Shopping Without a Supermarket: Our Old Fashioned Guide
Tired of your daily flash-frozen, evaporated, concentrated, dehydrated, reconstituted, canned, prepackaged, fortified, freeze-dried, preserved and expensive goodies? Read on.
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A Moveable Feast (908 Westheimer). Take your children to see a miller's tale firsthand. Primarily a source of organically grown foods, The Moveable Feast is owned and operated by an attractive young couple who mill their own flour daily and keep the bins filled with rice, beans and fresh grated coconut. Also available are yard eggs, grain, cereals, cheeses, chicken, fish and continental yogurt—all uncontaminated by chemical fertilizers, additives preservatives or trading stamps.
DALLAS
Meat-Poultry-Fish
Rudolph's Meat and Sausage Factory (2924 Elm St. 741-1874). Rudolph is the oldest meat market in Dallas (1895), but increased U.S. government restrictions have erased almost every trace of this market's antiquity. Only the front of an old, ice-cooled wooden freezer displayed on the wall suggests that this is indeed the same Rudolph's where, in less inflated days, children were pacified with free weiners while their parents shopped.
A third generation of Dallasites depend on Rudolph's for Polish, Country-Style pure pork sausage, German franks, and Kolbase (an old recipe of beef and pork ground coarsely with caraway and other spices). Rudolph's prime and choice heavy beef is aged three to four weeks. Top quality lamb, pork and occasionally veal are also available. All meat is cut to your specifications. If you don't know standing rump from hind shank, Rudolph's is the place to learn.
Kuby's Sausage House (6601 Snider Plaza 363-2231). If soaring meat prices have cancelled your trip to Europe, splurge on a simulated trip abroad to Kuby's. Almost any day of the week you are assured of hearing five languages spoken around the meat counter, (German, Dutch, Austrian, Polish and Russian) English is not their forte, but beautiful European style (boneless) meat definitely is. This seems to be the only market in Dallas where veal is available every day. Browse the meat counter and find rolled veal shoulder roast, scalloped veal, European cold cuts such as Beerwuurst (south German cooked salami) and Schinkenwurst (Ham bologna), Austrian and German sausages, as well as more standard but nevertheless artistically butchered beef and pork. Kuby's butchers are European-trained masters.
The Filet Meat Company (4513 Greenvile 368-5517). If you're partial to this cut, drive a few blocks north of Mockingbird to Frank Hayden's small meat market. He sells only choice heavy filets and thick sliced bacon. Meat prices are climbing steadily, but the day we visited, his filets were more than 20¢ cheaper per pound than the big chain supermarkets. There's no elaborate packaging to fill your trash cans—just a couple of pieces of nice brown butcher paper and string you can save.
Farmer's Meat Market (2113 Taylor, 742-5453). (No relation to the Municipal Produce Mkt.) If you've spent a hot summer morning haggling for produce bargains in the Farmer's Market sheds, this is an ideal stop for your meat purchases. The entire meat market is a cold storage locker. All cuts of beef and pork are available. Spare-ribs looked particularly better than the supermarket variety. Saturday is very busy, so come early or risk frostbite while you wait.
Small Gamebirds
If your appetite for game is better than your aim, find quail, chuker and occasionally pheasant at R. A. Peterson's, 8355 Huddig, Pleasant Grove (EX-89474) or at Lake Clopton Shooting Resort, Route 1, Waxahachie (area code 214, WE 7-2439).
Johnny Varcasia's Sea Coast Fish (5719 W. Lovers Lane 357-0121). This small, family-run market, unobtrusively situated between one of Dallas' oldest seed stores and Marcel's French restaurant (supplied by Johnny's) provides standard salt water fare: crab, oysters, redfish, sole, trout, snapper, shrimp in all sizes, as well as a few fresh water items such as smelts and catfish. Frozen food section contains massive lobster tails, squid and Johnny's own gumbo, stuffed sole, flounder and crab.
Johnny's personal attentiveness to his regular customers may astound you. Seemingly everyone who walks through the door is greeted by name, (Johnny says, "I have no customers—just friends") and the market is stocked to suit their palates and cholesterol counts. Johnny readily admits that his famous sauces (Remoulade, horseradish, Tartar and cocktail) vary their ingredients with the season. December palates can apparently handle more horseradish and chili sauce. Children can watch the fish being expertly dressed or fileted on the big table just behind the display case. Do not be intimidated by the in-crowd feeling in this cozy market. Introduce yourself, confess your ignorance and come away with recipe suggestions and possibly a few pennies saved.
Gulf Fish Market (2947 Walnut Hill 358-3477 and 1005 Preston Royal Plaza 363-6397). Live Maine lobsters in a see-through tank at the door simultaneously delight and horrify your children, while you survey the most cosmopolitan gathering of seafood in town. Hawaiian mahi-mahi, African Bob-ba-luc snails, New Orleans oyster in the shell, Dover sole, Cherrystone clams, Canadian salmon, Alaskan crab and California squid are airfreighted in fresh for you and Neimann Marcus' Zodiac Room and Greenhouse. The Walnut Hill market is bigger and newer, but the same fresh fare is available at Preston Royal.
