Both are fantastic… is it even possible that I prefer one over the other?

Yes… Little Szechuan has booze… otherwise. Yum!

I would like to give a shout out to the good people at the Eastside Food Coop for basically being the greatest business in Northeast Minneapolis.

Why, you might ask? I mean, besides the good selection of seasonal produce, a very workable selection of fancy cheeses, and the fact that they stock the excellent and reliable De Cecco Pasta despite it being neither local nor organic?

This is an aside, but know this Friends: until Shogunmoon has time to do testing on his own and/or access to fancier italian pastas, he does not use anything but De Cecco! I am not kidding about this. Believe me, I am not a person that has much brand loyalty as a general rule, but this stuff can be counted on. The only other brand loyalties I have are for this line of Misono knives, Lip Ivo and Levi’s.

Anyway, I was having the I-forgot-to-shop-for-easter-dinner blues, and found myself thinking the following Easter morn- Hmm, what can I create out of the limited grocery offerings of the local Walgreens?

Luckily Christie, in a stroke of either complete genius or complete naiveté, figured it was worth checking to see if Eastside happened to be open. Me? I didn’t think there was a chance in hell. Lord knows, @#$# Rainbow and Lunds were closed. Bastards.

The Eastside was wide open, ladies and gentleman. And busier then I have ever seen it. I was able to purchase some De Cecco pasta, Taleggio cheese, almonds, and some locally farmed cream and butter. Mac n’ cheese baby, shogun style. It was GOOD.

Anyway, Northeasters, we are quite fortunate to have such a first class establishment in our midst. You will be doing yourselves a favor by patronizing this would-be Northeast institution.

Now, if we could just get a decent bar on Central Avenue…

-shogunmoon

Eastside Food Cooperative
http://www.eastsidefood.coop/
2551 Central Ave. NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Voicemail: 612-788-0950