Fallen in Lurve!

Yes, folks, I have fallen in lurve..... I fell hard and fast. For Garden Fresh Market in Mundelein...

Now, you have all read about my search for the almost perfect grocery store (nothing is perfect, ayup). In this pursuit, I have been to a Garden Fresh in Northbrook. It was pretty good, it's primary feature being that 50% of it was kosher. But a coworker gave me a tip and told me to go to the Garden Fresh in Mundelein. So after over a week of feeling near death and not leaving the house, I finally worked up the strength to go.

I spent 2 hours there. It was heaven. I had died and gone to heaven.

It's fruit and veggie section was nearly as large as Russo's in Watertown - if the quality was not quite as good (well, of course not, Russo's is a wholesaler). It had huge sections of both Asian and Latino fruits and veggies. There were even items there that I had never seen before. It's deli section was about 3 times as large as any deli I have ever seen, and it sells about a dozen types of feta. It had a huge Greek yogurt section. Huge Russian and Polish sections. There were three - count them! - three types of headcheese, including a 1 pound tube o' headcheese redolent of onion and garlic (I bought it, yummy!). I even found items I was afeard I would never see again - Osem brand Israeli canned tomatoes and Swad brand Indian staples. There were more dulses than I could beat with a stick. More than 25 types of honey (I counted). Beef toungue. Chicken feet. Duck thighs. No rabbit though. And they did not have a huge fresh fish section, but maybe they don't get much call for that. What was there was fresh smelling and nice looking and they had large section of dried and smoked fish. And cheese! Not quite as much snooty imported stuff as you might find in a Whole Paycheck, but they had smoked butterkase and five types of French yoghurt cheese. I also got these excellent pumpkin and sunflower seed rolls that I am eating for breakfast. Checken drummies for 49 cents a pound. A frozen horchata snack bars. I could go on but, really, I am breathless and way too excited by this discovery.

But wait! There's more!

In February, the store is moving into the old Cub foods space.... which means it will be about 50% bigger than it is now.

I will have to make certain to leave the credit card at home the next time I visit....