I was poking around the big Safeway in the Kapahulu general area region street district and lo! They have a whole, tiny GF section! I was so surprised!
At first I noticed the Gluten Free Cafe snack bars. Then I realized they were near some gluten free granola bars. Then I realized there was Glutenfreeda oatmeal above that and some Schar cheese bites below ... as well as pastas, macaroni and cheese, cookies, and so on. All in a happy, teensy little section!
I'm always thrilled when the supermarkets start stocking more GF stuff. Foodland has been stocking a lot more of it lately as well, although Safeway is way cheaper. I feel far more comfortable paying $5.50 for Udi's bread than the 7.00+ that other stores ask. I think the next best price is usually at Vim and Vigor, although I'm sour on then after the WAY WAY WAY expired Tasty Bite. (Yes, I ate it. No, I didn't die. It was still fine. Just ... about ... 8 months expired or so, which is sad for a product with an 18 month shelf life.)
My birthday is in about a month and I'm trying to decide what I want to do for that. Whatever I eat must be smothered in rainbow chip frosting. I have been longing for rainbow chip frosting for years and years. I might just buy a jar of it and eat that instead of a cake. :D :D :D
Showing posts with label gluten free supermarkets honolulu hawaii. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gluten free supermarkets honolulu hawaii. Show all posts
Friday, April 29, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Good for you! Bad for you!
I had a horrible time trying to find a coconut today. You would think in freakin' Hawaii you could find coconuts, right? I went to two Foodland stores and the only coconuts they had were fairly young and mostly moldy. MOLDY. I like mature coconut, and ... well ... non-moldy ones, too. I went to both the Ala Moana location and the S. Beretania location. Lots of young, moldy coconuts.
But I was pretty surprised to see they had both upped their GF selections! The Ala Moana location had Tinkyada pasta, several Ener-G breads, and more than one variety of the Mi-Del gluten free cookies. (Usually everyone just carries the ginger snaps.) On previous visits they've just basically had Nut Thins and Tasty Bite curries, and that's been roughly the extent of their gluten free food selection. So this was a big surprise!
Then when I went to the S. Beretania location, I noticed they had Rudi's and Udi's breads! Wow!
Wow ... wow ... WOW WTF THAT PRICE OH MY GOLLY GOSH.
See, it's all fine and great and good to carry what are considered two of the best GF breads, but ... geez. Try to be a little more Safeway, a little less Whole Foods.
You see, Safeway recently has been carrying the Udi's and SOMETIMES Rudi's breads as well. At Safeway the Udi's only runs about $5.50, and for a while was on sale for 4.50. Rudi's is roughly $7. At Foodland, Udi's was about $7.70 and Rudi's was a dollar more. That's roughly what both brands cost at Whole Foods, which is a store known for its insanely high prices.
I was so thrilled that Safeway got these breads, since the prices end up being so low. I'm a little annoyed that Foodland is going more the WF route. It isn't even very competitive, since most stores that aren't WF charge $6.60-7ish. Rudi's at least has its scarcity on its side. But Udi's is at almost every single Safeway, Whole Foods, Vim & Vigor, and Kokua. Honestly, if you want to be competitive, you should try to be competitive.
Speaking of Vim & Vigor, I used to enjoy shopping there, but I just discovered that a food product I purchased there expired last August. Crap, I wasn't even in Hawaii last August. And this product supposedly has an 18 month shelf life, so I wonder how long it sat in there. (I ate it and haven't died yet. Retort curry probably doesn't go bad.)
You know what I really wish we had in Hawaii (other than coconuts, ha ha ha)? Schar breads. I really want to try those. I want a baguette! I wonder if I'll ever find one anywhere.
But I was pretty surprised to see they had both upped their GF selections! The Ala Moana location had Tinkyada pasta, several Ener-G breads, and more than one variety of the Mi-Del gluten free cookies. (Usually everyone just carries the ginger snaps.) On previous visits they've just basically had Nut Thins and Tasty Bite curries, and that's been roughly the extent of their gluten free food selection. So this was a big surprise!
Then when I went to the S. Beretania location, I noticed they had Rudi's and Udi's breads! Wow!
Wow ... wow ... WOW WTF THAT PRICE OH MY GOLLY GOSH.
See, it's all fine and great and good to carry what are considered two of the best GF breads, but ... geez. Try to be a little more Safeway, a little less Whole Foods.
