I know I am unusual but I really enjoy grocery shopping in Toulouse. It is generally so different than grocery shopping in Alexandria. I know I do it the old schools way here in Toulouse so even in Toulouse I am probably not the normal shopper.
The idea and reality of shopping almost exclusively at markets and small shops. There are a number of reasons I like this type of shopping. First is the options at the market are more varied. In the grocery store, most all things are packaged in specific sizes and you can only have the options available in that particular store – same here in France. With the markets, there are multiple vendors for each type of food, beef, lamb, chicken and other poultry, seafood, pork, cheese, charcuterie and other similar types of items. Also, there are many vegetable and fruit vendors both at the Marché Victor Hugo and the other outdoor markets.
This Sunday, I bought my lettuce at one stand, my cantaloupe at another and the rest of my fruits and vegetables at a third stand. I bought my olives and pistachios at my usual olive purveyor. I have not become a regular at all of them but am known to the olive purveyor. I working at becoming known at the others. All of this was at the St. Aubin’s market.
On the way to the Marché Victor Hugo, I always stop at Maison Pillon for my chocolatine. It is my treat for doing 10k steps just to do my grocery shopping.
At the Marché, I started off at Marée Toulousianne where I bought clams and sardine filets. I had seen a recipe in The NY Times recipe email I get for an easy pasta with clam sauce. That is one of my favorite foods so knew I could get fresh clams at the seafood stand. I bought some nice clams there. They were the most expensive item of my shopping that day. For 18 clams about 1/2 kilo, I paid $23 which was a splurge but I felt I really wanted to try the recipe. The sardine filets which will be Monday diner were only $3.00 so I figure over the two meals it was not too bad.
Maison Garcia is right across from the seafood so I bought some Jambon for my usual lunch. I forgot that I wanted to buy some pate to change up lunch but will do that next week. My favorite boulangerie was closed but since there are four in the market, I still was able to buy a nice baguette.
My final stop was the cheese stand. I bought a new cheese, Lou Cap Bourut. It looked good. It is an organic, raw cow’s milk tomme cheese in southwestern France west of Toulouse. I have gotten to know the people at this stand and they are very nice about my lack of good French.
Even with all the walking and wandering around the different stands, I really like this type of lifestyle. As I said, I do think that most French still shop this way. The markets are crowded on the weekends so I am hopeful that this type of shopping will continue. I think it has fallen off among the young.
Today it was gusty and raining (not heavy) but most of the day. It is good as with the drought this summer this area needs rain. The river is at some of the lowest levels ever. I did not mind as I had already gotten my 10k steps just on my morning shopping trip.
I made the clam with pasta sauce for diner and it was delicious. I was glad to splurge on the clams. I had to run out quickly in the morning after I got home as I had forgotten to buy white wine needed for the recipe and all the grocery stores close at 1:00 pm on Sunday. I did not want to buy expensive wine for cooking so I went to the neighborhood Carrefours and bought a bottle of Côte de Bergerac which the bottle said was good with shellfish. The bottle cost me $4.85 which is great. The wine was good with the pasta as well.
