We have a huge charity event and watching party coming up for my ‘What Not to Wear’ debut, details on Tuesday, so we found ourselves at Lakewood’s Whole Foods Market to pick up a donation and banner from Whole Food’s Community Relations and Marketing diva, Karen.
Karen invited us back to the fish market to sample some tasty treats from The Little Pearl, a Massachusetts-based caviar company. The first thing that hit me was the smell of their handmade blinis, pillowy soft and served warm we were offered two choices, the honey buckwheat or regular, artisan blini. We decided to try both.
Our blinis benefitted from a healthy schmear with Vermont Butter and Cheese’s crème fraîche and finally generously topped with our choice of caviars: Coho Salmon, Golden Whitefish, Rainbow Trout or Spoonbill Paddlefish. I started with the whitefish, while Karen tried the trout. Both deserved rave reviews for their freshness, subtle clean taste and creaminess. While noshing I learned that a lot of imported caviar is produced using borax, a lovely substance you can find in detergents, flame retardants, insecticides and even as an anti-fungal – YUCK! So The Little Pearl prides itself on offering non-boraxed (Is that a word?) caviar.
When I explained that I’ve always avoided the larger sized caviars, such as salmon and trout, because of the mouth feel they might have, I was encouraged to get over myself and try the Coho Salmon. To my delight the eggs popped vibrantly in my mouth and were buttery delicious. Gratefully, the treats were on the house, but man did I wish I had the scrilla to snap up a jar of the reasonably priced Coho, a bag of the blinis and a small tub of the crème fraîche, but that would have set us back around $40, doing serious damage to my sweetie’s comic book budget. However, if you find yourself a little financially healthier, and a fan of caviar, you can find The Little Pearl’s offerings at any Whole Foods Market in Texas.
From the fish market, we moved along outside, taking advantage of Whole Food’s Friday Night Live happy hour event. With great jazz and glasses of wine at just three bucks a pop, we settled in to celebrate the end of a long work week. With the addition of a loaf of Whole Food’s sourdough bread and their creamy garlic and basil dip, the five of us were able to enjoy an evening out at Whole Foods for just under 30 bucks total.
The next Friday Night Live kicks of at 6 p.m. and always features live music from local artists. For a budget-friendly night out on the town, might I suggest you grab a date or a good friend and graze your way through the store, and join everyone on the patio?
