Pi Day 2025
Mar. 14th, 2025 04:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newmanThere's a small meat market not too far away called Roxie's where I shop every month or so. It's primarily a butcher shop with a side of deli, seafood store, and green grocer thrown in in about that order.. Least, they are an "other food stuff" shop, carrying a small selection of oddball products, many of them from local companies
Shopping there is always an adventure. First, because the butchers are all armed with black grease pencils and anything selected from the meat case is likely to be snatched out of your cart and marked down before you get to the cashier.
(there's supposed to be a photo of the pie here, but I can't figure out how to do that on Dreamwidth)
If this sounds like a sales gimmick -- they must inflate the prices if they're going too mark everything down, right? Wrong -- it isn't. The prices there are already significantly cheaper than the large chain supermarket across the street.
The other thing that makes shopping there an adventure is that a small but significant portion of their offerings are remarkably inexpensive but also very specific. If they were electronics, I would say they had fallen off the back of a truck. I'm not saying that here. But you can frequently find Oui brand yogurt, which sells in the supermarket for about three bucks each, at two for a dollar. But it's only one flavor of Oui, and it's never anything mainstream like Blueberry or Lemon. It's always something like Cappucino Crunch or the non-dairy coconut-based yogurt. Needless to say, when you see something you like, you grab it. Also needless to say, given how unusual some of the offerings are, you may not know you like something until you get it home and try it.
Several years ago, I saw they had these meat pies for super cheap. I didn't know anything about them, but they were made in Massachusetts and seemed like an easy supper for some busy people. I took it home and stuck it in the freezer. We ate it a month or two later and it was fabulous. It was a variation on a traditional Canadian Tourtierre, spiced just right and not greasy in the least.
The next time I was at Roxie's I bought more. Except this seemed like something they just stocked normally. And it was... until it wasn't.
I tracked down the company (Landry's) who has a charming website which includes a map of stores which sell their products. None of them are near me. So for a couple of years, every time I went into Roxie's I would poke around and see if they had come back, and then ask one of the staff if they were going to be getting them again... it's been about 3 years. They're not coming back. And every once in a while I look at the map and think "Am I really going to drive more than an hour round-trip for a meat pie?" and every other day, the answer is "no". But today is Pi Day, so after a couple of calls to make sure the market had them in stock, Mina and I drove down to Bridgewater and bought every one that they had (which sounds epic but it was only 3). Tonight we will hail the conquering heroes who braved the wilds of Bridgewater and celebrate Pi Day with a big slice of meat pie.
And tomorrow I'll have a slice of the leftover cold for lunch. Because it's good that way too.
Shopping there is always an adventure. First, because the butchers are all armed with black grease pencils and anything selected from the meat case is likely to be snatched out of your cart and marked down before you get to the cashier.
(there's supposed to be a photo of the pie here, but I can't figure out how to do that on Dreamwidth)
If this sounds like a sales gimmick -- they must inflate the prices if they're going too mark everything down, right? Wrong -- it isn't. The prices there are already significantly cheaper than the large chain supermarket across the street.
The other thing that makes shopping there an adventure is that a small but significant portion of their offerings are remarkably inexpensive but also very specific. If they were electronics, I would say they had fallen off the back of a truck. I'm not saying that here. But you can frequently find Oui brand yogurt, which sells in the supermarket for about three bucks each, at two for a dollar. But it's only one flavor of Oui, and it's never anything mainstream like Blueberry or Lemon. It's always something like Cappucino Crunch or the non-dairy coconut-based yogurt. Needless to say, when you see something you like, you grab it. Also needless to say, given how unusual some of the offerings are, you may not know you like something until you get it home and try it.
Several years ago, I saw they had these meat pies for super cheap. I didn't know anything about them, but they were made in Massachusetts and seemed like an easy supper for some busy people. I took it home and stuck it in the freezer. We ate it a month or two later and it was fabulous. It was a variation on a traditional Canadian Tourtierre, spiced just right and not greasy in the least.
The next time I was at Roxie's I bought more. Except this seemed like something they just stocked normally. And it was... until it wasn't.
I tracked down the company (Landry's) who has a charming website which includes a map of stores which sell their products. None of them are near me. So for a couple of years, every time I went into Roxie's I would poke around and see if they had come back, and then ask one of the staff if they were going to be getting them again... it's been about 3 years. They're not coming back. And every once in a while I look at the map and think "Am I really going to drive more than an hour round-trip for a meat pie?" and every other day, the answer is "no". But today is Pi Day, so after a couple of calls to make sure the market had them in stock, Mina and I drove down to Bridgewater and bought every one that they had (which sounds epic but it was only 3). Tonight we will hail the conquering heroes who braved the wilds of Bridgewater and celebrate Pi Day with a big slice of meat pie.
And tomorrow I'll have a slice of the leftover cold for lunch. Because it's good that way too.
