Illuminati-R-Us

So I have settled into a pattern. I go down the road a half mile to Meijer, our mega-store. I find it enjoyable to just ride the little handicap electric carts around the store, checking out the 479,000 items in the store. (I asked) I like to look for the orange stickers that mean clearance price. Sometimes it is the $7 jar of BBQ sauce marked down to $4.50. yeah, right. But today I found Keebler triple chocolate chip cookies for half price. Saw gourmet soup, comes in a mylar bag. $7 down to $3. Had Salmon chowder, crab bisque, and a couple other interesting ones.

ANyway, riding around last night I remembered...Halvah. I haven't had that in decades. I recall I used to like Halvah, for about half a package, then it cloyed on me. But I thought it might be interesting. I looked in the dairy case among the cheeses and butters, and yogurts. Nope. I looked in the meat section between lunch meat and horseradish. Nope. I looked in teh deli section between little cheeses, prosciutto, and other things. Nope.

SO eventually I came upon one of the necktie guys talking to an employee. I stopped near them, and after a moment one asked me if I needed help. I said yes, I was wondering if this store sold Halvah. The necktie responded "Maybe, what is it used for?"

Odd way to put it. I explained it was for eating, a confection made with sesame seed paste. "Oh, so you need sesame paste?" No, it is like candy, it comes in bars you cut off pieces of. SO necktie flagged a passing uniform, and off we went to dairy. The woman looked all over the cookie dough, the flan and pudding, and other sweets, but no Halvah. I said I could believe they don;t have it. She said it would have to be here if they did.

SO now I have Halvah in my head.

But not in my mouth.

I haven't had that since I was a kid. I don't think I've seen it since then either.

Do they have an ethnic section? It might be there.

A few years ago I was searching a big grocery store for potato pancake mix. Is it by pancake mix? No. Is it by prepared potato products like boxed mashed potatoes or bags of shredded hash browns? No. Maybe by the produce, the same way they always put those shortcakes by the strawberries? Nope. It was in the ethnic section...

Yeah, we have the world food section, no luck. Halvah is always refrigerated in my experience.

I will look in the grocery stores near MSU next time I am over there. They carry more ethnic stuff. I am sure I can find it, just not at the Meijer in Mason. it is a huge store, but small as Meijer stores go.

I have 2lbs. of sesame seeds somewhere. We could make up some tahini and take it from there.

That sounds like work. In my band years, one of the guys - the drummer - was a health nut, and we used to tease him that he lived on bird seed. This because he ate so much tahini.

Lance wrote:A few years ago I was searching a big grocery store for potato pancake mix. Is it by pancake mix? No. Is it by prepared potato products like boxed mashed potatoes or bags of shredded hash browns? No. Maybe by the produce, the same way they always put those shortcakes by the strawberries? Nope. It was in the ethnic section...

Are you telling us they didn't have potatos, onions, wheat flour, eggs, salt, pepper and oil? You can't get anything in America these days.

Whenever I make mashed potatoes with dinner, I always make extra so I have leftover. I then can stir an egg or two into it and have potato cakes at a later time. Yum.

Arneb, shame, you left out the jalapeno or Serrano peppers minced fine.

Arneb wrote:Are you telling us they didn't have potatos, onions, wheat flour, eggs, salt, pepper and oil? You can't get anything in America these days.

I said "potato pancake mix". We also have our share of "lazy Americans".

It's supposed to be in 'international'.
They say my store is Knapp's Corner (Grand Rapids), which seems much closer to you than me.
Maybe they could send some over to your store.
https://www.meijer.com/product/grocery/ ... 501316.uts

edit: S. Pennsylvania Ave. store also has it, which is your store?

South Pennsylvania Ave store is the closest Lansing store to me, less than ten miles. I would have looked there eventually. The Lansing Meijer stores are all larger than the Mason store here.

It shouldn't be hard to find, just was an adventure at the Mason store. We have any number of Asian groceries around the area, mainly selling SE Asian stuff, but also Indian. I know of an Indian grocery near the campus. We have several Mexican markets. World goods are available here, the MSU being an international draw if nothing else. And we have at least two markets selling halal and arabic foods. I am sure those last would carry Halvah. The goat meat store across teh street from my old shop would have had it, but they folded up their tents.

Come to think of it, we have a World Market store in Lansing. The kind of place that sells decorative pillows, "hand carved" elephants and such, baskets, odd furniture, Xmas decorations. And they have a food section. Imported cookies and candies, coffees, wines and beers. And I would wager Halvah.

I had to google halvah, but it turns out I had - and enjoyed - it in Istanbul.