You see, Safeway recently has been carrying the Udi's and SOMETIMES Rudi's breads as well. At Safeway the Udi's only runs about $5.50, and for a while was on sale for 4.50. Rudi's is roughly $7. At Foodland, Udi's was about $7.70 and Rudi's was a dollar more. That's roughly what both brands cost at Whole Foods, which is a store known for its insanely high prices.
I was so thrilled that Safeway got these breads, since the prices end up being so low. I'm a little annoyed that Foodland is going more the WF route. It isn't even very competitive, since most stores that aren't WF charge $6.60-7ish. Rudi's at least has its scarcity on its side. But Udi's is at almost every single Safeway, Whole Foods, Vim & Vigor, and Kokua. Honestly, if you want to be competitive, you should try to be competitive.
Speaking of Vim & Vigor, I used to enjoy shopping there, but I just discovered that a food product I purchased there expired last August. Crap, I wasn't even in Hawaii last August. And this product supposedly has an 18 month shelf life, so I wonder how long it sat in there. (I ate it and haven't died yet. Retort curry probably doesn't go bad.)
You know what I really wish we had in Hawaii (other than coconuts, ha ha ha)? Schar breads. I really want to try those. I want a baguette! I wonder if I'll ever find one anywhere.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Hawaiian Gluten Free Paradise
One of the biggest factors in my leaving Japan was being unable to eat food. I like food. I'm not one of those people who can cook a vat of chili and eat it for two weeks straight. My body just will not consume food it does not want to eat, and if it's bored or uninterested in something, I can't argue. If my body wants pizza and I try to give it rice, it will shut down the hunger after a few bites and I feel full but unsatisfied. Of course, I get hungry again about 30-60 minutes later. Horribly inconvenient.
So just a week or so after moving here, I have pretty well scouted out the best and worst places to get anything gluten free within my own little sphere of the world.
Keep in mind you're not only going to be paying the gluten free tax, but also the Hawaii tax. Food is expensive here.
If you're staying in Honolulu, I'm going to bet you're in Waikiki. If you aren't ... well ... too bad. But surely you can find something you can eat near you.
The first store I hit on my gf run was Down to Earth ( http://www.downtoearth.org/ ). They're an all-vegetarian store with a huge amount of gluten free food. I'm not vegetarian, nor do I have any desire to be, but they don't card you or interrogate you or sniff you for essence of meat before you go in.
They had a lot of frozen items (the usual Amy's as well as some other stuff), cereals, crackers, bread, pretzels, pasta, etc. The only item I was hoping they would have that they didn't (but the brochure said they did) was tortillas. They had the Annie's deluxe gf, so I was happy.
In their deli/bakery they had a couple of pizzas that were listed as gf, as well as wheat-free cookies (I assume not gf due to the potential for cross-contamination). I was intrigued by both, but a bit turned off by fake meat (dude, if you're going to eat meat ... just eat meat) on the pizza and dates in the cookies. I just have a thing about raisins or dates in cookies. Can't stand them. Always taste them. No good.
The next on my list was Whole Foods. This is in the Kahala Mall and a bit of a trek if you're ... anywhere. I had to take two buses to get there, and by the time I got home I had spent over an hour and a half on buses and my food was melting.
It was my first time in a Whole Foods, but I think they're pretty standard, yeah? Really expensive, but lots of gf stuff. I was very tempted by the doughnuts, pie, and carrot cake. Ohhhh carrot cake. But I can't afford $12 in carrot cake or $16 pumpkin pies! They had a lot of nice stuff and I spent a lot of money on it. Mostly things I hadn't been able to find at Down to Earth or the other supermarkets in the area.
The next was Kokua Market ( http://kokuamarket.ning.com/ ). Fortunately for me and my tortilla lust, after forgetting to buy them at Whole Foods, Kokua had some for me. They also had a decent selection of items, including Glutino crackers, bagels, frozen items (mostly Amy's), and instant oatmeal in a flavor I would never touch (ewww banana). They had a bit more pizza than Down to Earth had, and since they're just down the street I bet they stay a little bit competitive in pricing. A little. Chicken noodle soup! Hurray!
All in all, not bad, and probably the least I've spent on groceries thus far, even though I got several items.
Now, don't think you have to go to these hippy-dippy crunchy earth-loving vegan all-natural shops to get your food on.
Walmart is not the place to go for anything. It's not a grocery store for all intents and purposes, and is more of a tourist destination for Japanese people who want to be able to say they went to a Walmart.
The Japanese version of Walmart, in a sense, is Don Quijote (or "Donki" as we usually called it in Japan). I actually found several gf foods in Donki, such as cereals and pastas. It was kind of odd, considering I'd just left Japan due to its dearth of gf food. Of course, in Japan they don't sell the same foods ...
