so i went to the grocery store on 5th avenue near my place the other day. i thought i'd have to sell one of my internal organs on the black market just to pay for my groceries, but that's not the point...
the point is that there was no sour cream whatsoever, there was only one (count it--one) kind of salsa and it didn't even look good, and then there was the crowning madness:
me: "hi. do y'all have tortillas?"
employee: "yeah, right there" (confidently pointing at corn chips)
me: "ummmm, no, tortillas--you know, flat bread?"
employee: "oh, maybe aisle 1? bread's on aisle 1"
there were no tortillas--no flour tortillas, no corn tortillas. there was just one package of "healthy whole-grain wraps."
you're kidding, right?
Posted by naseem at September 6, 2005 03:25 PMman! that sounds like a scene from smalltown USA, not NYC!!!
Posted by: meisa at September 6, 2005 05:30 PMIt's interesting/funny reading your adventures acclimating to NY. Being native, I'd be so excited to be able to buy real bagels and lox that I'd forget all about tortillas and salsa and other good easy meal stuff I'd have bought elsewhere.
some weekend soon I'm gonna have to go visit my family and then come see you in the city and see this juxtaposition first hand... :-P
I'm sorry, but that makes St. Paul look fabulous! Then again, even though I'm in the middle of the city, I'm still able to go to a "normal" 21st century grocery store instead of a hole-in-the-wall (no denigration of the hole-in-the-wall intended!).
Posted by: Stephen A. Fuqua at September 6, 2005 09:58 PMWhat did you expect Nas???
New York City...get a rope!
Also Nas you can get tortillas by mail check out this site...looks good!
http://www.texmex.net/TortExpr/tortexpr.htm
Go the Dag's on University and 11th. I imagine they must have more than one container of sour cream. And maybe even tortillas.
Posted by: shokufeh at September 7, 2005 08:00 PMa good excuse to go explore some of the more heavily populated latino neighborhoods. supah fun.
did you check the refrigerated sections though?
Posted by: delara at September 8, 2005 01:05 AMI'm wondering if anybody else got Tem's quote of the Old El Paso salsa commercial. Nice one.
Posted by: george at September 8, 2005 07:54 AMactually, georgie, that's the pace picante sauce commercial... you know, "pace picante sauce, it's made in san antonio, by folks who know what picante sauce is supposed to taste like." then comes the NYC and the rope... :)
Posted by: nas at September 9, 2005 09:34 AMGood lord, though. I mean seriously. I don't think it's a Texas thing, really. In many ways, it seems as though the Hispanic culture that we share this continent with has permeated our national borders (that's a good thing). I live in Illinois and I know what a torta is and I'm not suprised when I see brain on the menu.
But yeah, why no tortillas in America's most famous melting pot?!
Posted by: Andrew at September 15, 2005 04:06 PMVery interesting blog!
Posted by: Donny at September 16, 2005 08:22 PM