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| - I mourned and mourned the loss of Right By Nature. Giant Eagle Market District has been carrying crappier and less-local products for awhile now. The shelves aren't stocked of staples I need (whole wheat tortillas, among other things) and there's not as much organic produce as there was a year or two ago. Sale items are often bare on the shelves, even on weekdays without the weekend crush.
Enter me house-sitting for the future in-laws.
I'm out here in the South Hills and Shop 'n Save is doing a surprisingly good stand-in job.
But I've got a hankering. For meat and veggies, two things that are in ample supply but often low in quality.
You walk in and there's a bevy of random items. Giant watermelons for $5, local pickled vegetables and pickled eggs, tomatoes, onions, you name it. Then you go on and the "wet" selection of produce is spot on. Lots of organic produce at fair prices; I picked up cilantro today and lettuce and some potatoes and celery yesterday.
Fresh Breadworks bread - check.
The meat counter is a thing of beauty - their own jerky and cured meats, a handful of prepared items, Boar's Head deli meats. The steaks were gorgeous, the most beautiful I've seen outside of Right By Nature or Strip District Meats. A bone-in filet, or "cowboy steak" is on sale for $11/pound. Get there this week for it!
When I stepped up to the counter I tested a young guy; where was the beef from? Did they grind it in-house? The answers were "all domestic" and "yes". So that meant single-cow, virtually eliminating the risk of salmonella/ecoli issues. Plus grinding it in house? Sold, to the pretty lady rebounding from Right By Nature!
Yesterday was beef, today was chicken. Always pleased with the help I asked for; wrapped well in butcher paper, not crappy saran wrap.
The packaged goods are often local and Amish in origin. Lots of the dairy, such as cheeses and butters, some of them Amish.
Normally I buy Whole Food's organic milk (ranked very well by Cornucopia). I meandered through the milk section, finding glass bottles serving up 1/2 gallons of whole, 2%, 1% and skim from a local dairy. Huh, not bad, pasture raised and local, so no mixing milk from multiple sources or having it travel a lot and losing that freshness. $1.50 for the bottle, which you get back when you return it.
Excellent service, attention to detail, friendly and knowledgeable meat counter people, local and/or organic produce and ground-in-house beef? I'll be back...
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