I really don't like the title of your essay. Perhaps "When grocery stores are lacking..." would be better. Your title seems vulgar (and no, I am not ancient). I've had the experience of needing something at the store and not finding it - it makes you get more creative!

Well, I've always grown up with a back garden to supply all the "exotic" fruits and vegetables and herbs my mom cooked with, so when I was little spending summers at our beach house, there was never a shortage of fresh ingredients. It was the staple like bread and milk that always seemed to be missing from the local grocery store. Thankfully a Super G was built near our beach house, and it actually has a greater line of products than the supermarket near our house up north now!

Yeah, honestly, I find this kind of offensive and privileged, and I live in NYC. It's just so condescending. Why not adapt what you want to make to the best available items? Like awesome local produce which is undoubtedly available? It's doubtful your caprese salad was so integral to the menu that everyone would have been devastated that you didn't make it. Or that they wouldn't have been upset if you'd used prepared pesto instead of fresh basil and olive oil.

No fresh basil? Talk about your first world problems...

Completely agreed with @Lisa Martin. If I'm on vacation/ away from home and can't find something specific like fresh basil...get over it and get dried or make something else you can find. It's not the end of the world. I was expecting from the title something like "We wanted meat and they didn't sell meat there" or something similar- some sort of real problem. Just be more adaptable and things will turn out fine.

The title is fine, but the post is a bit ridiculous.

Your problem: can't find fresh basil
Your solution: "opted for the pricier freeze-dried version"

Yeah. Agree fully with jrossi1217.

Oh, I think everyone is taking the title too seriously. I am a huge foodie, and love to cook when we vacation. I understand that it can be an utter buzzkill when you have your heart set on a dish and then you can't find particular ingredients at the local grocery store. I found it completely witty & hilarious!

The title lured me in and the post was a letdown. I spent years living in a small town and getting creative with what I could find at the poorly stocked stores. To boot, I was trying be a vegan without many meat-replacement options. From that I learned eating beans is easier and a lot better for you. Overall, it turned out the best bet (small town or not) is shopping the farmers markets and farm stands.

Yeah, this is totally a "first world problem" sort of thing, but it's also kind of...well, true!

I grew up in a teeny-tiny town in the middle of nowhere, and grocery shopping was and is a problem. My parents have to drive 45 minutes to the grocery story if the local IGA doesn't have what they need; often, the things I commonly cook with that I take for granted (fresh mozz, jalapenos, cilantro, feta, so on so forth) either are nowhere to be found or EXTREMELY pricey.

It's a legit issue, but the way this article is written is so facepalm-y.

well put, leepert

Large portions of Nebraska are considered "Food Deserts" - "areas that lack access to affordable fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk, and other foods that make up the full range of a healthy diet." (http://www.cdc.gov/Features/FoodDeserts/)

http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/fooddesert/fooddesert.html

It's incredibly ironic since agriculture is an important part of the state's economy.

While you lament that you couldn't find fresh basil, many of the people that actually live there do not have access to adequate nutrition. Perhaps that should have been the focus of this post.

I don't know why everyone has their panties in a twist over this post.

To be honest, I have found myself in a similar situations while visiting friends. Some people might take this as being pretentious or snobby, but I love to share beloved recipes with friends and family. I am all for modifying recipes to work with local ingredients, but sometimes when going for a certain flavor profile only a specific ingredient will do!

My aunt once told me stories of visiting family in Italy and trying to recreate an "American" meal for them. She settled on hamburgers, and had the WORST time trying to get all the ingredients needed. You would think ground beef, buns, ketchup, and pickles would be easy to get... not so in Italy!

I'd say this applies to general rentals, as well ... maybe the stores have what you want, but you don't want to buy a whole thing of garlic, let's say, and take the rest back on the plane with you. Or there's no can opener, when you need one. I've tried to make do with oil, salt, pepper, and lemon (amazing what they can do, in a pinch!), and to re-purpose other kitchen tools to do what I need (one time I baked a batch of cookies on the bottom side of a roasting dish, and it worked pretty well!). But generally try to plan ahead of anything I might need, or pick recipes that are pretty flexible in case I don't have something I need.

