Here is a bit of really old news - there is a new Wegmans in the neighborhood. Everybody and I mean everybody had been hyperventilating about it for months. Much was made about the fact that the store had decided to plonk its royal big boxness in Prince George's county and not in Montgomery county. After a few months of receiving coupons and come hither glances from the store in the mail, we decided to go check it out.
So does it live up to its hype? Well, yes and no. Wegmans is like the spawn of Whole Foods, Trader Joes and your average grocery store, if that were ever possible - though a very handsome, well groomed spawn. The interior is well lit and organised. The hot food section looked enticing but we kept walking. In the past, but the coffee from the in-store cafe was average.
We entered through the fresh produce section of the store and made our way to the cheese and meat departments which are very reminiscent of Central Market. Next up, the mid section of the store which is sort of like a Whole Foods with all the herbal supplements and homeopathy remedies. And then suddenly the lighting and color scheme changes and boom! you are in the Doritos and Cheez Wiz section. Prices were reasonable for some items and downright atrocious for others.
So the long and short of this entire ramble is that no, I would not go out of the way to shop at Wegmans. However, (there is always a however) there is one item that might just persuade me to make the cross county trip-lamb. Unless you shop at a high end butcher, good lamb is a little to difficult to procure and Wegmans has a variety of cuts in reasonable sized portions. We bought a pound of Butterflied lamb leg. And that brings us to the soup part of this exercise.
The lamb was marinated and cooked with lentils into a vat of harira. I used
this recipe because it uses my favorite kitchen appliance - the pressure cooker. It was cinch to put together and the results were good and if I may brag a little, it was almost
Lebanese Taverna good.
Labels: Soups
