Huntington village area hounds; where do you most of your grocery shopping?

I find it kind of astounding that such a vibrant and sophisticated town lacks not only an excellent Chinese takeout place since Imperial Garden shut down, but also grocery stores to cater to such a food centric town.

I travel all over to find what I want, both on the road and online. I used to shop in Fairway Plainview most, but it’s gone so badly downhill since the IPO and the runup to it, that it’s only very occasionally in my travels. I stop at WBN for fast pickups, but drive to Whole Foods in Jericho for meats, eggs, dairy and a few other products I can’t get at WBN. Plus, WF is much cleaner and well stocked without all the outdated products and rotting, soggy produce WBN keeps in stock. Wish they stocked more organic produce than they do, though.

I go to Woodbury’s Fresh Market for grass fed cottage cheese in glass jars and for pastured eggs, but not much else; it seems like a grab and go store, mostly, and have seen way past exp date dairy left on the shelves too often.

I doubt Stop N Shop is going to be an improvement when it replaces Waldbaum’s; I used to visit the Woodbury store regularly, but just not into it for selection.

Best Market has a few things we use at very good prices, but mostly stocks stuff I don’t buy, so not a regular stop…

Anyone?

Not specific to grocery shopping, but to your first comment on Chinese takeout- in recent years, NYC doesn’t seem to be getting the amount of immigration from China/ HK/ Taiwan vs Toronto, Vancouver or the Bay area. and the restaurants that are open seem to be operated by people from regions (e.g. Zhejiang) who are cooking food in other more ‘well known’ regions, like Canton.

I’d rather they’d just cook what they know and cook them well to carve out a niche. But if everyone is looking for Szechuan, Hunan and Cantonese, I don’t fault them to pretend to be cooking those…

Well, maybe it’s not so vibrant and sophisticated? I agree that there’s no good one-stop shop, but Mr. Sausage, Fiorello Dolce, Sip Tea Lounge are all fine shops. A little further afield: Forest Pork Store (Huntington Station), Jewel of the Sea fish market and Prime Time Butcher (Woodbury).

Erica, yer killin’ me, not vibrant, nor sophisticated? :smile:

Mr. Sausage has some good stuff, but I was dismayed by the ingredients in their own store products, like two different gummy things in the fresh ricotta that made me start checking freezer store made stuff. Not happy about it. Made me question what’s in some of the other stuff I’ve bought that’s made there.

Fortunately, they have a really nice selection of other ricottas, so still a destination for me for that stuff. Fiorello Dolce is our go to baker, the best around, we didn’t have a decent one til he opened.

I don’t buy feedlot meats as a rule, so I end up in Whole Foods for sausage and other meats more these days; I’m thinking of making my own now, because I have a need for uber freshness to control aging and histamine accumulation in meats. I also have pastured meats delivered from a farm that provides beef, pork and poultry.

I just wish I could find a supermarket/store with a large/decent selection of staples and supplies, a wide organic selection of fresh and shelf foods as a baseline, an array of natural and conventional. I think it would do very well here, if such a store opened.

Maybe a Greenfield ShopRite at least? Not my ideal, but better than Huntington’s King Kullen, Wild by Nature, and Stop N Shop to be.

P.S. So glad to see your post here!!

That is troubling news about Mr. Sausage! I’m assuming they are putting their name on products manufactured elsewhere but still…
Next time you head west, pop into Ceriello in Williston Park. It’s a pork store with an eye toward sustainability; he sells Berkshire pork, etc.
It seems to me that you are a good candidate for one of these CSA delivery services such as farm2kitchenli, farmigo, ourharvest. If you have access to our website, check this out:

I don’t know where they get ricotta with two different stabilizers instead of one, which is what shocked me!

Thanks for the tip; I’ll make a point of heading to Ceriello. Now to find a local source of red wattle pork, my taste fave.

I’m not really a good CSA candidate due to dietary restrictions in addition to my preferences, unfortunately. I tried the other (first?) east end startup (name escapes me) for delivery but prices were astronomical, and again, due to my particular preferences and dietary restrictions, not a lot selection for me, but they did an excellent job in organization and service, very impressed.

That leaves me using the internet, my car and an awful lot of my time collecting what I want with the provenance I want. The price of being persnickety

Stone Soup, you might give ourharvest.com a try. They may be cheaper than farm2kitchenli since they don’t deliver to your house. Their Huntington pick up location is Family Service League at 790 Park Avenue. Unlike a CSA, you can get whatever you want whenever you want it.
Red wattle pork on LI. I’ll tell you when I see it. That said, 8 Hands Farm in Cutchogue is raising their own pigs and the pork is very nice though, of course, pricey.

Thanks, Erica, their beef prices look decent, especially compared to WBN’s grain finished “natural” beef. Much cheaper for skirt and flank. I’ll need to find out more about their aging process.

You always have all the dish on everything everywhere.

If you do find red wattle, by the whole damn pig. I think I got it from Heritage Foods as an add on with other varieties,