More than 35 million people in our country are on food stamps – up 3 million just since January.

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Living in Russian Hill, I’m just a stones throw away from the grocers lining the streets of Chinatown. I’m almost 100% positive most of my peers in this neighborhood and the other adjacent neighborhoods have never ventured in to these stores. To them it seems off putting, signs are in a foreign language, and the foods are exotic, even unidentifiable sometimes. To me though, Chinatown is my little secret. I love to cook a lot, and I could go to Whole Foods, but the spirit would dissipate once I checked my credit card bill after.

At Whole Foods you can get cherries for $7.99/lb, and in Chinatown you can get cherries for $0.99/lb. Even at Safeway, conventional apples are $1.99/lb, and in Chinatown they are $0.59/lb! Scallions? $0.39/each! Cilantro? $0.49/each! Eggplant? I bought some for $0.39/lb today. For the exchange in price, you get a cultural adventure.  Some may argue that the quality is not as good, and I would agree.  But not all fruits and vegetables need to be organic.  And to be honest, I would rather eat some fruits and vegetables for cheap, rather than none at all because they are too expensive.

I have learned the laws of shopping in Chinatown over the past 3 years, and I will share some of them with you here:

• Put your food on the scale as soon as the person in front of you is finished, else someone behind you will get there first.
• Do not substitute an unidentified green leaf vegetable for spinach just because it looks like spinach; it won’t taste the same
• Be prepared to see carcasses and single fishies lying dead in the freezer.  If you don’t like it, don’t buy seafood and meat (I don’t).
• Find the less busy stores – prices are $0.10/lb higher, but the food hasn’t been picked over.
• Feel out the prices for the day. 1 store may have red peppers for $1.99/lb, another may have them for $1.29/lb.

Here are the foods I purchased today.  I had a few recipes in mind while I was food shopping, and knew that I had some bulk foods to use at home which are not pictured here.  I’m hoping my assumption that multiple recipes using similar ingredients will make my life easier will prove true.

Tonight I’m going to finish cooking for tomorrow. I’ll post the recipes and what I eat in tomorrow’s post.

What do you think?

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60% of the clients San Francisco Food Bank served last year come from working households.

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