Man a lot of haters on here. Too much sun maybe?

I live in a small town and if I need something beyond overpriced plastic wrapped vegetables or processed boxed goods, we drive 30 minutes to the bigger grocery store or buy online. If I ate only according to the local store, I'd be very bored and possibly malnourished.
Surprisingly, despite living in farm central, local fresh produce is hard to come by. Why? Because they ship it all to the nearest metropolis to sell at a premium to the privileged city folk. ;)

i used to live in a small town in the middle of nowhere for years. the grocery store there really did kind of suck and sold more in the way of ammo & liquor than foodstuffs. farm stands and farmers markets were not an option...there simply weren't any and we had to drive 2 hours to get to a grocery store that regularly stocked fresh produce. my mom still lives there and you should see how utterly elated she is when she gets her hand on anything fresh.

i don't think this is pretentious...but maybe that's because i actually lived small town life, the kind where "real" grocery stores were hours in any direction. that said, i think the "lesson learned" part needs to be noted. do go to the store before menu planning, work with what you've got, rejoice when you get to shop in places that offer well-stocked grocery stores and farmers markets.

Well, I'm not going to comment on the other comments but would suggest that when you need something like basil you might consider checking the local nursery (or lowes or home depot) that sells garden plants... I've been known to buy a plant rather than the herb in the grocery knowing I can always plant it after I harvest what I need and it's usually less than or at least equal to buying the pre-harvested herbs in the grocery...

I think you've touched on a very important subject here, and it is not small towns or the people who live in them, but the lack off fresh, healthy food in this country. Oklahoma City is by no means a small town, but I routinely have this very same problem. The grocery stores in OKC really do suck. Most of the time, it's a hit and miss adventure, going from one store to another, trying to find fresh basil, poblanos, or even a decent tomato can be a challenge. It is frustrating ... one day, the stores (we mainly have Target or Walmart) have fresh basil, another day, they do not. It makes planning a menu very difficult. So, you don't have to live in a small town America to be lacking in good grocery stores in this country. That said, we are getting a Whole Foods soon. (Hurray!) I think the problem lies in corporate food and processed food in general. I buy local, fresh, and in season whenever I can. Also, next year I am putting in a garden. However, I am still shocked when I visit relatives in small towns who eat worse than any city people I know. So much for that image of bucolic country life. Most people living in small towns do not garden and are completely dependent upon corporations for their food, e.g., big chain stores and chain restaurants. They are at their mercy. My family won't eat that stuff! So, when visiting relatives in small towns, we've learned to plan ahead, pack plenty of nonperishable snacks, and, figure that I need to lose a pound or two ...

completely agree soupmom. As someone who regularly reads these food blogs and decorating blogs, dreams and drools of eating and decorating with the sources that many take for granted. I live in one of those small Nebraska towns. I really do. So I don't find offense to it just irritated and well pleased that you had trouble finding what you wanted because I have this issue every time I want to cook.

Agreed, SoupMom. You make a very good point.

I read the title of the post, and I thought the hard-to-find staple ingredient was going to be rice or flour or something. I almost laughed out loud when I read basil! Who thinks of basil as a staple? Then I read leepert's comment - hit it right on the head. Really funny what some people consider a "staple"....

I live in a rural area, and if you were to come around here demanding fresh basil, half the folks wouldn't have a clue what you were talking about and the other half would roll their eyes and then run you out of town.

I remember when my aunt was visiting from out of state and she demanded almond butter from some poor grocery store clerk. Almond butter might as well not even exist, because you certainly won't find any here. It's only been the past year or so that our stores have started stocking Nutella, and it's still hard to find most of the time. So what do we do when we can't find Nutella for a recipe? We melt chocolate chips and improvise.

What was the point of this article anyway? Of course you should wait and see what ingredients are available before you start planning meals. What you should have focused on is how to improvise and roll with the punches.

