My Paradise

As you may know, if you read here at all, I have an, um, thing for food competition shows.  It actually started with Top Chef.  The first season.  Which was in– hang on, have to look it up– 2006.  It was one of the first shows of its kind and I was hooked.  I’ve watched multiple seasons since- though not recently- and my favorite challenge was always “Restaurant Wars.”  The chefs were divided into teams and asked to open a restaurant from furniture to food, in some absurdly small amount of time. They would be sent to Restaurant Depot for shopping.  Every single time I’d say, “I want to go (to) there!”  At one point I looked it up and found that you had to work in the industry to be able to shop there.  Alas, my professional baking/cooking days were behind me.

Until this year, when I got back in touch with an old high school friend who owns- wait for it- a restaurant.  And who is constantly shopping at Restaurant Depot.  He was kind enough to indulge my geekyness and…  took me with him!

I can’t even tell you how excited I was.  I got there early, before my friend, and he laughed at me via text, telling me to go in on my own.  I did and it was everything I could have hoped for and more.

All kinds of containers.

My first love, baking equipment and supplies.

At this point, I was getting a little crazy.  I wanted everything!

I mean, I don’t really need this but…  pancakes!

So I moved on to the food section, since I know it would be vast quantities that even I couldn’t eat before it spoiled.

 

I was doing fine- wandered through the meat and seafood departments, knowing that I didn’t need a zillion pound fish.  I approached the canned goods with similar confidence.

 

Then, of course, I found this:

Oh.  My.  God.  I did not buy this, for good reason.  This does not mean that I won’t go back someday and buy it.  Maybe.

So a lifelong dream has been achieved, dorky as it was.  It was, as a friend described it, “Costco on steroids.”  I owe my friend, big time.  I’ll have to find a way to thank him, although, I’m pretty sure a vat of peanut butter sauce won’t cut it…..