Whole Foods Market

Author: Dave

This is what we do on a sunny Saturday afternoon: Shop for groceries. Well, more like explore for groceries.

We spent the first nice weekend afternoon after the recent snowstorm at Whole Foods Market in Town and Country. This was an eye-opening, and sample-taste-tacular, experience.

Whole Foods Market is not going to be a place where we do our weekly grocery shopping. But, this is what we envision ... when we want fresh seafood and have time to try new foods, we're going to take the (under-a-half-hour for us) trip over to Whole Foods Market. (There's also a Whole Foods Market at the Galleria on Brentwood.) The employees seem to care about you, the customer, and their product, the food. And, they want you to get involved and sample the fare. On this day, we were met with a guacamole dip samples upon entering. Pineapple and grapefruit pieces were set out to savor in the produce section. We found hummus in the dairy aisle, homemade potato chips in a grocery aisle, and plenty of breads at the bakery.

In seafood, a quesadilla with mahi-mahi (or Maui-Maui, as my wife mispronounces it) and mango salsa tantalized us. The heavenly smell drew shoppers like a seal draws a great white (cue Jaws theme) ... but unlike sea predators, we also enjoyed a complimentary splash of wine with our bite. The fish quesadilla was pretty good. Kirsten and I like lighter fish, and therefore opted to take home sole and cod, plus jumbo shrimp. The prices were comparable to other chain grocery stores, but with higher quality. Each piece of seafood looked beautiful, and we've enjoyed some baked sole with Ritz cracker breading. You place the sole in a pan, crush Ritz crackers and mix with butter, lemon, garlic and parsley, spread the mixture over the sole, and bake in the oven at 375 for 20 to 25 minutes until the fish is flaky -- alter your cooking time depending on the thickness of your fish. The dish was very good, and good for you.

Here's the thing that's most special about Whole Foods Market ... it sells organic and natural foods. These people love their food. And, by love, I don't mean, like when you were in college, and the one guy on the floor ate everything he saw, always asking you "if you were gonna finish that" and "if you were going to eat your pizza crust." No, I mean, they respect the food and offer wholesome options. That just comes through in how the store operates.

In seafood, a nice woman came out from behind the counter with a whole snapper to show kids what the fish looks like, pointing out its fins and other parts. I've never seen this type of educational show-and-tell at a grocery store.

In a grocery aisle, a licensed dietician approached my wife and asked if she had any dietary restrictions that she could help her with.

I'm also not used to people behind a grocery counter answering questions intelligently. As we drooled over the sausages in the meat section, the gentlemen behind the counter took the time to answer some questions that led us to avoid a certain type of a English sausage best made with potatoes. (It looked good, but just wasn't our bag, baby.) We chose the Italian sausages and Andouille instead.

A cool-as-all-get-out wheel of parmesan reggiano signaled that we were entering the cheese area, where sampling is key because of the wide variety of selections. The nice man in the cheese secton could tell us just how long each cheese has aged, and even added some history behind some types we were considering.

The most unexpected thing for me was all the delectable, prepared fare you could buy from the (very long) gourmet food bar. In the Asian food area, employees called us over for some samples. A native New Yorker, Kirsten has long been on a quest to find quality Chinese food since moving to the Midwest. Having been burned too many times, I think she gave up a few years ago. Well, she loved both the orange chicken and the lemon chicken (and so did I). "I wish we lived closer," she said. "I would definitely pick up some prepared Chinese food from there every once in awhile."

The dessert area didn't have samples ... but here's what was cool. We wanted to try different items, but we didn't want to buy a huge, prepared sampler box. The nice man there customized a variety box for us, and I just want to say this: try the fruit tart. Trust me. Fresh fruit, atop a lemon curd, on a flaky crust. What's not to love? You can even claim it as semi-healthy.

Truth be told: We have yet to eat all the food we bought from Whole Foods. What we've eaten so far has been very good. We will be back, maybe once a month or every other month ... or maybe when we run out of seafood ... or maybe when we have a nice weekend day and just want to get out and explore some more quality, well-loved foods.