Besides that, most areas lacking in one area have an abundance in another. We don't have fresh herbs or almond butter, but we have some awesome produce stands and farmers markets. Tailor your menu to the local fare.

I see what's available at the store/market, and cook accordingly, not the other way round. When friends come to visit us (in France) bearing 'exotic' items (soy sauce, spices, one offered to bring a rice cooker!), I'm always quite taken aback.

I guess i could see how this could come off as condescending, but only if you've never been in this very real and frustrating position. You want to know what kitchn post comes off as priviledged and a "first world problem"?
This.
I used to live in the Poconos and we had only 1 local grocery store. The meat section was amazing, but everything else was complete crap and very overpriced. There were no farmers markets close by and no time for my single mom to drive over an hour to the bigger grocery. She ended up planting a huge herb garden in the back so she could cook the way she wanted, but this is not an option for visitors.
The people living in big cities who are here commenting on how this is "offensive": you don't know what you are talking about.

I have always found it very offensive that you people from the 'big city' take such pride in ridiculing small town America. I have been to many big cities and couldn't find an ingrenient that I needed. A good cook will go with the flow and change the menu to fit what is avaliable. Next time you go to 'small town America' leave your snobish attitude at home.

You know, we have like five basil plants in our garden because I use huge amounts of basil when cooking. And I still survived one year living in China without any basil. Or oven. Or pretty much anything which normally is a staple ingredient for me. I can understand if you complain if you live somewhere, but please, for a weekend-vacation? I can do nothing else than agree with everyone who said go with the flow, or just cook with what you found there. How about trying some

everyone, take a chillaxative.

We've all had those moments when we go to the store and that one thing we really need or want just isn't there- be it out of stock or never offered. It's frustrating either way.

I don't think they meant this as some sort of snobbish, pinkies-out "oh poor me, no basil" post. Rather, I think they wanted us to comment on how we overcome that surprise trip to the store where an ingredient we feel is essential to our planned menu just isn't available. It wasn't meant to admonish or ridicule small town America, but rather to discuss an issue we've ALL come face to face with, in the context of a trip which brought this cooking dilemma to mind.

So many people are telling Sarah to quit complaining about her first world problems and plan her meal around what's available, but that's exactly the point of her post. She says she learned the hard way to not make assumptions about what will be available locally and suggests scouting the grocery stores to see what's there before planning your meal. Did everyone stop reading halfway through so they could hurriedly leave their indignant comment?

This post didn't come off as pretentious to me either. I grew up in a small town and had to live with this problem every day. The problem wasn't the lack of availability of these kinds of things, it was the locals not being interested in them.

We grew some of our own stuff and went to a nearby farmer's market, but ingredients that you needed for recipies you wanted to make were just more difficult to get. As someone who has always liked cooking, I found it frustrating and it, quite frankly, sucked big time.

While I understand that some people live in a 'food desert', I would say that my town was in a 'culture desert'. The mere mention of food that wasn't meat and potatoes would send people into fits about how they're "just not used to that kinda stuff". I live in a large city now and yes, I do get frustrated when I go home and see that not much has changed.

I hate it when comments descend into negative nancy land. I forgot that all the commenters here would never deign to make a non-native dish in a rural land or cook "city" food for "country" friends they are visiting. The commenters here would never tolerate commentary or articles about small issues and instead mistakenly made it here instead of UNICEF's website.

OK, this is a FOOD blog on the internet. To complain about it being a first world problem/city focused is so hypocritical and ridiculous. Yes, let me get on the internet, read this food blog, and then complain about how it's not a real food problem affecting starving children in the third world (developing countries for the PC).

I think sometimes what's fun about traveling and visiting friends is cooking food for THEM you eat all the time that they don't. I've totally gone on vacation and cooked at a friend's house (multiple times).

