Getting settled in
We're finally getting settled in now. I would have liked to have said that we didn't do any furniture shopping today for the first time since we arrived, however we found that we had to return/exchange some stuff, so it was off to the suburbs again to the big box stores. We've now been in IKEA and Bed, Bath, and Beyond three times each. I'm happy, however, to say that we've bought almost no furniture from IKEA or BB&B; only two bar stools from the former and a floor lamp from the latter. Instead all our furniture has come from small independent discount stores which sell used or discontinued lines. One of them turned out to be a really unprofessional place, but the other two were pretty good and I'd recommend them.
We went to our market this morning. We had high hopes, since we had become so dependent on our market in France and one of the reasons we picked this apartment is that it was just two doors away (literally) from the better of the two Saturday farmer's markets in New Haven. Oh, what a disappointment. I need to qualify that. It was good for US standards, but it was so small compared to our market in Lyon (which is one of dozens around the city) and the selection so limited. Our biggest disappointments were in the bread ($3.50 for a baguette! Compared to .70-1€ in France) and cheese ($7-8 for tiny slices of goat's cheese, compared to one pound hunks of the highest quality French cheese for 10€). Things like kale and beets were overpriced as well, at $4 a bunch, which seemed to be the standard price for most bunched vegetables. Berries were reasonable, as were croissants (they were tasty too), and best of all there's a good butcher that serves pork, beef, veal and goat. He sells organs, including veal sweetbreads! I was delighted. He had no pork today, so we bought nearly two pounds of ground goat and two goat hearts. The hearts were a steal at $3.50. Herbs were difficult: no one had thyme, one person had parsley, but everyone decided to sell basil today. We knew it would be a shock going back to the US after France, it's just that it's rough when you actually see the difference. However, it could have been much, much worse.
We've started finding some places we like now: two days ago we had very generous and tasty Indian food at Cumin India in a former IHOP. Today we stopped at Best Video, which was thoroughly awesome. I thought the days of good video shops like Reel in Berkeley were long past, but this little place has innovated and seems to be succeeding. It's even better than Reel, since it has a coffee bar -- the original reason we stopped there -- and the coffee is the best we've had in New Haven so far. They have a huge selection, including rare VHS tapes of things never released on DVD, foreign movies organized by country (their Polish section was smaller than Reel's but still had a good selection) and a large wall of movies organized by famous directors. The staff are all major buffs -- we even heard the owner pontificating with a customer on the flaws and assets of Terence Malick's films. We don't have time this week to rent a movie, but I knew we had to sign up for a year's membership. That kind of a discovery is what makes a place feel like home.
The other discovery is the Polish deli that's 5 blocks away, Wozniak's. OMG, they have everything I could ask for: fresh kielbasas of all kinds, fresh Polish bread, country butter, twaróg (WP translates it as "quark" but all quarks I've had in the US were very different), HORSERADISH, black currant juice, nettle tea, Polish cheesecake and Polish poppyseed cake (makowiec). We are going to be going there regular, I'm sure.
We went to our market this morning. We had high hopes, since we had become so dependent on our market in France and one of the reasons we picked this apartment is that it was just two doors away (literally) from the better of the two Saturday farmer's markets in New Haven. Oh, what a disappointment. I need to qualify that. It was good for US standards, but it was so small compared to our market in Lyon (which is one of dozens around the city) and the selection so limited. Our biggest disappointments were in the bread ($3.50 for a baguette! Compared to .70-1€ in France) and cheese ($7-8 for tiny slices of goat's cheese, compared to one pound hunks of the highest quality French cheese for 10€). Things like kale and beets were overpriced as well, at $4 a bunch, which seemed to be the standard price for most bunched vegetables. Berries were reasonable, as were croissants (they were tasty too), and best of all there's a good butcher that serves pork, beef, veal and goat. He sells organs, including veal sweetbreads! I was delighted. He had no pork today, so we bought nearly two pounds of ground goat and two goat hearts. The hearts were a steal at $3.50. Herbs were difficult: no one had thyme, one person had parsley, but everyone decided to sell basil today. We knew it would be a shock going back to the US after France, it's just that it's rough when you actually see the difference. However, it could have been much, much worse.
We've started finding some places we like now: two days ago we had very generous and tasty Indian food at Cumin India in a former IHOP. Today we stopped at Best Video, which was thoroughly awesome. I thought the days of good video shops like Reel in Berkeley were long past, but this little place has innovated and seems to be succeeding. It's even better than Reel, since it has a coffee bar -- the original reason we stopped there -- and the coffee is the best we've had in New Haven so far. They have a huge selection, including rare VHS tapes of things never released on DVD, foreign movies organized by country (their Polish section was smaller than Reel's but still had a good selection) and a large wall of movies organized by famous directors. The staff are all major buffs -- we even heard the owner pontificating with a customer on the flaws and assets of Terence Malick's films. We don't have time this week to rent a movie, but I knew we had to sign up for a year's membership. That kind of a discovery is what makes a place feel like home.
The other discovery is the Polish deli that's 5 blocks away, Wozniak's. OMG, they have everything I could ask for: fresh kielbasas of all kinds, fresh Polish bread, country butter, twaróg (WP translates it as "quark" but all quarks I've had in the US were very different), HORSERADISH, black currant juice, nettle tea, Polish cheesecake and Polish poppyseed cake (makowiec). We are going to be going there regular, I'm sure.