If only I could make a living by grocery shopping

I'd be rich.  I could spend all day at the grocery store. Seriously. 

I love grocery shopping.  I love checking out new grocery stores.  I love getting deals and determining what stores are better for different products.

When we first moved to Houston, the kids and I would walk to the different stores on our daily morning walks and now that I am driving we are venturing out to even more stores.  As of now, we have 8 different grocery stores we frequent!

- Foodarama
- Wal Mart Neighborhood Market
- Target
- Costco
- Kroger
- HEB
- Belden's
and most recently
- Randall's 

But the most exciting grocery shopping we've done lately has been the last two weekends when we had Roy to drive us to far off lands for some special finds.   

Last Saturday we were on the hunt for boerewors (a South African sausage) in Houston.  My friend Talia's parents are from South Africa so I had asked her if she knew of anywhere local to get good boerewors and biltong (South African beef jerkey).  She recommended 4biltong.com, which is based in Houston and we had found in our internet searches and a place called Liebman's Wine and fine Foods.  Michael, the South African plumber that our landlady uses, had also strongly recommended 4biltong.com when I checked with him.  We decided we would try Liebman's first because it was an actual store and deli to visit.  We found it easily and got some biltong, some boerewors, and some South African cookies and rusks that Roy had fond memories of.  That afternoon, I contacted 4biltong.com and arranged to pick up some more boerewors on Sunday so we could have a little taste test.  On Sunday morning we drove to their office and met the owner, Roy, to get our peri peri and original.  We thoroughly enjoyed what we got from Liebman's and will BBQ up the goods from 4biltong soon!

We then went to Phoenicia which was really close by.  This store was recommended to me by Douniazed as a great place to find cheap spices, including the illusive decently priced vanilla beans (oh, Fairway, how I miss you!) and various ethnic and import specialties.  The prices were unbelievable and the selection was impressive.  I was inspired by the beautiful pictures that my friend John had just sent from his recent trip to the Spice Market in Turkey.   We stocked up lots of spices, the kids loved watching the pita bread conveyor belt, and Roy got himself a reportedly delicious Turkish coffee from the deli counter.

Yesterday we made my long awaited trek to Trader Joe's in The Woodlands.  I was pretty disappointed when we found out there wasn't a Trader Joe's in Houston when we were moving here.  We even stocked up on many of our favorites and had the movers bring them with the rest of our stuff when we came!  Before we arrived, it was announced that a Trader Joe's would be opening in The Woodlands and I anxiously checked up on the building progress on various blogs (they have since announced there will be two more opening in the fall of 2012 a bit closer to us).  They opened their doors on my birthday, but we knew we had to wait for the hype to subside before heading out.  There was no need to drive an hour to battle the crowds.  On Friday, I finished the last of our rice and it was decided then and there by Roy & Leighton that we must go to Trader Joe's as soon as possible to restock!  We had a fun time perusing the aisles slowly so we didn't miss any of our favorites and delighting in new products.  Before we knew it, we had two full shopping carts of goodies.

I am a happy woman with well-stocked cupboards!