Doyle Garrison's Catfish Farm (Edd Road, Seagoville 286-0044). For a dollar a day you can fish these tanks. Pay for your catch at 65¢ per pound. Facilities are available for cleaning them yourself, or pay 15¢ per fish to avoid the dirty work.
The Farm Cat (1226 E. Irving Blvd. 254-5393). If you are no fisherman, but know the sweet flavorful taste of fresh catfish too well to accept frozen, the Farm Cat offers the freshest possible. These farm raised catfish are trucked in live to the market, slaughtered and dressed while you wait. Ron Groth, the market manager, an evangelistic proponent of catfish eating, will supply you with catfish cookbooks and all you never wanted to know about catfish farming. Better yet have a catfish party (minimum 25). Groth will bring fresh fish, hush puppies and cole slaw and reveal his cooking secrets to your guests.
Produce
The Farmer's Market (Municipal Produce Market 1010 S. Pearl Expressway). You don't have to be a wholesale produce buyer or a co-op member to benefit from these bountiful sheds. Buying in bulk, of course, provides the greater savings, but all of the Dallas area farmers in Shed #1 display their onions, tomatoes, spinach, peas, corn, etc. in retail bunches.
The peak of the summer prizes are, of course, the vine-ripened East Texas tomatoes and Weatherford peaches, gourmet treats in anyone's mouth, but the more discerning shoppers will also discover the unique stalls of Lily Crowley and Joe Lucido. Unless you have an herb garden in your backyard, this is the only place we know where you can find fresh oregano, dill, coriander (cilantro), fennel, sweet basil, garlic and shallots. Mrs. Crowley, an organic farmer, has an established clientele of all nationalities, not to mention the health food devotees who require her exotic greens for Dr. Kirshner's "green drink."
Don't leave the market without sniffing all the varieties of Mr. Lucido's mint. The day we visited he had only 15 varieties, (lemon, orange, banana, apple, doublemint, spearmint, mountain, field and domestic peppermint…we lost track). What do you do with it beside decorate tea? "Well," Mr. Lucido says, "The world ain't all one kind. Some folks use it to cure their colds, some put it in their pie crust, or use it in canning fruit." He even had a recipe for a mint-garlic marinade for steaks, chicken and potato patties.
In the height of the summer season 75,000 people have been known to stroll through this market on Saturdays. So if you're not there by 8 A.M., expect a traffic jam.
Get to know the farmers when business is slow, and you may find a farm to visit where they'll pick the produce after you arrive. Mark Woody's farm in Seagoville (287-1634) sells "over the fence" on Saturdays.
Pick-A-Peck. Inc. (corner of Central and Taylor 742- 0500). If the seasonal produce available at the Municipal Market doesn't supply all your needs, you might try this recently opened wholesale-retail market across the streets from the sheds. Owner Jim Toon, formerly a produce buyer for a big chain supermarket, gets to the big wholesale produce houses between 4:30 and 5 A.M. to provide his customers with "the best quality produce for their money." His market offers a wide variety of fruits and vegetables at attractive prices even if you are buying in small quantities. If you're industrious enough to "put up" peaches, peas, etc., give Mr. Toon your name and he promises to call when quality and supply offer the best bargain.
People Buying Together (Cooperatives). If you're willing to do occasional weekend work to save some grocery money, there are at least seven fresh produce cooperatives in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Write to Roger Pearce, 503 South Center, Arlington, 76010, to locate your nearest organization.
Bakeries
Aston's English Bakery, (6029 Luther Lane, 368- 6425). This is the stuff Nutcracker dreams are made of. Delectably costumed clowns, dogs, elephants, leprachauns, and gingerbread men peer from the cookie shelves, while ballerinas, cowboys and toy soldiers pirouette, ride or march across the most elaborate birthday cakes in town. If you haven't the time or the oven, take your cake recipe to Mr. Aston.
Bread without preservatives (salt rising, butter-crust, Rye and stoneground whole wheat) comes out of the oven between 7 and 10 A.M. Monday through Saturday. Despite the name, no crumpets, scones, or muffins to be found here. Hot crossed buns were the only thing remotely Anglican in sight.
Albert's Swiss Pastry Shop (5723 W. Lovers Lane 357-2952). European baked goods are prepared with more loving attention since pastry chef and owner Albert Schaufelberger no longer supplies Braniff Airlines with thousands of napoleons, rhum balls, eclaires and sylvanas. His small shop is easily crowded, and the parking in front woefully inadequate; however Albert's Dutch Almond cake is worth the trouble.
Black Forest Bakery (5819 Blackwell 368-4490). The Baker Hotel first whetted Texas appetites for Black Forest cake, but Daniel Dreyfus' bakery was the first to let them take it home with them. Besides the creamy rich cakes, macaroons, tortes, and breads available at all three locations, The Blackwell St. bakery behind Sterlings has a restaurant which serves superb quiches, European soups and sandwiches.
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