A New World Of Shopping

It's almost hard to remember what shopping was like back in January. We could go on a whim  just for a pack of cookies  or head out for a last minute ingredient. For the last few months we have to bulk shop and hoard along with figuring out what to do with fifty pounds of something. It's created a new sort of cooking, one we're getting used to now.

Priya Krishna, the author of the popular Indian cookbook  Indian-ish wrote about this new phenomena in yesterday's New York Times Food section.Pantries are overflowing with mostly beans and potatoes these days. People are stress buying, afraid of the shortages appearing and afraid of just heading to their local grocery store. Some, such as Elysia Mann went to the website Nuts.com which sells all sorts of nuts, dried fruit, beans and different flours. She went crazy - although it's hard not to - buying twenty pounds of beans , rice , flour and seeds.She has been living on lupini beans, bitter tasting yellow ones that resemble chickpeas. Some home chefs are even going to restaurant supply stores. Matt Bochneak did just that, buying fifty pounds of potatoes from a local Portland restaurant supply store.He's grilled a few of them and is planning on making gnocchi. Another home chef , Dana Amore , of Honolulu also went to a restaurant supply store where she bought fifty pounds of flour. She had to use an industrial cart to carry it to her car and once home , had to store it in a dog food storage bin.

Buying food in bulk is nothing new. People have been doing it for years at CostCo and Wal-mart. However it hasn't been tinged by hoarding and panic-buying. Consumers did buy twenty-four eggs or a bulk box of cake mixes but that was usually around holiday times. Buying in bulk is cost effective. You do save as Stephanie Ormaeche of Ridgewood New Jersey has found out. It also forces you to cook and not rely so much on restaurant take out food. There's only one problem. Storage, as Ms Ormaeche found out, She and her husband live in a tiny apartment with a tiny kitchen and even tinier pantry. If she opens it, stuff falls out. Certain basics as Ms. Krishna points out have become  coffee, butter beans and canned. goods. Yet others are stockpiling foods not necessarily the basics. Isobella Jade of Houston, has a freezer full of Lean Cuisine fettuccine Alfredo.It's quick to reheat and popular with her and her two sons.There is the worry of waste but many like Manasi Saraswate of Sunnyvale, California developed spreadsheets to help with meals plans and how to use the foods in different meals.

These are strange times for food shopping. Yet there are ways to cook through it. Find fun recipes for all that bulk shopping. It could be hummus for those chickpeas or fresh bread with all that flour. It's a new way of shopping but we can get through it by cooking some delicious recipes.