7

GO Picks 4.16.09 – Olive Oil, Vanilla Cream Liqueur & Butter

ron-jr

I hope you saw the Grocery Outlet Bargain Store’s sale on 6-packs of Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice for 99 cents (plus CRV).

Ron Davis Jr. showed me the three pallets of the stuff but said it wouldn’t last probably longer than a couple of days. He’s delighted with sales at GO and said last week saw record-high sales. Nice to hang out with a winner, isn’t it? (Remember to mention you read about GO on A News Cafe so they know the source of these new customers.)

Kelly and I are having a blast selecting GO picks each week. Funny, we keep waiting for a customer to ask why we’re photographing groceries. So far, nobody’s said a peep. (I have noticed that after I photograph something, customers slide behind me to reach for the featured item.)

OK, but just in case the cranberry juice is wiped out, I made some other back-up GO picks. All are items that have a pretty good shelf life (less so for the first item, butter – but keep it in the fridge and it’ll be fine for a couple of months). Shoot. I spoiled your GO surprise.

Butter up!

Cabot AA-Grade Butter. One pound. GO pick is 1.99 – elsewhere it sells for $3.99.

butter-go-pick-april-16

Next up,  Cucina Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Italy. Initially I was attracted to the bottle with one of those cute flip-up attached stoppers (future limoncello container) but I fell in love with the price at the GO: $7.99 for 1 liter – elsewhere $15.99.  (Cucina – pronounced coo-cheena  means kitchen in Italian. No, don’t thank me.) I bought a bottle and promptly stuck it in the dark, which is the way we should store olive oil, especially when it’s stored in clear bottles. In a perfect world, the olive oil is stored in ceramic containers, in a cool, dark place. Light and heat are oilve oil’s enemy.

go-pick-april-16-olive-oil

 

Finally, I couldn’t help myself. I saw the vanilla creme liqueur that fellow foodie Loves to Eat mentioned (alas, Loves to Eat remains one of the few readers who still doesn’t reveal a real name … sigh). Anyway, the bottle is metal, and pretty cool looking. But check out its price. No wonder LTE went back for more.

go-picks-vanilla-creme

OMG! Elsewhere it sells for $19.99 (let’s just call it what it is; $20) but GO sells it for $5.99 (equal opportunity honesty – $6). It tried it over ice with a little Kahlua and some half-and-half. The result was a drink similar to what Kelly and I created when we bartended resently for at Maritime Seafood & Grill: Deep Throat.

Shhhh. It’s our secret.

Doni Chamberlain

Independent online journalist Doni Chamberlain founded A News Cafe in 2007 with her son, Joe Domke. Chamberlain holds a Bachelor's Degree in journalism from CSU, Chico. She's an award-winning newspaper opinion columnist, feature and food writer recognized by the Associated Press, the California Newspaper Publishers Association and E.W. Scripps. She's been featured and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Washington Post, L.A. Times, Slate, Bloomberg News and on CNN, KQED and KPFA. She lives in Redding, California. © All rights reserved.

7 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments