Kosher store shopping list for OOTners

amother

Sun, Oct 26 2014, 4:52 pm

Those of you who live out of town (outside of any big Jewish community not just outside NY) and have to get kosher products from a bigger Jewish community-

What is on your "kosher store" shopping list that you can not get locally?

Please specify if you only eat CY and/or PY (and/or very specific shchita).

Thanks- this list will be very helpful.

amother

Sun, Oct 26 2014, 5:05 pm

amother wrote:

Do you need a list of our dairy, bakery and meat/poultry and other kosher brand items?

Hashem_Yaazor

Sun, Oct 26 2014, 8:31 pm

I live OOT, and can basically get what I need, just not extras, and I will have to change my menu accordingly...I.e. special cut meats are only sometimes available in limited quantities, so others will go to bigger communities and stock up; I'll just forego.
PY and CY is available in limited quantities...

The main things I have a hard time with are a dearth of Bodek (or Golden Glow or B'Gan/Eden) vegetables (I actually checked fresh cauliflower last week for the first time due to that) and stocking of gefilte fish (there was only mealmart or sugar free ungar's tonight at the store, and the usual price is $8 per loaf ) -- so that's what I would stock up if I decided to make a trip somewhere bigger.

Oh, also Kedem grape juice is a fortune (in my opinion) -- a 64 ounce bottle goes on sale (6.99) for the regular price in a bigger community, but 2x/year elsewhere I was able to stock up at dirt cheap prices as they were loss leaders (2.50- 3 dollars a bottle)

ruchelbuckle

Sun, Oct 26 2014, 9:08 pm

My experience is similar to HY. I live in a small community (not a small town!)-- there are less than 200 shomrei shabbos households here, maybe even less than 150.

I can get everything I need, but extras are hard to come by. No bodek/b'gan frozen veggies. 1 type of gefilte fish (an off brand) is available. No jewish bramds of ice cream (chalav yiarael or pareve). Selection of chicken and cuts of meat are limited and based on what ever items the supplier sent to the store. For example, I wanted turkey pastrami--- the store didn't have any, and wouldn't be getting in another delivery from Empire for 2-3 weeks. Someone in my house is allergic to milk, so we just do rice/almond milk for cereal. But chalav yisrael milk comes in 1x per week and gets sold out pretty quickly.

Also, kosher candy is not available in my city-- only whatever non Jewish brands have a hechsher....no pareve chocolate lentils! No bakers choice chips like they use in the recipes in the Binah magazine!!. Also,all the "Jewish" snacks: bissli, snow flakes, nish nosh, golden fluff, shibolim chocolate covered rice cakes.... Not sold here.

However, that being said, I only live about 3 hours from the metropolitan NY area, so its not crazy to go in for a Sunday, once in a while. I actually have a trip planned for this week and bakers choice pb chips are on my list!

We are makpid on chalav ysrael. Not on pas yisrael. The only chicken we get here is Aarons. They get in empire cold cuts and hot dogs. Meat is all Meal Mart. Bakery items are delivered from Crown Heights, once a week. My friend only eats Shor HaBor chicken, she has a brother in law bring in an order from Crown Heights when she needs.

Last edited by ruchelbuckle on Sun, Oct 26 2014, 9:22 pm; edited 1 time in total

ruchelbuckle

Sun, Oct 26 2014, 9:16 pm

OOTBubby wrote:

I'm in Chicago and I can't think of anything that I can't count on getting regularly between the various stores, and I'm makpid on CY and PY and use only certain hechshers for meat & poultry.

Chicago might not be in the NY area, but it isn't by any means "oot!" I don't think that's what the original poster meant. She said if you "live outside any big jewish community" I think she meant smaller places...with fewer observant Richmond, Jacksonville FL, Indianapolis, Rochester, New Haven, Milwaukee etc... These places that I'm listing all have fewer than 200 shomer shabbos households (and some, much less).

Hashem_Yaazor

Mon, Oct 27 2014, 10:58 pm

Another item I thought of: pareve chocolate chips....I know Wegman's has (as does Shoprite albeit not as tasty) but their stores are not everywhere. After Trader Joes became milchig, so did many other store brands. In some communities, the only options are heimish brands which, in my humble opinion, taste like cocoa sweetened sugar (with some soy mixed in) and are overpriced. In my community, we tend to split bulk orders which works but has to be planned in advance and dealt with.

