Market Basket (Demoulas)

Oh, what a magical supermarket. Every visit, I discover something new about Somerville or food or Somerville food. The prices are lowest in town. The people are exciting. If you visit at the right time of day, it’s the calmest supermarket in town, or the most frenetic. It’s a hug, or a rugby game.

It is the most inexpensive market in town. Compare eye of round roast – a good stew or pot roast for $2.99/lb against Stop & Shop’s $4.99. All are graded “choice,” the second-fanciest grade after prime, which is hard to find outside specialty butchers. Bosc pears compare at $.89/lb versus $.69 each at S&S. Grapefruit are $.79 each, twenty cents cheaper. Bread is cheaper, vegetables are cheaper. Market Basket nearly fell intro trouble with the Commonwealth in 2007, because they wanted to sell milk at a lower price than the state’s minimum. The Herald reported a couple of years ago you can save $1900 per year by shopping Market Basket.

But I appreciate the customers even more than the prices. The folks in Somerville who cook their own meals from scratch every day – and I mean not only epicures but also folks who can’t afford pre-packaged food or culturally keep a working kitchen – shop here. You can tell some longtime locals because they call it Demoulas, (“de-MOO-laz”) not “mahket basket,” after the family who owns it. When I’m standing in line to check out, I see food being purchased by the folks ahead and behind me, buying round steak in sizes big enough for eight or ten. They’re buying lard for pie crusts. They’re buying flour and rice in 20lb sacks, and mortadella, and whole chickens not just for the meat but for stock bones, and they’re buying cassava. Folks are not buying Oscar Meyer Lunchables. And they are buying boatloads of fish. These are ingredients to cook with – the kind I used to feel guilty for not buying (the kind I wouldn’t have known how to use).

The varied crowd also gives me access to unfamiliar ingredients and products. Since prices are low, I feel free to try something I’ve never seen: farmer cheese and quiejo fresco, nose-to-tail cuts of beef, a variety of chorizos (around here, folks compromise on the pronunciation with “sher-EES,” “chor-ee-so” or “cher-EAT-soh”) and tart, yellow lemon plums. I spent months working my way through the Salvadoran, Portugese- and Brazilian-style breads brought regularly from Casal and other bakeries. Sweet, yellow and very soft, pão doce makes a lovely chicken salad sandwich, or morning toast with butter and guava jam (look for a flat, frisbee-shaped can). In sweeter fare, Panderia Salvadoreña bakery brings in sweet cakes like pan de torta, torta de piña (pineapple cake) and payaso, yellow and coconutty cakes often layered with sugar or fruit paste. The Brazilian bakeries even make Boston’s beloved scali bread, as well as French baguettes and Italian loaves. And they also import When Pigs Fly, for your whole-grain needs. For transplants to Boston, scali bread is braided Italian bread infused and covered with sesame seeds, beloved in our fair city. If you show up after they open at 7am but before 7:45, you can get it still warm from the bakery.

Market Basket gives startling value on fish. Here’s how you know: as you enter the grocery, you may see sawdust on the floor. It’s there to soak up moisture and if you concentrate on it, you can smell the sawdust as you enter. That’s important, because what you’re not smelling is fish. If your fish market smells fishy (I’m looking at you, Star Market), you know fish flesh is breaking down nearby, building ammonia and getting pulpy. You can also poke the fish; it should feel firm, not mushy, and it certainly shouldn’t leave a poke-mark after a few seconds. If you’re buying whole fish, and I recommend that you do, check the belly cavity for greenish or yellowish spots, evidence that the fish was not gutted quickly enough. I’ve never seen belly burn on Market Basket fish. It’s not all on the Monterey Bay approved list, but it is inexpensive and watching others’ baskets, you can see they sell a lot of it. Fast turnover helps ensure your fish hasn’t been waiting for days. It’s also marked “ocean” or “farmed,” usually with the catch location, too – one day I saw salmon fillets simultaneously from Canada, Norway and the US.

In order to enjoy Market Basket, however, I recommend planning ahead. If you don’t like crowds, they open at seven o’clock in the morning. This is my favorite time to go, and according to a quick poll I did, also the favored time for veteran husbands of homebound wives. These fellas and I, with their service baseball caps, stand outside waiting for the doors to open. Ms. Griffin (first name unknown) helps reload the magazines because her staff is so well-trained, and at there are no lines until eight o’clock. Alternatively, if you wish Filene’s held the “Running of the Brides” every week, you can get your grocery-shopping-as-capture-the-flag fix pretty much any weekday after four o’clock. Bring your friends.