Ah...the hazards of grocery shopping in the modern world. I feel for those clerks having to deal with a shoplifter. Fun story and great poem at the end.
Thank you. Taken from my journal yesterday. I did scan lot as I went to my car and took the wonky cart to join the smaller parking lot Eiffel Towers/brutalist art installations. No sign of the impressively audacious shoplifter or a ruckus. No police prescence in lot as I drove off 10 minutes after he bypassed self-checkout. Poem was declared utterly unsubmittable by me so I Substacked it.
I never heard of a Tomato Soup Cake! It seems like the USSR was not the only place with no decent food. But on the other hand, there was no canned tomato soup there, so you either baked with actual butter, flour and sugar or went without.
Nor had I. It’s like vinegar pies and other hardship recipes I’ve explored and this canned soup cake fascinates/repulses me. I am not a baker, “entree budget improv” is my favorite food subgenre. I grew up in a household of T1 diabetics like me- cake was rare and a big deal. I cannot cook and write simultaneously without tragic results. We don’t even have flour on the pantry so we go without. I slow roast fruit and use jam/jelly as sweeteners a lot like my great-grandmother from Belarus as desert when it even ever happens a few times a month.
I love how you blend humor with the struggles of living in this chaotic, expensive world. Thank you for sharing this glimpse into your world.
Ah...the hazards of grocery shopping in the modern world. I feel for those clerks having to deal with a shoplifter. Fun story and great poem at the end.
Thank you. Taken from my journal yesterday. I did scan lot as I went to my car and took the wonky cart to join the smaller parking lot Eiffel Towers/brutalist art installations. No sign of the impressively audacious shoplifter or a ruckus. No police prescence in lot as I drove off 10 minutes after he bypassed self-checkout. Poem was declared utterly unsubmittable by me so I Substacked it.
I never heard of a Tomato Soup Cake! It seems like the USSR was not the only place with no decent food. But on the other hand, there was no canned tomato soup there, so you either baked with actual butter, flour and sugar or went without.
Nor had I. It’s like vinegar pies and other hardship recipes I’ve explored and this canned soup cake fascinates/repulses me. I am not a baker, “entree budget improv” is my favorite food subgenre. I grew up in a household of T1 diabetics like me- cake was rare and a big deal. I cannot cook and write simultaneously without tragic results. We don’t even have flour on the pantry so we go without. I slow roast fruit and use jam/jelly as sweeteners a lot like my great-grandmother from Belarus as desert when it even ever happens a few times a month.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-tomato-soup-cake
Absolutely love your writing voice on this!!! The cart description had me laughing so hard. Must repost this piece!!!
Thank you! I used less polite words in my brain.