Sunday came and trashed me out again... I started off the day with Didi and I heading off to It's a Grind for our morning coffee. I had my usual caramel macchiato with soy milk and the bling (for those not in the know, that means whipped cream; a phrase coined by Didi herself and is now widely used throughout the It's a Grind chain). This is quite a development for me - the guy who used to refer to coffee as "battery acid" back in the Navy during my younger years. We drove in two separate cars intentionally so that from the coffee house, I could go directly to the farmer's market. I got to the farmers market by the Long Beach Marina around 7:00 a.m. only to find out that they don't open until 9:00 a.m. I didn't want to wait there for two hours so I headed to Trader Joes just to hang out, only to find that they don't open until 8:30 a.m. So I thought I'd take my chances that Whole Foods was open and sure enough they were. Hallelujah! I looked at all of the great produce that they had at Whole Foods but didn't pick up any knowing that I would pick up my produce at the farmers market. I headed off to the meats section and gazed at all of the meat products that they had on display. Everything looked fresh - beef provolone and asparagus rolls, lamb lollipops, marinated beef and pork meats, sausages and bangers, etc. Tempting, but I held back. Then I ventured onto the seafood department and saw for the first time in several years - whole fish; there at Whole Foods! They had Thai Snapper with not just skin on but with bones and head and everything. The eyes were as black as a starless night without any hint of clouds so I knew that they were fresh. I had to pick one up since I don't see too many stores carrying whole fish anymore. Why the obsession in finding whole fish? Well, I get to use the bones for fish stock, of course! I don't understand where all of the bones are going. I can't hardly find beef or pork sold that comes with bones anymore. Are we now engineering boneless cows and pigs? Boneless chicken breasts - where the heck did the bones go? I asked the meat processors at Costco (can't hardly call them butchers since there's no more butchering that goes on at these places) what they did with all of the bones when they package up their meats and they said that they get their meats from the factory without any bones. Even beef spare ribs are sold without rib bones anymore - that's a travesty! Well, after all of that ranting and raving, I got out of Whole Foods around 8:45 so I decided to head on back to the farmers market which was only across the street. By then, every vendor was pretty much set up and other shoppers had started to flock in. There were a few things that I particularly wanted to get but for the most part, I just enjoy seeing all of what everyone has to sell. One of my favorite vendors is the herbs people. They are located towards the middle of the market on the north side. They have all sorts of herbs like fresh thyme, fresh rosemary, fresh oregano, fresh tarragon, fresh marjoram, fresh dill, fresh cilantro, fresh parsley, fresh chives, fresh lemon grass, etc. They had an herb there called Rue which was supposed to keep flies and moths away so I bought some and placed them in our cupboards and pantry where we have any sort of food items. Another one of my favorite vendors is the guy that sells nothing but root vegetables. From various kinds of potatoes, to various kinds of carrots (oh yeah, there's various), to parsnips, to everything else edible that you could pull out from the ground. Oh, and during summer, he also sells different types of melons, some of which are not so easily found in stores. Lastly, there's an oriental lady towards the end of the market who sells all sorts of green leafy vegetables and mushrooms that she cultivates herself. From her, I picked up some baby bok choy, fresh shitaki and oyster mushrooms to cook with. After picking up a few other items from the other vendors, I made my way back home. (Still yet to be continued...)