I have to echo what many other have already said. Find out what's available and unique to the area, and use those items. The day I consider not being able to find some ingredient to be a hardship or a problem is the day that I've completely lost touch with reality. Just because you can't find some basil doesn't turn your trip to the midwest a game of 'survival.' I lived at the end of the tube line in London for a bit and instead about complaining about what they didn't have at my local grocery store, I tried everything they did have there. Emmerse yourself in the local food culture. It will enrich your experience of small town life in Kansas, or where ever you go. Having lived in Wisconsin my entire life, I have only had trouble finding the rarest of rare ingredients. Please don't act like cooking in the midwest is some sort of hardship.

Thank you, onebravegirl, for pointing out the point of this post to begin with.

But I do think it's also important that a few small town residents voiced support for this post. Maybe it wasn't worded as pc as possible, but food deserts are real issues. While basil may not be considered vital to a healthy diet, fresh fruits and vegetables certainly are, and they're often hard to come by in rural areas. Yes, going with the flow is an important cooking skill (I barely use recipes), but demanding certain items, like produce, is fair if you live in rural idaho or New York.

While you can read this post as coming from a place of privilege, you can also see it as coming from a place of newly minted understanding and recognition of privilege.

I've been there - once I couldn't make a curry because the northern Ohio town I was in didn't sell canned coconut milk, not exactly the most exotic thing I thought... but there are two tips that could help in places like that:

1. Asian markets are everywhere and often carry wonderful greens and fresh fruit (definitely would've had the fresh basil).

2. Some small towns have wonderful 'specialty' stores. In Dayton there's a place called Dorothy's Market that has everything under the sun for the connoisseur. If you just went to the main grocers you'd think the choices were very limited.

Also, can we please call a ceasefire on the 'big city vs heartland' rhetoric? It's insulting.

I like the discussion that has evolved here, which maybe was not the intent of the post (or maybe it was - are we being played like violins, Kitchn?).

Being far from a food desert, but also from a city that is not quite big enough, I have learned to be comfortable with what I have access to and capitalize on that. If I can't find something, I have to find a creative solution. If it is too expensive, I have to make a substitution. I welcome to the challenge, and sometimes the absence of an ingredient will result in the creation of something new and wonderful.

What I would do would be to see what is available and use that instead. I think going to groceries & farmstands in unfamiliar areas are one of the most enjoyable aspects of travel.

My mom always requests I cook her Vietnamese food when I visit because she doesn't really know how. But in the "culture desert"--love that concept, username 26--southern city where she lives, it's hard to get the ingredients. So I also think this article is pretty legit. Even if it's not a question of "saving" the world.

And really, if anyone's going to call "first world problems" on this post, let's go ahead and call it on the whole website.

And then go out and do something about majority world problems.

I side with those who think the original poster is a twit. No basil is not the end of the world. Try sliced tomatoes and onions with salt and pepper! If you have some cheese to sprinkle over them, so much the better. A skillful cook works with the materials at hand. I wonder if she was able to buy fresh mozzarella in rural Nebraska...

SoupMom's post says exactly what I was going to say. Why is it that so much of our population has only access to processed foods full of preservatives? Why is "local and organic" such a foreign concept to so many, and considered ELITIST of all things? So many people are obese in this country...it's really no surprise when you consider all the additives and other crap pumped into the food that, for many, is all they can find or afford.

I've lived in Costa Rica for a few years now and believe me- ingredients are hard to find everywhere! I was so excited to find ricotta cheese about a year and a half ago, just to find it totally different from American ricotta, and not in a good way. They don't sell vanilla yogurt, nor Greek yogurt, grains like quinoa, a lot of cheeses (I've never seen Fontina or mascarpone), and it can be a struggle. However, I've learned to make a lot of DIY foods (such as ricotta), and I think in the end, if you are patient, you can end up with even better than store-bought products, and you learn a lot along the way. I've learned to not take these things for granted, so when I find something I hadn't found before in a supermarket, such as tofu, goat cheese, saffron, dried porcini mushrooms, etc. I get really excited!

