I am Supermarket Years Old

And it's making me feel Insane in the Brain

“Is that Cyprus Hill?” my friend asked.

We had just walked through the doors of the South Lake Tahoe Whole Foods.

🎵INSANE IN THE MEMBRANE! INSANE IN THE BRAIN!🎵

There it was — the stony hip hop my parents begged me to turn down; the lyrics about 40s and dodging the cops; the chorus, “gang talk” used by the hardest Bloods and Crips in Los Angeles; B-Real’s signature high-pitched, nasal vocals and the shrill squeal that punctuates it every few seconds — playing at a polite volume as I selected a container of 50% off, pre-cut organic pineapple.

“When did Cyprus Hill become supermarket music?” I wondered.

By the time we got to the cereal aisle, Death Cab For Cutie was wafting through the speakers.

“Has our music become…easy listening???!?!” I looked at my friend, stunned.

We returned the next day to stock up on hiking snacks.

🎵WITH MY NAKED EYE, I SAW ALL THE FALLING RAIN, COMING DOWN🎵

“Oh my god, this is Luscious Jackson.” I said, aghast, while gently pressing my thumb into an avocado — each of us spends 19% of our lives searching for a perfectly ripe one, and the quest doesn’t cease just because we’re on vacation.

🎵JUST LIVING ON A SUNDAY MORNING, GOT MY TOAST AND TEA AND I’M WARM AND I JUST THOUGHT I’D THINK ABOUT…🎵

Here and Now by Letters to Cleo as I walked past the wall of refrigerators cooling milk and coconut yogurt and probiotic cream cheese.

“This song isn’t even mainstream!” I was slightly panicked. “This is cool 90s alternative they used to play on LIVE 105!” The cool San Francisco radio station I listened to religiously in high school.

The next day in the chip aisle: Good by Better than Ezra, as we selected a bag of store brand Fritos.

I was torn! (Note: We did not hear any Natalie Imbruglia, but I’m sure it played after we left.) I loved this music! And I was getting to listen to it while I did one of my favorite activities: grocery shopping! But…WHY WAS OUR COOL MUSIC BEING PLAYED AT A MULTINATIONAL GROCERY STORE CHAIN?

Has my generation’s music joined the soft rock ranks of Foreigner and Phil Collins, and was the generation before me alarmed when they first heard Foreigner and Phil Collins while placing Country Crock margarine and Kudos granola bars in their shopping carts?

Being an adult is weird. Also, I really liked the South Lake Tahoe Whole Foods. Very nice. Good store-brand Frosted Mini Wheats. Cheap avocados. Lots of ripe ones. Large variety of bougie hot dogs. Excellent music. Five stars.

Here’s a snack plate I made on the Rubicon Trail in Lake Tahoe with our Cypress Hill infused Whole Foods loot: Fishwife Spanish lemon tuna, pickled okra and olives, the Fake Fritos dipped into our signature “trail guacamole,” which is just smashed avocado served in its own shell, always with Fritos because they are salty enough that the avocado needs no seasoning and sturdy enough to withstand the dipping.

As much as we absolutely loved the hiking and kayaking and tropical beauty of Lake Tahoe’s crystal clear blue waters, we found the restaurant food to be very average and forgettable. Luckily, I was reunited with a classic California treat:

I grew up in the Bay Area, but I didn’t realize It’s-It ice cream sandwiches were a California thing, made in San Francisco, until I moved to Seattle and didn’t see them in stores. It had been more than a decade since I had one, and I’m pleased as punch to report that they are JUST AS GOOD as they ever were! If you’ve not had one, the ice cream is sandwiched between two very tasty, soft, cinnamon-y oatmeal cookies and the whole thing is dunked in dark chocolate. I had one with mint ice cream the next day. Perfection!

New podcast episode with one of my favorites — Molly Yeh (pronounced Yay! which is very fitting for this delightful woman)! Molly hosts Girl Meets Farm on Food Network, owns Bernie’s, a cafe and bakery in East Grand Forks, Minnesota and is a best-selling cookbook author — her newest is called Sweet Farm and showcases Molly’s talent for creating sweet treats.

She is a DELIGHT. Listen to learn what a cookie salad is a (it’s a THING in the upper midwest) how Molly, a Juilliard grad with a percussion degree, ended up living on a sugar beet farm in the upper-Midwest, and how her relationship with sprinkles has changed as she’s gotten older.

The Leftovers with Molly Yeh is also out now — a mini episode where she talks about what tool home bakers should be using to get professional results and lots more!

XO

Rachel Belle

P.S. I also write a bi-monthly food newsletter for Cascade PBS, called The Nosh Newsletter, with completely different content than this one — sign up here! (Mine is the third one on the list)