Fresh & Easy, Useful! Useful?

[Priscilla]

I like Fresh & Easy . Not everyone does, IknowIknowIknow, but I think the constituencies who are likely to like it are, like me, fanatical cooks, or people who scrutinize the food they buy for reasons of health or avoidance, or people who like to gets things for a low price. I'll add in another constituency of which I am part: People who like to get in and then getoutgetoutgetout in, like, 5 min. Entirely possible, at F&E.

Not there a lot a lot a lot but that will change when the one planned in RSM near the Albertson's center on Plano Trabuco opens. Hope it's soon! Good quality fresh fish 5 min. away will be sheer luxury for me.

Here's a map of their SoCal locations.

I've mostly shopped in the Laguna Hills store, very convenient to Lag Hls Friday farmers market... Carlota to Ridge Route (if you're also, like me, all about a quick rip through St. V. de P.) and Bob's yer uncle. I majorly dig the shallower, higher, groovy shopping carts, and was dismayed when they added conventional supermarket-sized ones. Relief washed over me when they also retained the groovy ones. Shopping cart drama down to the F&E. I know all about studies showing bigger carts mean bigger sales, and I am quite interested in F&E surviving if not thriving and expanding, so that is OK with me. Esp. since I still get to use the groovy ones for my few items.

I've visited the two Orange stores, Main & Chapman and Tustin & Chapman, which are each in parts of Orange where we lived in the 1980s and 1990s, the flatlands of Main/Chapman and the hills of East Orange. Now with the RSM store imminent (please o please) it'll be a trifecta!

[Priscilla]

Ran through F&E yesterday, looking to restock the excellent whole-grain French moutarde which comes complete WITHOUT additives. EXCEEDINGLY hard to find, mustard without additives. The relatively innocuous, additive-wise, citric acid is the worst offender, taste-wise. Obliterates all other flavors.

I'm on a constant search for citric-acid-free mustard, and F&E has a bunch of 'em. Whole-grain French not least among them, but also a smooth Dijon style, and various squeezy-bott horseradish and sweet and so forth.

AND it was on "Extra Low Price" which means in humanspeak sale.

Also, as part of their expanded British goods range, malt vinegar, which Ivan must have and which we had only the end of a bott left.

And some pasta, was in need of cut shapes, as their own brand pasta is very very good. Have not tried the organic the whole grain the other non-normal ones, but the normal, the regular, the cheap, (from Italy), is very very very good.

Scanned my items into my own bag, and out the door in some few minutes' of time without any problem at all.

Roll on, RSM store. Not that there's been any visible progress in the scrubby field where it supposedly will be. But one lives in hope.

[Priscilla]

F&E has a coupon for a free 6-bottle wine bag out just now, at least for its Facebook friendz and/or email subscribers.

Very nice bag -- got mine today. Just $1.99 to buy, cheap enough, free w/$25 purchase is better yet, esp. because unlike regular coupons wine can help you make your $25, AND it's 20% off 6 bottles as part of this promotion.

Of course I wanted the pocket bag for all kinds of bottled things, not just wine. I reiterate my habitual rant that EVERY canvas shopping bag should have 2 pockets for bottles in it... not just for wine and liquor, but olive oil, whatever. Ridiculous that this is not more common.

Frustratingly, the grainy French Dijon mustard I've been buying there lo these few years has not been in stock 2 recent visits. I hope they're not dropping it... SO hard to find mustard with no citric acid ruining everything. They still had the smooth however, so maybe there's hope for the grainy.

AND, I happened to notice in passing that they indeed have the roll-out refrigerated pie crusts our Dan was speaking of NOT finding at his F&E over in What did we cook in OC? some ago. Seemed like a slamdunk F&E item, to me, or else I'm just superprescient or something, because apparently they finally agreed and added them to the product range.

They have added a LOT of products that they did not start with, in fact -- I like that kind of responsiveness to customers. Noticed Tillamook cheese today, too, for instance.

And still sososo EZ to shop and self-check and getoutgetoutgetout. I love that.

[Priscilla]

Tried last night for the first time Freesy's (I see some of its FB fans using this nickname) organic Italian pasta.

Very good! Good strong texture and strong wheaty flavor, both of which I want in my pasta. Deep golden color, a decided bonus. It was spaghetti w/marinara, so a fairly plain platform to judge the component parts. Course it was my homemade marinara w/chile & mint with all ingredients from our garden and a flurry of freshly grated Parm and Rom, but still. Simple. And good.

I ferget the exact price, but it was cheeeep, I know that, perhaps 99 cents? Maybe over a dollar. A bit more than their regular, non-organic line, which is also from Italy, and is also very good.

Resolved: Freesy does a great job in the pasta category.

[Priscilla]

Ivan and Le Mangeur report that, on the way home from refirewooding, between supereasy ingress, egress and self-checkout, they spent a total of less than minute in Freesy Lag Hls procuring a nice chicken for roasting.

[Priscilla]

This is really good news: Freesy (yes, some freaks call it that) has Angelo & Franco ricotta!

Whole Foods's been the only place I've found it previously, and Freesy's had their mozz (which Costco also does) for a while, but SO glad to find the ricotta there, all convenient-like. It is tied, flavor- and quality-wise w/Gioia, for Best Commercial Ricotta.

Also, though, as I pointed out in Taste of Orange County on the Michael Symon recipe post, A&F has the not-slight advantage of being packed in a draining basket inside its tub, so that it's already perfectly drained for gnocch, for instance, or other preparations that require this step.

Plus, got another free Freesy bag, w/coupon and $20 purchase!