Okay, I am just going to say it, basil should be a staple. And, I believe the original poster was only using basil as an example. There are many other herbs and "not so exotic" ingredients that are difficult to find in middle America. The fact is, even with the onslaught of Food TV, food blogs, and cookbooks, most Americans still cook (and grocery shop) like it's 1952. I would rather do without, than eat jarred pesto. Has anyone read Michael Pollan? Or kept up with the food bill? Good food and good grocery stores should not be just for the wealthy few, living in big cities on the coasts. And believe me, my Kansas relatives are offended when I don't eat their ersatz butter and Dollar General bologna sandwiches. When it comes to grocery stores and access to fresh, healthy food, America is in a crisis. Time magazine has an interesting article, "What the World Eats", it is amazing how the poorest countries have fresher, healthier food than we do.

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519,00.html

Not a fan of the title because it sounds a bit unprofessional...but I have to agree. I actually grew up in a small town - 5000 people - in Wisconsin. Sometimes it's not so much finding what you want as finding what you want fresh...especially produce. Since this country has major grocery stores and big box stores like walmart using business practices which make it very expensive for small town grocery stores to buy in small quantities...the produce section is either lacking or often not the freshest. In the UK green grocers can still find sources for their produce so it's not a problem over there like it is here.

addition - i'm not even speaking of 'exotic' things like basil...but even lettuce other than iceburg or salad toppings and grapes. My town has a 'farmers market' sure, but with extremely limited hours which renders it basically useless. If I want 'fresh' good quality produce it's an hour's drive to a larger town...even further for the even more rural towns.

My parents are moving from a mid-size town in Iowa to a town of about 8000 in Nebraska. We visited both of the local grocery stores (one of which is a Walmart) and I was shocked by the difference in available produce there and in my hometown.
Many people have mentioned farmer's markets, but in many towns a farmer's market is only open from may-september. People who live in large cities have access to fresher and more interesting ingredients year-round.
My mom loves cooking healthy food and trying new things. This will be more challenging in their new home. No, it's not the end of the world. They will still have adequate food. But moving (or even traveling) from an area of high access to low can be a frustrating experience. I don't think there's anything snobbish about wanting some diversity in one's diet.

So many people with their knickers in a twist about this, but every time I go to visit my folks in the middle of farm country, Ohio, I cannot find anything organic. When I asked my mom about it she proudly took me to the one shelf of organic processed foods that her HUGE grocery store had. No organic milk products, no organic meats, eggs, produce, nothing but organic processed foods. No small farms, so no farm stands. It is downright depressing, and I am not a food snob by any means. I just try to eat low on the pesticide/added hormone scale.

This reminds me of a holiday in Malaysia, when Italian guests at the hotel we were staying in insisted on specially prepared Italian-style food, whilst scorning the excellent local fare.

I grew up in the backwoods mountains, and I don't find the title condescending at all. Poor rural areas often have terrible grocery stores. It's not being elitist to say so - it's simply recognizing economic realities.

And if you don't have a reliable car or gas money, available food is even worse. I'd have to drive around 30 minutes just to get somewhere that sells green peppers, for instance. Or even to find a fresh apple if it wasn't during harvest season.

Let's just say there was a reason my mom had on heck of an amazing herb garden.

The one good thing I will say about the unavailability of certain foods - I suspect folks who grow up that way are a lot more accepting if their recipe/meal isn't quite right. My husband just hates it if his bagels and lox doesn't have capers - me, I don't care as long as it's got fish.

I enjoyed your story and can relate to having my goal blocked when trying to complete a recipe and I live close to a large city that should have everything you can imagine and still go on wild goose chases at times. (Am trying to complete an Asian recipe and for the life of me can not locate a Vegan oyster sauce. Not that I am Vegan ... just not a huge fan of oysters.) Thanks for sharing your experience and have a wonderful day. :D

Spot on, pearmelon, spot on.

One thing we learned, growing up in a small town in the Midwest, that you MAKE DO with what you have.

My hometown of 8,000 was far better off than many of my family and friends' hometowns as far as groceries go.

Thing is, when you live in a small town, you can request that your grocer order certain items. Chances are, they'll try to fulfill your requests, because small town stores are more likely to do that.

