juices in. This is most probably done for transportation and shelf-life reasons and I often wonder at what price to our health. There is no way these clearly un-natural, tempered-with vegetables ensure the same level of health as those I ate at home.
I always cook from scratch and we eat lots of fruits and veggies in general (including raw) - but all in all, I am afraid we eat much less healthy than we think we do, because of these cardboard "veggie" jokes.
[Now, before you kindly advise me to "move back home if I don't like it here", I will add the disclaimer that this is not possible because this is where my job is. So it would be nice if we didn't go this route.
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Instead, would anyone be able to suggest a place where I can ROUTINELY buy better vegetables - the kind that leave their juices in and act like the perishable products they are supposed to be, instead of bricks to last through all eternity?
Unfortunately, I do not have any local farmers' market handy and the idea of driving forever just to get some basic, day-to-day ingredients is not a viable one for me. Let alone that I was never terribly impressed even with the products I bought at certain farmers' markets in the past, when I had the chance.
I live in a suburb of Atlanta considered "nice" and the stores I have closest to me are Kroger and Publix. WF and Trader Joe's are about 15 minutes drive which is not always handy for me - but still doable often enough.
In the summer, there is a guy who supposedly sells some local vegetables somewhere on the side of the road - but I cannot rely on that because he closes early, has few choices, and he is only available a small part of the year.
What would you suggest as a solution?
Try to buy mainly from WF? And if yes, will I truly be able to tell a difference in the quality of the meals simply by paying to WF what they are (largely shamelessly) asking? The few products I buy there occasionally (such as celery root) didn't strike me as the kind of veggies I am looking for either. They are hard too.
I am talking about basics for cooking such as onions, peppers, carrots, celery, tomatoes, cabbage, brussel sprouts, eggplant, zucchini, etc.
Is Publix any better than Kroger? Would it help if I bought fresh produce that is open as opposed to those packaged? For example, Kroger sells an organic brand of celery sticks wrapped in a plastic bag. Organic or not, they suck because they are hard, leave no juices and don't have much flavor.
Again, engineered against perishability when God clearly intended these things to be highly perishable and with juices in them. Whole Foods has some that are open (no plastic bag). Maybe those would be better? Same with the carrots. Will those open and with leaves on be softer than those that come in plastic bags?
Any suggestions are appreciated (minus the one about "going back home" or growing my own vegetables
).
Whether I go home or not, America needs to get an actual agriculture soon.
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