Yes, There's a Pandemic... But, Really, No Polenta?
(Marco Pallotti / The Corsair)
Rummaging through my pantry this morning, I found a bag of borlotti (aka cranberry) beans, which I use in my family's recipe for pasta fagioli. Thinking I'd try something different, I found a delicious looking recipe online that married the beans with another of my favorite foods: polenta. I had all the ingredients except the polenta, so off to Ralph's I went.
I knew exactly where the polenta was, but there was none. Because of the current situation with coronavirus spreading through the population, people are panic buying; toilet paper, paper towels, and soup I can understand, but polenta? It seemed a little odd.
Oats were another popular item, with only a few small packages remaining. This provoked a sudden flash of insight, as I realized there must be thousands of frightened Angelenos, sitting in darkened rooms, surrounded by rolls of toilet paper and a bowl of porridge on their laps.
Walking through the store I noticed many shelves were cleaned out except for one or two items. All the bottled water was gone, but the coconut water looked almost untouched. Canned chili and spaghetti was MIA, but Manwich Sloppy Joe Sauce? Unloved.
Nearly all the Campbell's soups were absent except for the Cream of Bacon, perhaps because it sounds like canned cholesterol. The pasta shelves were almost wiped clean, but rather smugly I noted the gluten free pasta wasn't popular. I'm an aficionado of authentic Italian food, so seeing the atrocity that is gluten free pasta being shunned validated my food snobbery.
Still wanting polenta, I headed to Bob's Market at 17th and Ocean Park Blvd. I'd never seen the store so busy, though it wasn't as mobbed as Ralph's. Bob's too had been raided, and here too there were orphan items sitting lonely on shelves. Mayacoba beans seemed untouched, while all the other beans and pulses were gone. Pizzas and pizza crusts had disappeared from the freezer, but the cauliflower pizza crusts were still there.
As for alcohol, the wisdom of the crowd had picked a Perrin Cotes du Rhone as a suitable companion for the self-quarantined, and Heineken beer, perhaps not surprisingly, got the nod over Corona.
I found the shelf where the polenta should be, but there was none. All gone. But as I was about to walk away, I caught a flash of yellow, and right at the back of the shelf, pushed completely behind an adjacent item, was polenta! I grabbed it and headed to the checkout. On the way, I noticed there'd been a run on makeup remover, and imagined thousands of frightened Angelenos, sitting in darkened rooms, surrounded by rolls of toilet paper and no makeup on their faces.
Stay safe, folks!