Small town stores might charge more for items, but you know what? The rest of your living costs are lower because homes are less expensive and rent is cheaper.

Jump-start a farmer's market. This was done in my town. City-goers, however, would be appalled to know that it's only open May-Oct Saturday mornings (because most people that sell items have weekday jobs), and we're lucky to have such a great one.
But what do you do when you want local produce in the winter? You can or freeze your own vegetables like your grandma did. Our society needs to get rid of this "let's ship it in from across the country" attitude. WE HAVE SEASONS AND OUR FOOD SHOULD REFLECT THAT.

Oh, might I add, basil is easy to grow. Really easy.

And the idea of your "survival" game in the Midwest made me sick. I'd like to see you really try to survive in a food desert, like poor urban areas that are much closer to you. I'll take away most of your salary and your transportation, and you can try and find some fresh basil within walking distance.

well, i live in Indonesia, and while fresh basil is available at the grocery store, it comes with a hefty pricetag.
when i do crave for pesto, i've been using lemon basil, which is more commonly available (people eat it fresh with sambal/chili sauce), and almond/cashew instead of pinenuts (also rare)... not the same, but better than nothing or canned (also expensive)...
i am now attempting to grow basil in this tropical climate, but im not sure how much luck i will have.
that said, its annoying when you have a dish in mind but its missing a single-but-crucial ingredient, and sometimes finding alternative may take more than one weekend event :)

So basically this post doesnt offer any solutions to people who live in these locations. And I took a bit of offense at the midwesterners element and the condescending tone - just because there isn't a large enough market in some areas to support good grocers doesn't mean there isn't a desire for one on the part of residents- maybe the fact that people bring their own specialty ingredients only tamps the demand down further

I grew up in a small town and the grocery stores do suck! I didn't begin to have any interest in cooking until I moved to a city where I tasted things I had never had before like fresh ...BASIL, CILANTRO and ROSEMARY!!!!

If you want something that isn't canned it's WAY overpriced!

If you had grown up in a small town you would find that the title is not condescending, in fact the title made me laugh our loud and decide to read it because it is TRUE!!!
We live in America,
this section is about GOOD FOOD!
Anyone who reads this IS food snob and should just come to terms with it.

Great article.

This is the most pretentious article ever.

SoupMom, have you ever been to Forward Foods in OK City? A friend of mine just moved to a rural part of Oklahoma, and drove to OK City to shop there as the area where she lives is very limited in their offerings. She LOVED Forward Foods, and was able to get a lot of what she had had available to her when she lived in a major midwestern city. Whole Foods will be another bright spot on the grocery chain, but in the meantime, try Forward Foods.

Honestly, this whole blog is about first-world problems. We read it and love it because we live in the first world. Food deserts are a real problem, and an ironic one since so many of them happen in deeply agricultural areas. I would find the lack of basil frustrating, considering that it's very simple and very cheap to grow both indoors and outdoors and is a healthful, flavorful ingredient in so many cuisines.

And in defense of city folk: we're not all "privileged." We're just people.

Guys, seriously? First world problems? There was a post yesterday called "Can a kitchen be TOO BIG"?

This blog isn't called "how to survive on the bare minimum."

I don't even live in a small town and it kinda sucks when I can't find an ingredient I'm looking for. Get over yourselves.

...I didn't realize so many of the people on this site were so high-strung and old fashioned.

Sure, its not going to kill a person to go without basil for a day, but goddamn. Sometimes a recipe really isn't the same without the star ingredient. I had to move to a small town for my husbands job and omfg, I can hardly ever find anything. No one here has ever even heard of a leek or bok choy. Some background information: I'm Asian. It's torture not being able to get my hands on basic asian ingredients. And while I CAN make the 2 hour drive to a store that does stock my needs, its a major pain.

As a person living in a small town that is on the Nebraska border... all I can say is.. there sure are a lot of city snobs in this world.

GROW YOUR OWN DAMN HERBS. I can't believe how many whiney city types who pretend to be great cooks aren't growing their own herbs. I live in the middle of nowhere and cook what you would probably look down your nose at, but I grow my own food - especially herbs.

