To Market, To Market...

I shop like a linebacker.
I'm just going to throw that out there...
5'9. Blue hair. Broad shoulders.
Head down.. long quick strides. Stick to perimeters.. that's where they keep the healthy stuff. Very little processed food in the perimeter.. hit the produce. Fresh and frozen fish. Yogurt. Organic eggs. 
I'm not always this way, mind you..
When I shop with my best friends Rob and Angie, it's a foodventure.
We touch and taste and smell any food we can get close enough to.
We get excited about ingredients.. What can we do with this vegetable we've never tasted? How can we get Angie to like fish? What if we took everything in our cart.... and put it in a pie crust??? 
When we're together, Whole foods is a gastronomic adventure.. an exciting world of color, flavor, texture, taste, and possibility.
But when I walk through the doors of the grocery store solo, I'm intimidated by all the screaming pitfalls.
Rows and rows of processed, boxed pasta sides. Frozen pizzas. 9 flavors of queso. ....The Chef Boyardee aisle...
So I stay out of the aisles. I stick to the perimeter and keep my head down.
Then one day I got bored. I didn't want to shop with my head down.. 
Then, like a ray of hope... I met Hope.
She was walking in just ahead of me. Tallish.. rosy cheeked... and fit.
I decided that since she appeared in optimal health, she must be an excellent grocery shopper... so I decided to follow her.
Yep. I'm just that creepy...
I smiled to myself as I followed her into the liquor department. I grabbed a cabernet (cuz.. ya know. Antioxidants!) She stuck to the perimeters, much as I had...
Then.... I saw it.
As her delicate hand grabbed what appeared to be an orange cactus, I decided it was time for introductions.
I needed to know what she was about to buy.. and how I was suppose to eat this thing? 
She was as friendly as she was helpful.. Kiwano. It's a fruit.. I eventually learned it tastes like anything from a banana to a strange kiwi/cucumber.. and we talked about all the other fruits and foods that one or the other of us didn't know how to use. 
We said our goodbyes, but not before agreeing that we would, by the end of 2011, have tried every fruit and vegetable in the produce department.
When I see someone buying something I don't recognize, I ask now. 
They can't all be Rob and Angie.. and they can't all be Hope, but I like to think they're all a little like me. Curious. Hungry. Healthy.
My name is Sara. I AM that weird blue haired girl following you in the supermarket.
Come say hi =)