Basking in the Magic of Moonlight

It had not started out as a ‘good day.’ He knew that when the wife began the usual early morning harangue about drinking too much coffee . . . about caffeine . . . about his doctor’s warning . . . about all of the stuff he should and should not do. It was 8:05. He was already late and getting more and more frustrated with the driver of the car with Indiana plates in front of him who seemed not to understand that many times in Michigan to turn left you first must turn right. He muttered, “Dumb, dumb Hoosier,” and continued to creep in traffic, glancing at his watch as it chewed off minutes far too quickly.

He was late. It was the fourth time in three weeks and he knew this time he would hear about it the minute he walked into the outer office. His secretary glanced up with a slight smirk and said, “You’re late again.”

“I know,” he said a little too loudly. “It’s the coffee.”

Just as he slammed his office door, another door over 9,000 miles to the West slowly creaked open in the mist of early night to solve his problem. The Zhu family of three was about to go to work under a bright moon in the Zhenhe district of Fujian province China. Zhu Hui, the father, Zhu Yi, the mother and their twelve year old daughter, Zhu Ya easily can see the path trod by at least ten generations of the Zhu family three or four times each year in the months of April and May. It is more than a path; it is a long winding depression going up a very big hill. The dew, already formed on the hillside is like dew nowhere else in the world. It glistens like mini mirrors on the silver-down covered leaves of the hundreds of bushes on and near the top of the hill. No one knows the ages of the plants. It is said in the village that they were first created from wild tea bushes a thousand years ago. The Zhu family will pick the leaves of the tea bushes—the Yin Zhen—right before they blossom for so doing creates a white tea with almost no caffeine and a guaranteed sweet, delicate taste.

Sometimes it is called “Silver Needle,” “Bai Hao,” and/or “Yin Zhen.” It is extremely rare, amazingly delicious and the perfect solution to caffeine addiction.

Sure. We have it at Hillers.

Jim Hiller

The Anchovy Paste Syndrome

Most supermarkets, including ours, stock between thirty and forty thousand items depending upon the store size. And each year, food manufacturers and processors present between twenty and twenty five thousand new items to food retailers. . .that’s about two thousand new items every month, two thousand items that the grocer must evaluate as potential products for his customers. It’s a tricky process, because only about 10% of these new products are on the grocer’s shelves 24 months later.

The introduction of the UPC code, that group of varied sized black bars on product labels introduced around 40 years ago, gave supermarkets a new tool to instantly measure the number of individual products sold and profits realized. For some food retailers UPC reports became the single deciding factor of whether a product remained on the shelves or not. In effect, if not enough of your neighbors bought the product, you did not have the opportunity to buy it yourself. Many grocers switched the emphasis from customer service to volume and profit. I like to call it the Anchovy Paste Syndrome.

Anchovy Paste is possibly the slowest moving item in the grocery industry, and the most difficult product to find anywhere. Even the big-box stores with food, clothing and hardware under one roof do not offer it to their customers. You might find anchovies in a little tin in these super-stores, but real Spanish Anchovy Paste in small jars or tubes are impossible to find.

Of course, we have Anchovy Paste at Hillers. We always have, and we always will. It falls into our must-have category. In fact we have eight different kinds.

And just like hundreds of other very special foods and additives, you CAN find it at Hillers. If you wish to mix up a batch Caesar Potato Salad or any of the hundreds of other great dishes that cry out for the special salty-sweet light fish flavor of Anchovy Paste, visit the spice section, the canned fish and meat section, look atop the fresh meat and fish coolers, or the gourmet food department near the Italian foods.

Well, maybe we over did it, but we pride ourselves in putting specialty products right where you think they ought to be.

Jim Hiller