It's not like it takes a lot of room or requires a ton of time or commitment. You get some pots, you put some dirt in them, you plant some seeds or starters and you put them on a shelf in a window. From then on, you just water them occasionally and replace the annuals every year. Otherwise, you cut what you need for your recipe and taste food that's 100x better than whatever your crap grocery store herbs would have made.

Sheesh.

It's an honor to be in a thread with such decent, simple country folk. The REAL Americans. Don't let these elitist city slickers get to you, what with their silly whining about not being able to get fresh arugula and whatnot.

Kidding aside, I grew up in a small town and was fortunate enough to be a picky child--so I didn't know what I was missing. But now, when I go back, my mom always wants me to make some recipe I've mentioned recently and invariably something I need will be unavailable; be it shallots, leeks, whatever.

Is that a first world problem? Absolutely. Which is why I'm not pretending it's as dire as not having access to clean drinking water. Or are we only supposed to talk about the problems of the poorest of the poor here?

Aaron Turpen, did you actually read the post or did you just decide to start ranting because you thought people were dissing Nebraska? Holy geez. I'm all for growing your own herbs but did you maybe miss the part where the OP was VISITING? Maybe you have mad gardening skills and can make basil and oregano sprout from seed just by looking at them, but most of us are unable to grow herbs from scratch in the space of a weekend. You're perceiving disrespect towards your home state that doesn't even exist. Please calm down before you give yourself a heart attack.

And as someone who grew up in a small Southern town, I agree wholeheartedly that it sucks when you can't find something you need at the local grocery store. My mom cooked amazing Chinese food growing up, but she had to make a lot of substitutions. (And yes, Aaron, we grew our own garlic chives in the backyard, so nyah. LOL.) We had to trek to a run-down Asian mart in the "big city" an hour away just to buy the right kind of rice for our meals - the local grocery only carried long-grain rice which isn't suited for Chinese cooking. When I moved to that "big city" after college, finding fresh herbs in the grocery store was a revelation. By that time, other Asian markets had opened in the city, and I had much easier access to those ingredients also. It was a lot of fun to try recipes I'd read about or seen on TV. If I were ever to move back to my hometown, it would be a big adjustment in terms of my cooking repertoire.

Last Christmas we spent with family in Mariposa, CA and I had promised to provide the Swedish meatballs, but ran out of time to make them up before we flew down. I knew it would be tricky to get all of my basic ingredients in town -- I mix equal parts of ground beef, pork, and lamb -- but I thought I would be able to improvise something. I was right, but it was farther out than I expected: I guessed it might be tricky to get ground lamb on short notice, but what I hadn't imagined was that the market didn't have any kind of ground pork either. I could have worked with just plain hamburger, but instead I was able to find ground venison, and pork sausage and used those to good effect instead. But yes, definitely look before you leap -- there's no telling what will not be to hand in an unfamiliar market.

And, contra to another poster, Asian markets are certainly NOT everywhere. Mariposa does not have one, nor do any of the nearby towns.

Well I do believe that the people who are concerned over the title of this post are in fact from the stone age and should just grow a pair and get over it! I am a foodie as well and I believe that when a recipe calls for an ingredient that you know works, you shouldn't substitute. However, if you are in the mood for a certain something that your location just doesn't have, wait until you return to civilization.

This same exact thing just happened to me too. I live in a small town in Florida and moved here from NYC where there are so many options. I was making a watermelon salsa 3 weeks ago and could not find fresh basil. At one point I considered just trying to go to Home Depot to buy a basil plant (if they had one) because I could not believe that there is no basil to be found in BASIL SEASON. Oh, and people love to say "go to the local farmer's market" but when your local farmer's market is during work hours on a Wednesday it isn't even an option.

