Dreams Do Come True!
Have you seen the Heineken commercial where the lady of the house is giving a tour to her girlfriends and then says slyly “I’ve saved the best for last” and throws open the doors to her huge custom closet, and the girls all shriek in ecstasy? But then they are out-shrieked by the guys next door looking at “his” custom heineken refrigerated closet. It makes me laugh every time, but I know exactly how they all feel because a few Saturdays ago, Soren and I went to…… Restaurant Depot. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Our rock star neighbor, Gerry Oto, is the manager of this fantasy food coliseum. They sell food to all the major restaurants in the entire Bay Area and they sell over a MILLION dollars of product a week! I have not seen Soren this excited since the election last year, seriously.
Gerry & Soren discussing rib eye
Gerry greeted us at the entrance after we checked in and got us our special day pass. He handed us neon orange puffer jackets and pointed us in the direction of the “deli”. At first I thought I would not need the jacket, it was after all, 95 degrees outside, but MAN, that deli is serious with the cooling. The “deli” is row after row of frozen ravioli’s, hamburgers, chicken, appetizers, refrigerated GIANT wedges of mozzarella, parmesean, brie, goat cheese, (!) fontina……. Salami, prosciutto, coppa, ……….fresh fish, caught the day before, SALMON for 6 dollars a lb!!!!!!!!, Ahi for $8 a POUND! ………leg of lam, rib eye roasts, cases of baby back ribs, 10 gallon containers of SOUR CREAM!...........lobster tails, sea scallops, shrimp, DESSERTS!
It was all just too much, we had to rest, regroup and then make our plan. We decided to only buy protein because we could not possibly use a 20 lb bag of Vidalia onions, as much as I’d like to. We bought 2 salmon filets, a 14 lb rib eye, couple legs of lamb, a case of baby back ribs, 5 lbs of sea scallops, a 5 lb piece of prosciutto, and a 4 lb piece of coppa. Added to that was a 2 gallon container of imported extra virgin olive oil and two containers of imported sea salt.
Soren with Giant bag wild mushrooms Our friendly fish monger Carnivoricious
I have no idea what this is, I did not buy Ok, a little more friendly for my veggie friends
any, but it had a hoof and was quite
popular......
We were almost ready to check out when we came across…… chef attire! I love cooking shows, Julia Child was my idol, Lidia Bastianich, America’s Test Kitchen, TOP CHEF, all are my favorites. I’ve always wanted a chef coat…… Soren couldn’t turn down that glee in my eye and it came in sea green!!!!!!! A couple of aprons later and we were ready to check out! And now, please indulge me while I do my best Top Chef opening credits dramatization....
Top Imaginary Chef.....later that evening
Stuffed Squash blossoms, fried, served with steak, fresh peas & heirloom tomatoes
Now back to our story.....
We rushed home, to start the cutting/separating process. We got 18 steaks out of that rib eye roast for under $100!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was like the LOTTO!!!!!!!!! But BETTER! !! Except…. Disaster, our food saver would not work, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! So I jumped in my car, drove to Costco and was back in under 25 minutes with a brand new food saver. We were in assembly mode all afternoon. Our freezer is stuffed with so many awesome items. The prosciutto, is super yummy, the steaks, ohmymymymymy. It was one of the most awesome Saturdays we’ve ever had. Oh and on a side note, my brother DJ commented to me recently that he thinks I’m “food obsessed.” Like there’s something Wrong with that?!
Folks, who needs Bruce Springsteen when you have Gerry Oto as your neighbor?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not us!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
