Saturday in the City

I'll never forget our first day in the city. We headed out about 4 hours after we got to our apartment that day (after a nap), and went to the nearest grocery store. And almost had heart attacks. Because the food, oh the food, was sooooo expensive. I remember gasping rather loudly when I saw the price of a 2 liter of pop was $3. A quick look at each other, a nod, and we were out of there having only bought the necessities: toilet paper, cat litter, tissues, etc.

We've been going back and forth since then about how in the world do you eat cheaply here? Buying your groceries at the store and preparing your own lunches (something I've done for 12+ years or so) is just not going to cut it. And while the street vendors are cheap, if you want some veggies or any kind of fruit, they just don't have it. What's a couple who are trying to budget supposed to do?

And that's where the best market in the world steps in. I had been doing some research online and found a Farmer's Market about 2 blocks from us. We headed over yesterday just to see what it was like because we had pretty much decided to just eat out going forward. The Farmer's Market had a corresponding "Meat Market". And I have to say folks, we are in love. The Meat Market is not just a Meat Market, but an entire CHEAPLY PRICED grocery store. It has a small selection (maybe 10 kinds of cereal instead of 40), but what it does have, rocks.

All the delicious meat

Vegetables and fruit too

For less than $50, we got a pineapple, 3 cucumbers, a head of lettuce, the fattest tomato I've ever seen, an avocado, 8 bananas, a lime, a lemon, a package of baby carrots, a 2 liter of Diet Mountain Dew, 12 cans of Budweiser, a loaf of bread, 3 fat steaks, hot sauce, BBQ sauce, a package of turkey bacon, butter, and a huge bottle of EVOO.

*Cue music*

We have a busy week coming up, so we decided after our grocery expedition to take it easy yesterday, and just headed down to the Hudson to take a look at the Intrepid Aircraft Carrier.



We were slowly walking back to our apartment afterwads, and spotted a bowling alley. We popped in to take a look but decided to save that treat for another weekend, and instead, ended up back in the game room of our apartment bldg, meeting some new people, shooting pool, watching the UK basketball game, and drinking our Budweiser.

The Bowling Alley

The Game Room

All-in-all, a pretty fantastic day.

We do have super exciting plans coming up on Monday and Wednesday this week, so make sure to check back on Tuesday and Thursday to see what we were up to!

--K