Sometimes ingredients are just hard to find, I think that's what the local food movement is about. I grew up near a small town (1,000) and we drove to the next town over for our groceries and they still wouldn't have carried basil. If you think basil needs to be a staple, though, you are definitely culture bound in your thinking about food. I use, eat , and grow plenty of basil now, but my Scandinavian/German mother didn't know about or grow any herbs/spices beyond parsley and dill, but she did have an amazing garden of fruits and vegetables and she canned everything. I've still never tasted pesto, not because I'm avoiding it, but because I'm not Italian and I don't really care for much Italian food (shocking, right?). The thing is, for the last four years I've lived in or near two large cities, and I still can't find culantro or ajis dulces to make sofrito. I keep thinking about planting it, but I'd still have to order the seeds online. I don't live in a tropical area or places with large concentrations of Puerto Ricans. These things happen.

hmm, 10 years ago in a small town in the south, no fresh basil, or anything but parsley. No fresh asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, or peas; only frozen. No fresh pineapple or any other tropical fruit except bananas. No fresh strawberries or any other berry, not even in June. No turnips, swedes,beets or kale. No leeks, shallots and sometimes no garlic. Basically, we had celery, onions, carrots, potatoes, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, sometimes green beans, sometimes collard and turnip greens, apples, oranges and bananas. Nearly everything else was canned or frozen or packaged. We and many of our neighbors had large gardens and we ate well, but I was shocked at the lack of food right in the middle of farm country.

I live in Houston but spent summers with my grandparents in a small town of about 400 people. The grocery store was a tin-roofed shack run by my grandmother's brother. If he didn't stock it, we didn't eat it. The only pancake syrup was Brer Rabbit. The first summer I hated it, but it came to be my favorite even when I was back in the big city. Most of the produce we ate was grown by my grandparents or other family. We ate lots of fish caught by my grandfather and we got to see our sausages being made. My grandmother was a wonderful cook which made up for the lack of choice at the little store. The only herb I ever saw her use was dried sage when she made cornbread dressing around the holidays.

I was reading this article and found the tips very useful, but I too felt the "sucks" in the title inadequate.

Let me explain: I was reading and thinking an alternate version... what if Sarah had found a very well stocked store in the middle of nowhere? This is what we'd be reading instead:

"So I picked (my special ingredient) only to come home to find it was well past its prime and spoiled my meal. I went to the store and requested to speak to the manager, and while I waited I overheard two assistants telling each other '- Look! An out-of-towner wanting to cook like they do on TV. Let's take out all the leftovers from the (never heard before), she might buy them! - But are they good? - Oh, it doesn't matter, she'll buy them anyway!"

Smaller and poorly stocked stores don't suck, Sarah. They're actually much better off being that way.

They may be better off being small and stocking just the most basics of the basics, Julia2711, but when you're in the middle of a pregnancy craving and can't find what you want, it does suck. (This is how I learned that the stores in my city carry the exact same candy; I guess they all have the same candy supplier.)

I grew up in a small town in Ohio with one of the most basic of basics-stocking grocery stores (and no bowling alley or movie theater), but fortunately, the nearest big box supermarket is only a 15 minute drive. Oddly enough, though, I now live in a remote community in British Columbia, in a city just barely big enough to be called a city, and there's a neighborhood grocery store smaller than the one I grew up with that carries the most amazing ingredients. Fresh ginger? You bet. Fresh lemongrass? They've got it. (They're the only store in town I've seen fresh lemongrass in, and there are three way bigger stores just down the road.) A million other produce items I've never heard of? Somehow, they have room for it all in a produce section the size of my little living room. And the customer service rocks.

haha... i laughed when i read this article... then forwarded it to my mother who still lives in a small town, and though she grows her own basil in the summertime, she complains ALL THE TIME about how basil is not sold in the groceries. sometimes they will have the stupid plastic packaged "fresh" basil for $4 for about 6 leaves, but who's honestly going to pay that??

i guess she should start growing plants in pots in the cold months...

ironically, like many people have said, there's an issue when people who are surrounded by farmland and grow their own gardens are jealous of the good fresh foods we can find in the city. i live in s 300sf apartment and find it just unnecessary to use up precious space for growing basil when the bodega down the street will sell me what looks like an entire plant for $.99!!