A Friday night for me

I am going to take the opportunity of my captive Internet readers to rave about Whole Foods again. I *love* this place. I actually have 'check out rental prices in Kensington' on my to-do list so that I can prove to myself that I can't afford the neighborhood, and thereby not move to one of the poshest neighborhoods in London just so I can be closer to my favourite grocery store.

I went again last night, all the more comforting because I've come down with another something again (I think it's just a cold, but that's what I get for only getting 5 hours sleep/night every day this week). I fell asleep on the Circle Line on the way there (High Street Kensington is 12 stops from Monument Station, where my London office is), and thought to myself, is this really a good idea to go so far out of my way on a Friday night when I have the chills and body aches?

On the High Street, I treated myself to an H&M purchase, a bright summer skirt that I may only get to wear in California this August if London weather keeps up this constant raining. I then head into Whole Foods, list in hand. Before leaving the office, I looked up three recipes to make over the weekend, so I could have healthy sustenance at home without having to leave the house.

Before shopping for groceries, I treated myself to a reasonably-priced sushi dinner in the upstairs food hall. For £7.80 I got a roll combo, miso soup, salad and green tea. I rarely eat sushi here, so it was quite a treat, and I'm convinced that things like wasabi are good for a cold.

Shopping was a bit of an adjustment as I started to recognise what aspects of Whole Foods are copied from the States and what are definitely adapted to the Brits. For example, you know how Whole Foods hangs the signs in the vegetable section above the display cases? Well, I did the usual searching about for 'is this spinach, or what?' before finally looking up and ding! duh, of course that's where Whole Foods puts their prices (you never see that kind of labeling at Tescos, Sainsburys, or Waitrose).

Looking in the tea section, it was funny to see so many Whole Foods branded Early Grey, English Breakfast tea, and Daily Drinking Tea. I'm pretty sure WF doesn't put that much effort into self-branded teas in the States. Also, the WF label is similar but different. It doesn't have the '365' label, but it still has the four squares of grains and other food-related images in the yellow, orange, blue and green colours, which are often labeled 'Fresh & Wild'. Fresh and Wild is the London organic chain of about 5 stores that WF purchased in 2004. There is one near Clapham Junction that I went to a few times, but the prices were very high and the selection limited.

In the end, I came out with all the groceries I wanted for the weekend, and then some (Amy's frozen dinners - yay!) and I headed home for a few work emails, doing a load of wash, and a few hours on the couch watching all the Daily Show episodes from the previous week. It's now Saturday, and I have a day of errands and work, and cooking my yummy dishes!