Grateful goodness
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Thanks to George, I found out about the Grateful Palate warehouse sale today down in Oxnard. Tim, Sofie and I headed down, getting there around 10 a.m. There was already a looong line of folks queued to pay for their purchases.
Whinos. Kindred spirits.
What a cool event. Well, except that Sofie was entirely overwhelmed, wanted to just run everywhere, bumped into a few curmudgeonly, scowling men,… I think she caught some of their ill humor as she became a real pill herself.
Let’s just say that Sofie won’t be going next year. Anyway…
BACON!!! An amazing and impressive selection, with numerous samples to boot, all priced at $9. Father’s Hickory Smoked Cinnamon-Sugar Country Bacon was an unexpected taste treat. I definitely tasted more cinnamon than sugar, and the cinnamon tasted of especially high quality.
Burgers’ Smokehouse Peppered Country Bacon. Mmm… Nice, coarsely ground pepper. I can’t WAIT to make a BLTA panini out of this tomorrow.
I inquired as to whether there were some hidden gems in the freezer that weren’t being sampled but that I shouldn’t live without. Hempler’s Pepper Bacon was produced. I was also encouraged to wait for about 5 minutes to try out the North Country Smokehouse Cob Smoked Bacon that was being sizzled up. I’ve been sitting here for a couple of minutes trying to come up with the right words to describe it, but all I come up with is FRICKIN’ YUM! So I’m just going to borrow the tasting notes from GP’s website:
Tasting Notes: Cob smoked bacon has been a customer favorite over the years so I was delighted to discover this new producer. Classic, clean, pure flavors. Complex, nutty, hammy. Style and grace. Meaty and sweet. Perfect wrapped around scallops, chicken livers or prunes. Bacon of choice for the US Olympic team, and also the bacon the Pope ate aboard his private plane on one of his last visits to the United States. Not just an artisan bacon, North country is the aristocrat of bacons.
Lots of other bacon themed goodies (at significant savings) were available: bacon wrapping paper, bacon toilet paper, bacon brittle (which was actually quite tasty and quite sweet… a little nibble was sufficient), bacon popcorn, microwave pork rinds (think microwave popcorn bag), bacon air fresheners,… on and on and on. There was also non bacon stuff, such as pumpkin butter (it followed me home), balsamic vinegar (at 9 bucks and change - regularly $37.95, it, too, followed me home), olive oil, which had already disappeared by the time I showed up,…
The wine deals were impressive, too. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the luxury of studying every bottle (thanks to Sofie), but Tim managed to befriend Dave, who hooked him up. Dave approached Tim and asked how he was doing… Tim said something like, “Great! Trying to navigate all of these Australian wines…” Dan offered to walk around with him, asked what Tim’s price range was and totally honored it, picking out what he thought were among the best available (including some below the price range).
I was a girl about it and, since Sofie curtailed my ability to truly examine, went for pretty and fun labels. Bitch is a long time fave of mine; I deemed it the official wine of my office quite some time ago. I was giddy to see the R Wines, since I’m R and all… AND they had fun/cute labels. (Appropriately so.) How could I NOT get a bottle of EVIL (spelled upside-down), especially after the couple in front of me and woman behind me in line all announced it was tasty, too?
That bottle went on to profoundly inspire me. It reminded me of The Shining’s RedRum, or “murder” spelled backwards.
Which led to RegRum. (I’m Reg; no hard g.)
Which led me to RegRub.
Which, of course, is BURGER spelled backward.
I now realize I am destined to make a burger rub. Stay tuned.
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