Making the most of it

We got up late this morning - around 9am. By the time we were awake (always a different thing) it was 10am. It's been unseasonably cold, and for some reason, that provided us with an opportunity to play hooky from the gym and re-imagine a Saturday built around hedonistic pursuits.

For us, this meant a trip to ethnic markets. (Yes, our decision to venture out into the cold for shopping differed from our decision not to venture out into the cold to workout in one aspect: laziness.) Our first stop was an Asian market, packed with shoppers - those of Asian descent generally pushing carts full of groceries, those of us not of Asian descent often carrying baskets with fewer selections.

I love Asian food - who doesn't - but for me, an Asian market is a world of unknowns once I get past the fish sauce, chili sause, soy, pickled radishes, kim chee, and rice cakes. My boyfriend is much more adept, so while I poked along, investigating every jar on the crowded shelves, he moved efficiently from aisle to aisle, gathering what we needed. Our bags were filled with fascinating foods and everything was amazingly cheap.

Since our personal cuisine runs along the Asian - Italian axis, the next stop was an Italian market. I'm much more at home in this part of the world, but I still poked along, picking up favorites like olive oil and rosemary crackers, a jar of hot peppers, pasta. Our every day grocery store devotes as much shelf space to Stove Top Stuffing as it does to its selection of wilted, scarred produce, so the "ethnic" markets are a godsend.

Each little shopping adventure lasted just long enough for us to get really warm before we ventured outdoors to walk to the next stop.

The nice thing about this mini-trip was that it allowed us to feel that we had accomplished something, even though the point of the excursion had been accomplishment-avoidance.

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl, and the evening's snacks will include those favorite olive oil and rosemary crackers.