I haven't been to Times, but the Safeway I went to has very little in the way of gf stuff. A few Amy's dinners, a couple of bags of pasta. They do have some lunch meat that is labeled gf (Hormel, IIRC) at least. It's a little disappointing, since it's my nearest store.
Foodland in Ala Moana has a few items (mostly Amy's), but the other Foodland I went to on S. Beretania had a LOT of stuff. Waffles and chicken tenders and cereals. They even had some breads in the freezer case. A decent selection at a relatively normal store. The prices are still kind of insane, but at least you can get one of those little shopper cards and pretend you're getting a discount.
So there you go. Just a short list of my findings. If I find anything else ... I will report back.
So just a week or so after moving here, I have pretty well scouted out the best and worst places to get anything gluten free within my own little sphere of the world.
Keep in mind you're not only going to be paying the gluten free tax, but also the Hawaii tax. Food is expensive here.
If you're staying in Honolulu, I'm going to bet you're in Waikiki. If you aren't ... well ... too bad. But surely you can find something you can eat near you.
The first store I hit on my gf run was Down to Earth ( http://www.downtoearth.org/ ). They're an all-vegetarian store with a huge amount of gluten free food. I'm not vegetarian, nor do I have any desire to be, but they don't card you or interrogate you or sniff you for essence of meat before you go in.
They had a lot of frozen items (the usual Amy's as well as some other stuff), cereals, crackers, bread, pretzels, pasta, etc. The only item I was hoping they would have that they didn't (but the brochure said they did) was tortillas. They had the Annie's deluxe gf, so I was happy.
In their deli/bakery they had a couple of pizzas that were listed as gf, as well as wheat-free cookies (I assume not gf due to the potential for cross-contamination). I was intrigued by both, but a bit turned off by fake meat (dude, if you're going to eat meat ... just eat meat) on the pizza and dates in the cookies. I just have a thing about raisins or dates in cookies. Can't stand them. Always taste them. No good.
The next on my list was Whole Foods. This is in the Kahala Mall and a bit of a trek if you're ... anywhere. I had to take two buses to get there, and by the time I got home I had spent over an hour and a half on buses and my food was melting.
It was my first time in a Whole Foods, but I think they're pretty standard, yeah? Really expensive, but lots of gf stuff. I was very tempted by the doughnuts, pie, and carrot cake. Ohhhh carrot cake. But I can't afford $12 in carrot cake or $16 pumpkin pies! They had a lot of nice stuff and I spent a lot of money on it. Mostly things I hadn't been able to find at Down to Earth or the other supermarkets in the area.
The next was Kokua Market ( http://kokuamarket.ning.com/ ). Fortunately for me and my tortilla lust, after forgetting to buy them at Whole Foods, Kokua had some for me. They also had a decent selection of items, including Glutino crackers, bagels, frozen items (mostly Amy's), and instant oatmeal in a flavor I would never touch (ewww banana). They had a bit more pizza than Down to Earth had, and since they're just down the street I bet they stay a little bit competitive in pricing. A little. Chicken noodle soup! Hurray!
All in all, not bad, and probably the least I've spent on groceries thus far, even though I got several items.
Now, don't think you have to go to these hippy-dippy crunchy earth-loving vegan all-natural shops to get your food on.
Walmart is not the place to go for anything. It's not a grocery store for all intents and purposes, and is more of a tourist destination for Japanese people who want to be able to say they went to a Walmart.
The Japanese version of Walmart, in a sense, is Don Quijote (or "Donki" as we usually called it in Japan). I actually found several gf foods in Donki, such as cereals and pastas. It was kind of odd, considering I'd just left Japan due to its dearth of gf food. Of course, in Japan they don't sell the same foods ...
I haven't been to Times, but the Safeway I went to has very little in the way of gf stuff. A few Amy's dinners, a couple of bags of pasta. They do have some lunch meat that is labeled gf (Hormel, IIRC) at least. It's a little disappointing, since it's my nearest store.
Foodland in Ala Moana has a few items (mostly Amy's), but the other Foodland I went to on S. Beretania had a LOT of stuff. Waffles and chicken tenders and cereals. They even had some breads in the freezer case. A decent selection at a relatively normal store. The prices are still kind of insane, but at least you can get one of those little shopper cards and pretend you're getting a discount.
So there you go. Just a short list of my findings. If I find anything else ... I will report back.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)