for the love of cheap masala sauce and frozen naan..

... i would trek across the world and back, or so it seems. okay, so maybe not across the world, but definitely a long f-ing way to go to get food from heaven, otherwise known as trader joe's.

normally i set aside time in my schedule to make the trip to tj's. not just because its not close, but because the lines can be insane and the shopping trip can take an hour just from the time you're in line to pay to when you get on the train.

unlike seattle, where there are at least three different tj's that i've been to, there is only ONE in new york. that's right, the biggest city in the united states has ONE trader joe's. this particular tj's is located at union square, which on a good day is about a 3o-40 minute train trip, with only one transfer, from my house. if i'm going on a major stocking-up excursion, the distance is worth the price and the good food i have here at home.

so yes, in the one tj's in all of new york, they have all of the wonderful foods i came to love in seattle, but also have their own wine store (a separate entrance and everything, for many many kinds of two buck chuck, among others) and people inside flagging you down into lines for the check out. today was a slow day-- i only waited 15 minutes, but i have seen the lines snaking around the entire inside of the store. and i thought that the queen anne tj's on a sunday was insane.

today was "get two of everything" day for me, since i don't make it into manhattan all that often. turns out that two peanut butters, two soy milks, two bags of frozen veggies, two pizza crusts, etc, gets very heavy very quickly. not only that, but my basket kind of had a noah's ark theme going on, two by two.

the man who rang me up managed to fit everything into just three bags, but my goodness, they were the three heaviest grocery bags i have ever carried. i looked like a total fool trying to walk through union square back to the train, trying to get on/off the train, and trying to walk home. but now i have cupboards full, and hopefully won't have to go back to tj's until september, when they open the one that is coming to brooklyn...