Raisin

Tue, Oct 28 2014, 5:17 am

our kosher store is pretty good and will bring in almost anything we want but these are things I have brought in, often just because it is cheaper:

We eat pas Yisrael and chalav yisrael

Mezonos bread or special types of bread I can't get locally
white eggs
certain types of candy or chocolate (only very limited selection here)
big bags of yeast
pesach time we get a lot of wine and grape juice that goes on sale in big communities and usually lasts us through most of the year between that and the wine guests give us.
cases of tuna
rice cakes or crackers
chicken or meat that is chabad shechita.
cases of gefilta fish
milk. our shop stocks CY milk but it comes frozen and they are not good at rotating the milk so often they give me milk that is 6 months old and it tastes weird.
Other unusual items I may need for upcoming yomom tovim or events we are planning. Eg purim time I will get MM items.

A really kind friend drives over often from another city and offers to bring whatever we need in his car. Otherwise I would manage without most of these things.

ruchelbuckle

Tue, Oct 28 2014, 6:31 am

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

Right , I was thinking about chocolate chips. I don't live in an area with wegmans or shop rite. I can get a Jewish brand here, bit they are not that good. Enjoy Life chocolate.chips are only sold (in my area) a whole foods, which is not particularly convienent and kind of epensive-- think close to $5 for a bag.

Hashem yazor-- where do you do a bulk order from? Online? Or a store in your area?

Hashem_Yaazor

Tue, Oct 28 2014, 9:18 am

MaBelleVie wrote:

Enjoy life chocolate chips are CRC pareve, good quality and sold in regular stores (target carries it in my area) and also available widely online.

I know, and they're also quite expensive Sad

I didn't see it in the local Target, but it's on Amazon. Which requires buying it ahead of time just like our current method...

Hashem_Yaazor

Tue, Oct 28 2014, 9:20 am

ruchelbuckle wrote:

RestaurantDepot.com -- you need someone to be a member (they need to have a business license as a reseller or from a non profit I think)...it's less than $2.50/lb I think, comes in a 25 lb bag.

LittleDucky

Wed, Oct 29 2014, 1:52 am

Just to let people know... Check Walmart for kosher food items. Those stores OOT tend to get the same stuff as bigger cities the way their distribution is set up. When a city runs out, they take from other stores not just from the main center. So you can find stuff in random cities where they don't always know what "Orthodox kosher keeping Jews" mean and may not have ever met one. It may be just some basics but depending on where you live it is quite helpful...
Costco too, but they don't send the same stuff everywhere like Walmart but many Kirkland items are kosher. And when they have kosher food, it is of a wide variety. Cheese. Frozen Chicken/meat/deli. Grape juice. Frozen Fish.

Pita

Wed, Oct 29 2014, 10:15 am

Onion flavored Bissli, cheese sticks, Aleph-Bet cookies, kosher Skittles (a BIT deal in my house and a big treat), marshmallows (the new packs with individual small packs are nice, otherwise most of them go stale), hot chocolate mix (the Nestle from Israel is just cocoa and sugar, the US has lots of other, artificial stuff), potato Bourekas (frozen) (A BIG HIT IN MY HOUSE AND VERY HANDY), frozen kreplach (beef). I would love to find Israeli brands of Leben, but can't. Oh, yes... and pareve chocolate chips. Fish (anchovy) sauce.

I use mostly fresh food, so am not a huge consumer of such items, but they are nice to have.

Here I can get meat and frozen herb cubes. I use fresh herbs, but these are handy.

We are just regular kosher; no pas Yisrael, etc.

MaBelleVie

Thu, Oct 30 2014, 12:10 am

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

I know, and they're also quite expensive Sad

I didn't see it in the local Target, but it's on Amazon. Which requires buying it ahead of time just like our current method...

Sorry

I buy them even though we have Jewish brands available here, just because I think they're the only pareve option worth spending money on. I do a lot of dairy baking though and the chalav stam options are much better. Those are the ones I use for kids treats too.

Volunteer

Thu, Oct 30 2014, 12:29 am

Israeli spices (like zaatar and hawaij).
More unusual kosher cheeses (a kind you might buy as a treat, not just mozzarella, muenster, cheddar, and swiss).
Bet Yosef meat would be cool (for sephardim who keep bet yosef).
If it's near pesach time, handmade matzah (shipping to OOT costs a fortune), especially whole wheat or special varieties like spelt or oat.

Hashem_Yaazor

Thu, Oct 30 2014, 8:57 am

MaBelleVie wrote:

Sorry

They're definitely better than the frum companies (and Shoprite, too), but Wegmans has a very good line. Smile