things i learned today

today was a day where i had no obligations and for most of it, nobody to do anything with. at some point during most days of the week, i stop by whole foods or shoprite to pick up what i need to make dinner, but this time i decided to make a day trip out of going to the grocery store since there wasn't much else to do. so i headed off for the new wegman's in mount laurel. i made the mistake of getting directions off of mapquest, so of course i got lost. that ended up being a good thing, though, because i found a new part of new jersey that i'd never seen before. not so much anymore, but sam and i used to drive around just for the sake of getting lost and seeing new things, so i've seen lots of new jersey. but i'd never seen westhampton, and i learned that it was a very pretty place. at least the small portion of it that i saw. outside of the small, built-up area that i live in, i've come to understand that much of south jersey is still empty space with trees or farm land. its really pretty. it was kind of a contradiction i guess though, because while i was appreciating all of this natural, peaceful landscape, i was on the hunt for a brand-new grocery store in a huge shopping center that was probably completely unnecessary, and is the beginning of making mount laurel look like voorhees. anyway, i saw this pretty bridge, stopped near it, and took this picture. i'm not the best at taking pictures - i don't know if its my camera or just a lack of talent, and it looked nicer in real life.

despite the fact that the wegman's shopping center was depressing because it was one of those massive, new-looking strips of concrete surrounded by farm land, inside wegman's was pretty great. i was most excited about their neat international section, which had a little shelf for a bunch of different countries with products from those places. it had countries like israel, germany, ireland, china, and a lot of others. i was especially impressed with the japanese canned quail eggs. i did not know that quail eggs could be canned, and i still don't know why someone would want to eat them.

i also learned just how expensive truffles really are. i mean, i knew they were sort of rare and a big deal, but i figured they'd maybe cost $20 per pound or something like that. i'd never seen them sold in a supermarket before, and i'd never sought them out myself. boy, did i do a double-take when i saw this:just about $500 per pound! these little gems that look like turds in the sand were protected in a glass case and locked up. sometimes i like to get a new food and try some crazy recipe with it, and often times, it turns out terrible. imagine ruining your truffle dish!