As I’ve noted previously, I’m not a fan of Whole Foods, but I’ve softened my stance a bit in the last few years. I’m now willing to shop there for items that aren’t available locally elsewhere or aren’t easy to find.

So it was that I found myself at the local Whole Foods outlet on Tuesday morning. I had a very specific item I was looking for, but while I was there I thought I might as well pick up a few other things that I needed.

Like ginger. The recipe I want to make calls for a two inch piece of ginger. Alas, the ginger that was on display looked incredibly sad and spidery, thin and pale, and even if there had been anything left after peeling, I didn’t think a two inch piece of that ginger would work for the recipe, so I passed. I can get better ginger on Ninth Street from Lucy.

I didn’t really intend to buy a three pound pork butt there, but I thought I’d at least price it, so I went to browse the meat counter. Based on what they had on display, they didn’t have pork butt, but pork shoulder, which they labeled pork shoulder butt. Not the same thing. If WF was my only source for fresh meat, I’d be out of luck, I guess.

So I went in search of what I really came for, Kashmiri chili powder. I searched through all the spice rack and all I could find was regular chili powder. I did pick up a jar of cardamom, as I needed that as well, even though I probably could have gotten it more cheaply elsewhere, but I didn’t want to leave empty-handed.

There was a young woman browsing the spice rack at the same time, and I asked her what she was looking for. Celery seeds, came the reply. That seemed such a common item, I didn’t think it should be hard to find, so I scanned the C’s with her, but nope, it wasn’t there. Perhaps it was too common for Whole Foods to stock.

I asked an employee whether they stocked Kashmiri chili powder and all he could tell me was that if they did, it would be on the spice rack.

So I grabbed an overpriced bottle of dark maple syrup and went to check out.

When I got home I ordered a jar of Kashmiri chili powder from Amazon for next day delivery.