So the other day I had a hankering for some salmon after watching a Red Lobster commercial. Rather than spend $5.00 on gas, $12.99 on salmon that I know I could cook better, and whatever my girlfriend wanted, plus the tip, I decided that it would be more financially responsible (joke) to take 2 hours and $80.00 to make it myself. After driving to target, I found that the only salmon they had that was “fresh” cost quite a bit more than I expected (being from Alaska, I was used to getting salmon for a measly 15 minutes with a fly rod in my back yard), not to mention “fresh” was a relative term. I never use a recipe when I cook, but I have a special rub I like to use for fish that takes some relatively easy to find spices. Target had none of these.
In Rochester (southern MN), the most popular grocery stores are “Hy-Vee Food and Drug,” a smaller grocery chain out of Iowa. Being smaller, they tend to have a wider selection than most corporate grocery stores because they have less of them to stock, and they manage to maintain lower costs as well because their customers are very loyal and take a lot of business away from the larger stores. They have much better promotions, and even have their own coffee shops, gas stations, and liquor stores, all of which give coupons (like ten percent off your entire purchase) to their related counterparts. Their organic and Whole-Foods like section is HUGE and relatively cheap compared to other stores as well. Essentially they are a good representation of a smaller, locally owned and locally operated grocery store that promotes organic food, fresh produce, and hormone-free fish, red meat, and poultry. If you hadn’t already guessed, I prefer them over any of the larger corporate stores.
Anyways, I brought a few filets of the salmon at $8.50/lb (ouch), various produce items for garnishes and a salad, all of which seemed higher priced than they have been in the past (most notably corn), and fixings for rice pilaf. Two hours later I had a dinner for two that could have fed five (a habit I’ve picked up from living with three other guys who can’t cook to save their lives) and I began to feast. Dinner consisted of pan seared honey/soy sauce/brown sugar marinated salmon filets, asparagus, Caesar salad, lemon butter rice pilaf and vanilla ice cream for dessert. After stuffing my face until it could no longer be stuffed, I feel swiftly into a food coma that was to last more than a couple of hours.
In essence, I spent five hours, way too much money, and a hell of a lot of energy to make a dinner that was inspired by a 30 second clip on TV while watching a rerun of Jersey Shore when I could have spent 45 minutes and a third the price at a crappy chain restaurant. Not exactly the best way to utilize my time, energy, or modest waiter salary. But, I was fat and happy, and so were my roommates who got the leftovers (of which there were plenty) for free (bastards). Being the only one that actually works more than 20 hours a week, cooks, cleans, buys booze, sober cabs often, and helps with homework, I feel much more like their Dad than their roommate. But hey, if nothing else, I’ll just bill the hell out of them on when we move out of our apartment and call it even.
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