I’ve checked out all 3 Manhattan locations at this point, and Kips Bay wins my vote for best stocked, though Grand St is the easiest to navigate (but was missing all the specialty stuff).
Lidl won’t replace my regular shopping stops, but I’m enjoying stopping in for their weekly regional specialty features and some unusual items.
This week is Spanish – they had croquetas de bacalao that were quite good even pan-fried (deep frying was the instruction), manchego croquetas were out of stock when I went. They also had octomari / giant squid tentacles that do a pretty good imitation of octopus. In cool jarred stuff, I picked up piquillo peppers for $1.49, pickled piparra peppers and minced piri piri for 2.99, and marinated anchovies too (to make your own gilda with the piparra).
Their frozen samosas (from India) are excellent – they are the kind with thin, crisp wrappers (patti samosa, pictured here). Tasty filling of potatoes and peas (much better than the TJ’s mixed vegetable samosas, and the original pastry vs. the ones at Whole Foods).
They also have some interesting specialty stuff – truly jumbo scallops, both plain and in garlic butter on the half shell, more than one type of salmon wellingtons, stuffed clams, escargots, 3-year aged parm, several kinds of spanish charcuterie and prosciutto, jarred white asparagus for $2, turkish pide, a couple of types of tarte d’alsace, frozen tuna trimmed of blood lines and in equal portions (as opposed to TJs, neither trimmed nor proportionate pieces), and more.
