Critic's Review
I went in here to get some fish; I'd gotten some flash frozen flounder here before that was a nice size fillet. They seem to have cut back on the seafood; they didn't have anything even mildly interesting. Something new is the ground Yak.
This is farmed Yak, for those of you who care. It's not wild Yak from Tibet.
One of my issues with this place is that there are no sales. Even though the everyday prices are better than the normal prices at most supermarkets, they're not competitive with sale price. Also that you have to thaw the whole thing, and then you can't freeze it again. For example I'll by a pound of chopped meat, make patties and put them in the freezer. I can't do that if it's frozen; I'd have to defrost and then eat 3 burgers in a couple of days.
There were about 6 people opening boxes and stocking the freezer with 1 other customer. I didn't buy anything today.
Review 6/14/2019
I finally broke down and bought some of the frozen meat.
Another visit, another day when I'm the only customer in the store. I came in for something specific; Veal Chops. Publix doesn't have veal anymore, Winn-Dixie and Walmart don't have veal, and it's wildly overpriced at Fresh Market. Here, the loin chops are 11.98/lb, and Rib Chops are 18.98/lb. $15 for 2 chops; not a bad price. Loin chops made a great Veal Parmesan; I bought 1 package of those. I was going to buy some flounder also, but they no longer have flounder. Another reason not to come here.
Now one of the issues I have with frozen meat that comes with multiple pieces is that I can't defrost just 1 of them, and I certainly don't want to defrost and re-freeze. And I probably don't want to eat 2 veal chops within a week. Luckily I was able to break these apart because of the way they were packaged. If you buy clams or squid you can't count on doing that. One chop went into the freezer, and the other in the fridge to defrost.
I vacuum sealed the chop while it was frozen; you see all of the liquid that is released when you defrost meat. When you cook fresh meat this water in the meat cooks off, so there's less moisture to evaporate when you cook a thawed out steak. I was going to sous vide this, so it probably wouldn't matter.
Review 1/16/19
A couple of weeks ago I bought some hot sausage here; I've tried a lot of different brands along with supermarket brands and sausage can be quite different. It's hard to tell what the stuff looks like when it's frozen solid.
The verdict was that the sausage was "ok" but I won't be switching from Johnsonville, which I like the best. I'm willing to pay a bit more for it.
Something that concerned me was the "Keep Frozen" label on the package. So I have to eat the whole package at once? You can't just defrost 1 sausage, so you're supposed to defrost, use a couple and then re-freeze? Doesn't make sense to me.
They had some nice looking Kielbasa from a well renowned pork store in NYC; I've never bought frozen kielbasa before, but I thought I'd give it a try. It's hard to tell what a kielbasa looks like until you cut it open.
I'll tell you what. This is very good Kielbasa. Better than anything you'll get in a supermarket. Way better than the Heidelberg Deli also.
I forget the price; around $5.95 I think for a big ring. This stuff would be $9 or $10 a pound fresh at a quality pork store (which there are none near Fort Lauderdale).
Easter is coming.
Review 1/26/18
Wild Fork Foods quietly opened in the space previously occupied by Joe's Crab Shack and I stopped in to take a look.
Inside the place is a bunch of low profile freezers There were so many employees just standing around desperate to "help".
Everything here is blister packed and frozen. Everything. The only thing they sell that isn't frozen is charcoal. Don't come here to buy crackers or hamburger buns. Unless you want frozen buns.
The first thing I saw was a freezer full of frozen fish. Cod, Shrimp; the same stuff you can get in supermarkets. There's nothing new about frozen fish.
They have frozen turkeys; I was wondering what the angle here is.
Something interesting was the seafood packs; Clams, muscles, assortments with squid bodies. Very convenient if you're making a chowder or seafood paella.
No sand in these muscles, most likely.
The also have sausages; a pretty good variety. Like blood sausages?
The prices here aren't bad; Walmart's regular price for Johnsonville or Primo sausages is about $4.19; $5.99 at Publix. So these prices are competitive.
They have a lot of pork. Pork chops, picnic roasts. Bone-in and boneless. Just about every cut.
They have grass fed, and USDA prime. All Frozen solid.
And Wild Fork Foods is your sole local source for frozen Wagyu beef.
I keep forgetting to buy clams; I like to have a couple of cans of clams in the cupboard so I can slap together some linguini with clam sauce on a whim; so I ended up buying some clam meat.
While these were Ok, I'm back to buying the cans for a number of reasons. First, I have to defrost the whole package, which means I have to eat more clams than I want before they go bad. Second, a can is a controlled portion and 3rd the cans have better and more clam juice, which costs more than a can of clams by itself (useful when making clam chowder or fish stock. And lastly, because I didn't think these were any better tasting.
Conclusion
I think these guys are going to have to do more marketing if they're going to convince people to buy frozen meat; Im having trouble getting my head around it myself. I don't know why; I often buy the family pack at Penn Dutch and vacuum pack half of it into the freezer; but it seems odd to buy it frozen.
I think the issue I have is that I know how to pick out fresh meat. Steaks vary greatly in quality and marbling and fat content, and it's harder to see clearly when the product is frozen. Buying frozen meat seems like a hail mary to me, and that's a leap of faith I don't need to make.
The prices here give them a chance. The bonus for them is that they don't have to worry about the meat going bad. It will keep for months when properly vacuum sealed. I don't like the beef in a bag they have at Trader Joe's because it's too expensive. I can see trying some things here to see how the meat is after it defrosts.
