Archive for September, 2008

I’ve been several times already to the new Whole Foods market in Short Pump. I love a lot about what I see. But the store also needs to work on some issues.

First the bad.

• Customer service. While the checkout folks have been friendly, etc., the folks serving food are less so. They can act like they could care less to serve you.
• Cleanliness. I ate in their “cafe” area and every free table was filthy from the last diner. The garbage areas were overflowing with refuse. One man started to empty the bin, but never came back after seeing it was full.
• Supplies. Gotta have enough trays, salad bins, and salad tops available for customers.
• Parking. Will there be more parking spots? Because right now, it’s pathetic, and I think we may have another “Downtown Short Pump Parking Debacle” on our hands.
• Prices. Yes, some things are expensive. I realize they are using organic ingredients, but… this isn’t your “I’ll do all my shopping here every week” type of store.

Next, pictures.

I had a chocolate chip cookie which was… wonderful. Never have I had a cookie that had such depth of flavor. It was not a crispy and chewing style cookie (my favorite), but the quality of chocolate and brown sugar used made up for that.

The pizza was tasty. Too bad it went cold again (after being put back into the oven) with such a long wait at the checkout. But, where else can you get pear, blue cheese, and bacon on a pizza in Richmond? It cost $3.30 a slice. Ouch.

Delicious looking fruit, and so much of it.

Pre-packaged for a healthy snack, or breakfast.

More of the same.

This place is overflowing with great-looking produce. From stone fruits, to tomatoes, to figs, it was all there.

There’s something to be said for abundance; it sells, and you tend to want more of what you see.

I have to hunt for a good fig recipe.

Thank you! An excellent selection of wines at all price points. So many inspiring options.

The meat case looks good; not as “spread out” or carrying as much variety as the Fresh Market, but some areas are self-serve which Fresh Market does not have. Whole Foods also beats FM on the seafood section.

Lots to find, lots of unique beverages.

Yummy selections of pre-packged, to-go foods.

Their minestrone was delicious, and the solids were not mushy! Yeah!

Enough parmesan to make me cry.

Their croissants were delicious.

A few more views:

Checkout:

I did say, checkout:

I love the checkout for two reasons: they’ve got a lot of lines, they take PayPass MasterCard (no swipe, just present the card and it beeps!), and the readouts are cool. They even print double-sided receipts to save money.

My advice: visit hungry (it’s wrong, but it feels so good), don’t carry a budget (you’ll go beyond it), and go at non-peak times. You’ll certainly find something delicious at Whole Foods.

Next time, hopefully Trader Joe’s down a few hundred feet on West Broad Street will be open, too!

This weekend I had dinner at MoshiMoshi, an Asian fusion restaurant in Richmond’s Carytown.

You might like first to read about Moshi elsewhere:

• Style Weekly
• Adventures in Food and Fashion
• Read, Drink, and Be Merry

It’s been hot this weekend, and we were looking for a place that was cool. After arriving, we were ushered upstairs at Moshi Moshi where… it was still warm. Granted, the restaurant indoors had far less humidity, but the inside was still… balmy, in that bad type of way. I am sensitive to temperature, and it likely didn’t bother other diners. The dining area is small, but it was kind of fun being upstairs. The decor is minimalist, with wood tone throughout, and the atmosphere, despite what I read in at least one of the links above, was quite casual. The bar downstairs and the comfortable vibe would make it a great place for a “bite” to eat—thinking appetizers, sushi rolls, and a few drinks—if you were in the “neighborhood.”

Destination restaurant? I’m not so sure.

I am not sure I’ve ever sat so long at a restaurant deciding what I wanted to eat. This was not the fault of the waitstaff, they were plenty efficient. I just couldn’t figure what I wanted. I think I’d want one thing, then… change my mind, because it had something in it I didn’t like, or thought would be bad. Among our party we tried the calamari appetizer (good sauce, crunchy tempura batter, not sure what was inside mattered—could have been anything with the same taste), spider roll, spicy salmon roll, avocado roll, miso soup, two different steak entrées, seafood with mixed vegetables, and raw tuna with fried avocado wedges in a citrus sauce.

I don’t care for fusion food’s authenticity; it’s not authentic, period. But it can be delicious. The sauce I had with my steak entrée was good; I cared less for the taro root “whisps” on top. And while i was served rice, I would have preferred something like… wasabi potatoes. The citrus sauce with the fried avocado was great, but I’m not sure there was enough sauce for all the supposedly “seared” tuna on the plate. As one diner said, “That tuna was supposed to be cooked, but it didn’t come inches near any source of heat!”

The miso soup, everyone agreed, was… disappointing. It was watery, it had difficult to chew and eat chunks in it (not sure what of, perhaps some kind of fried onion?), and even adding soy sauce to the soup didn’t make it palatable. Should have opted for the salad, although it was typical, chunks of iceberg lettuce with a sweet gingery dressing.

The sushi items were not bad, in fact, while my steak was tasty and cooked well to perfection, I liked the rolls best. I detest these 5-10 ingredient rolls with so much sweet sauce on them that are more and more popular nowadays. These had a good quality mouth feel with the rice, and good texture. Flavor wasn’t bad, either. Yet, some of the rolls wrapped in nori were falling apart; the nori “peeling away” from the roll. I’d never seen this before.

While some in my party said they’d like to return to Moshi Moshi, I can’t say it would be high on my list. No one thing won me over: the restaurant was relatively quiet, the bar list didn’t have any exotic cocktails (but did have a pretty extensive sake collection), the decor was plain, the aforementioned temperature warm, and while some of the food was above average, other parts of the meal disappointed.

Again, service was good, but not superlative. Three of us got our entrées at once with the help of an extra waiter, but the fourth had a 4-minute wait for his. Don’t you hate that, when hot food is delivered, and you can’t eat because you are waiting in kindness for others to get theirs? When the waitress returned, she asked how everything was. Good manners would have dictated a non-response since none of us should have tasted anything yet, left waiting.

I’m glad I tried Moshi Moshi, as it had escaped my normal radar. If I am in a Japanese mood again and find myself in Carytown, I can’t say I won’t go back… but now I know what to try more of, and what to avoid.

There are not too many weekends that I don’t find my way down at Vietnam-1 on Broad Street (adjacent to Horsepen), ordering one of my favorite noodle dishes, including this one, the infamous N6 (pork dumplings). I always add a touch of soy sauce, bean sprouts, and if I’m in the mood, slices of potent jalapeño.