Tropical Foods

For my "Computers in Nutrition Education" Class I had to design a website based on some nutrition topic. Mine was on, "Eating Healthy on a Budget" (Feel free to check out my website... keep in mind it was built completely from scratch and this was my first building of anything.... )

Whenever I talked about my website project to J. His response was always, "How to eat healthy on a budget? Shop at Tropical Foods!" Some of the lowest priced groceries in Boston, and lots of tropical produce, spices and odd cuts of meat that you cannot find anywhere else in Boston.

After listening to him constantly chattering on and on about Tropical Foods, his Family's business, the other day after walking to the Animal Rescue League, to do my birdie research, I decided to walk to nearby Roxbury to check out this grocery store for myself.

I felt like a bit of a creeper taking pictures in the grocery store,... I got a couple weird looks from the employees and other costumers, but I got a few!

Their produce section was quite something, they had all of the normal - produce: apples, bananas, lettuce, and whatnot, as well as tons of more ethnic foods, such as ripe and green plantains, a very large variety of yams/ yucas/ other unknown root vegetables like these:



And of course, they had my favorite section of any grocery store: the discount produce section! One of the items in the discount section was this guy:


I have no idea what it is, nor could I find a description of it anywhere,.... but it was on clearance!

They also had the most amazing array of spices, marinades, oils and hot sauces I have ever seen.



Of course a long with their healthy produce, they also sell a variety of unhealthy treats, such as some delicious (??) pork rinds:


Their meat selection was very extensive and scary (to me...) They even sell conch meat, which apparently is very popular (it honestly just reminds me of Lord of the Flies.)

I was especially excited to hear an advertisement over the interc0m for Pizza Wine while I was in the store! Too funny...

J. was very excited that I actually ventured out to Tropical Foods. Apparently most of his friends are too scared to travel out to Roxbury (It really wasn't all that scary.) As a sign of his appreciation for my business, I received my very own Tropical Foods sweatshirt!




So if you are trying to eat healthy on a budget, or looking for some specific ethnic foods, check out Tropical Foods in Roxbury!

Girls Night

A couple of weeks ago, on one of the first unpleasant snowfalls, the girls and I had a nice little girls night in. Jessica, Erika, and I met at Megan's house where she cooked us a lovely dinner of homemade pizza.

She makes delicious pizza dough, I've had a pizza by her where she mixed some rosemary and Italian spices into the dough. It was devine.

This pizza was made with white dough (she attempted whole wheat but the flour was bad), it was topped with tomatoes and some greenery (not gonna lie... it was a couple weeks ago I may not remember it.)

Since Megan informed me that she was making Pizza I realized it was the perfect time to try out the Pizza Wine J. got me!

"An Affair between wine and pizza!" (sold in Boston only at Tropical Foods!)

I actually really enjoyed the pizza wine. It was not what I had expected, it had a slight carbonation to it, it was almost in between wine and a wine spritzer. Nice and light and fruity! Great for a girls night.

Erika, Megan's friend from home, also brought some Berkshire Beer

It is a very flavorful beer-- I honestly do not know enough about beer to describe it as hoppy or wheatie whatever but I like it.

They also make one of my favorite beers: Berkshire's Coffeehouse Porter. Described by Berkshire as "this dark ale combines the taste of real organic coffee with out popular Drayman's Porter." Apparently they have also created a coffee flavored beer on tap, but I have not tried that yet that I know of.

The evening was pretty spectacular. It was very good to catch up with the girlies, and enjoy good food and drinks. Jessica also took the liberty to snap a couple of photos such as of Meg and me,


ain't we lookers?

Girls Night again soon, ok??