the fat of the matter: good buys now at ideal

i have wanted to buy the duck fat at ideal so many times, but always resisted. i'm pretty sure that the reason the french fries from dish are the best in the world (i'm not kidding) is because they fry them in duck fat. how have i not written about those fries yet? you'll see something here soon...

so i knew i liked the flavor from duck fat but wasn't sure what i'd do with it, and never quite felt like spending four bucks to find out. today it was 2.49 and i caved. (the sale cooler for close-dated cold stuff is up by the deli counter. check it out!)

also on sale today: clarified butter, or ghee. high-heat cooking with butter flavor, here we come! the cardboard wrapper was banged up but the plastic container was fine.

not even sure what i'm using these exciting ingredients in yet, but i've got plenty of ideas. wanted to pass along the sale news, though. there were several containers of each product at sale price this sunny saturday afternoon.

changes at cetak's

cetak's (the best meat counter in town) has added more self-serve coolers and is stocking a variety of frozen fish. i haven't tried it yet, but the pieces looked great for frozen fish...

it also appears they're focusing their cheese selection towards a couple artisan domestic suppliers, which sounds wise. this meant their remaining imports were sale-priced to move, which sounded great! i got this hunk of spanish manchego for three dollars. that's a steal.

check out the sticker at the bottom. hard to tell from the photo, but it has an iridescence that leads me to believe someone wanted these stickers to be difficult to copycat. is queso manchego the new champagne?

orange you glad i made cauliflower

the hy-vee at 70th & pioneer has been stocking orange and green cauliflower for 1.88 a head. that's not a bad price for cauliflower anyway, and the orange variety is just fun. the green doesn't interest me as much; i guess it's not that unusual to find a green vegetable.

according to this article, the orange variety has more beta carotene than the white.

new at the ideal deli counter

if you're near ideal grocery around lunchtime, it's hard to beat the 3.49 deli sandwich. (it's that price all day.) new to the list of options: sliced sweet red pepper.

this is a roast beef and swiss on dark rye with lettuce, tomato, pepper, horseradish, and vinegar & oil.

also new at ideal: expanded delivery hours. check the website for more detail on that.

chocolate-covered strawberries from the cup

i'm not sure if the cup had chocolate-covered strawberries for sale because of the recent holiday (presidents' day, of course) or if they'll off them regularly. these were very good, with more flavor and better texture to the fruit than you usually find. 1.50 ea.

takeout review: squid salad from wasabi

in one word: yes