Foods We Love from FreshDirect
A recent post about Heath Ledger’s grocery shopping habits sparked a FreshDirect debate in the comments. Now, we understand that FreshDirect trucks cause pollution and traffic as they creep from block to block and idle in the street. Perhaps the trucks that only stop at the supermarkets are less of a nuisance, but in our…
A recent post about Heath Ledger’s grocery shopping habits sparked a FreshDirect debate in the comments. Now, we understand that FreshDirect trucks cause pollution and traffic as they creep from block to block and idle in the street. Perhaps the trucks that only stop at the supermarkets are less of a nuisance, but in our humble opinion (for which we are prepared to take a beating), sometimes FreshDirect can be pretty awesome. For instance, you can’t get a 4 pack of their Parbaked Chocolate Croissants ($4.99) at Met Foods, and while they’re not as chocolatey and flaky as the Mazzola variety, they’re as good as you can get without changing out of your pajamas on a Sunday morning…
Same goes for their Parbaked Black Olive Loaf ($3.99) — it’s not as crusty as Caputo’s but sometimes your local bakery closes before you get home from work, so it’s nice to have this waiting in the freezer. We paired our last loaf with 1 pound of linguine, 2 packages (or 2 pounds) of frozen Mussels with Tomato & Garlic Sauce ($8.99 each and way better than you’d expect), and some extra tomato sauce — and served a seemingly gourmet dinner for 4 without spending more than a few minutes at the stove.
The produce probably won’t measure up to your local greenmarket, co-op, or CSA, but FreshDirect does support some local farmers. We recently ordered Macoun apples from the local Red Jacket Orchards ($3.79 for 4), and they were incredibly juicy, delightfully un-waxy, and all-around delicious. We’ve also found some good deals in the wine and beer department — like a 6-pack of Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout for $9.99 and a bottle of Pop Cultured Lorikeet Sparkling Shiraz for $10.
To be fair, we weren’t thrilled with a recent order of slightly fishy Tortilla Crusted Tilapia ($5.99/lb), but we’d definitely re-order the Wild Alaskan Coho Salmon ($11.99/lb).
Does anyone else have other FreshDirect favorites that they’d recommend — or other items to avoid in the future?
Photo by leah jenni
FD is now Union and is represented by United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 348-S.
Regarding the environmental angle. Imagine how much energy your local gross-ery store uses just to keep all that sub par mass produced meat and dairy lukewarm at every location in their brick and mortar chains. And don’t forget to add up the waste involved with inventory sent to a market who’s customer demands may not be what they thought that week. Oh and don’t forget the sad fact that in most of NYC the local stores are just atrocious micro-monopolies. Even with a fleet of trucks in the field, centralized storage and refrigeration “on demand” ordering add up to a much more resource friendly method of operation for both the FreshDirect itself and the consumer. Oh and my fav. is the par-baked bagels. A freshly baked hot bagel out of the toaster oven with lox. Yum.
It’s an open question as to whether FD adds to or detracts from pollution. If I don’t use FD I get in the car. How many other car journeys are they replacing? Yes, I could shop in my neighborhood (Clinton Hill) and sometimes do but the Met Foods on Fulton is a joke and can’t be compared with FD at any level.
I suppose their environmental practices could be better. But its a non-union trucking company paying low wages, low benefits and has harsh unreasonable discipline for their drivers. Their drivers need the tips so be kind when they deliver your pasta.
But really, their niche, involves a much more insular, much less engaged civic behavior. Loving Brownstone Brooklyn is one thing. Crawling up in a little cave to have some underpaid service industry take care of your needs is not the community I remember or envision for our future.
Take off your pajamas, put on some sweats and take a walk in the neighborhood. You might find neighbors.
and what about the spewing trucks of nastiness and the cardboard boxes with a bag of raisins in it. IT’s a good company, great service but can’t something be done about their environmental practices. They are like McDonalds in 1985.
We always get a pound of shrimp with our FD order, and its always nice and fresh and makes a great quick meal stirred into some pasta.
I also love their parbaked raisin pecan rolls, baked or raw. And the Benzy’s raw cashews are my husband’s favorite snack.
one item worth FDing over anywhere else: soy feta.
OK. FD is good for shut-ins etc. But why make Met (or even Key) the alternative when we have great butchers, bakers and produce markets? And you can always wrap a bread from Caputos or other local bakers and freeze it.
And as to the number of trucks that FD uses for local deliveries — sitting and spewing! Much less efficient than the single deliveries to a market!
peapod forever.