Grocery shopping

People are curious about where we shop....especially when they see us at the local supermarket.

Mostly we shop at a restaurant supply or a wholesale produce place in large quantities. For special Asian spices or Indian spices, we go to those Asian markets like Kam Man in East Hanover and the Indian stores in Edison. Aren't I worried that you could go there too? Not really. You might have space to store the bottles and jars of what will be leftover after you use the tablespoon you need for the recipe. Also when it goes bad, it goes to waste. At DinnerSmith we save you that waste because we know we will finish the whole bottle of fish sauce or lemon grass in a short time. Sometimes we need things in a hurry...we run out of red peppers. Then we run over to Pathmark or Whole Foods or very often Super Stop and Shop. We really try to buy appropriate quantities because we deal in freshness, as well as convenience. Also we do eat the food ourselves and we eat a lot of research.

Sometime you will see us buy one vegetable or one fruit. That's usually research. For instance we are working on the Vietnamese noodle soup called Pho. In this case, there are a lot of ingrediants that are not currently on the menu and we are not sure how this will turn out so the purchasing is very limited. Well, except for the case of thread noodles. As a preview, so far the stuff is awesome! Rich broth yummy noodles and crunchy veg are the base of this great south east asian soup.

We have been getting an education in Vietnamese cuisine from one of the guys who has been close to Dinnersmith since before it opened: Lam Nyugen. He is responsible for the Coconut Curry with Shrimp and Chicken and assisted in Grilled Thai Pork Chops. The curry is back for September; celebrate back to school with this great meal. Lam has taken Sharon to some restaurants to help understand the cuisine of his family. I will ask her to blog about what they ate and Lam's advice in local restaurants.

We are keeping most of our international menu from August thru September. Come and get dinner from different cultures to share with your family! It is great to be back after a long summer!