Grazing Acres

I'm one of those people not good at planning menus day in advance (no, that's not a missing "s" typo), so that means I tend to end up at a store each evening prior to dinner. I like to flatter myself and pretend this is some European way of living, stopping at the market for whatever's fresh, but I know it's just bad foresight on my part. As a westsider, this means I end up on the Mesa most evenings at Lazy Acres (sometimes we even walk, which is uphill both ways and makes you feel very worthy of a second drink with dinner).

Now, this isn't going to be a review of the store, but I do want to focus on one thing they do, sort of, and that's the issue--cheese samples. I'm all for them of course, for if I were offered the choice of never breathing again or never consuming cheese, I'd take a moment to think that through and perhaps sigh with my very last breath happily scented of fromage. The problem is their teasing nature, at least at Lazy Acres. For often by even 7 pm, which doesn't seem too too late to me (but then again I keep flattering myself to be Europeanish), the pickings are completely picked over. There are a couple ways to solve this dilemma: the one I prefer is, keep stocking up that cheese. The second, get the set up for the samples put away the minute they're finished. I don't want my time in the store to be the equivalent of a teasing peep show.

Alas, it's not just the store that could do things differently when it comes to the samples. The Felix Ungar in me (and does that name even signify for 50% of the population any more? who is this generation's televisual neat-freak?) frets that people might not understand the unspoken toothpick code, and confuse the pick-up and discard spots, even with the discard looking like a mini-garbage pail. But I tend to get over that qualm but thinking, "Yum, free cheese!" The other part is the public might not be worthy of samples for they don't understand that "sample" doesn't mean "how many cubes can I shish-kebob onto my toothpick?" No wonder the samples run out so quickly--it's possible some people build a whole cheese course from the options each evening.