An acquired taste

After noticing one of my tires was getting flat, I stopped by Costco today to have it fixed. There was a three hour wait at the tire center, so I called a cab and took a walk through Costco's liquor store while waiting for it. A Korean gentleman walked over when I was looking at a six pack of this,



And he recommended it. So I bought it. Just opened it a few minutes ago. The first surprise was finding this inside the box:



Here's a close up of that:



It's some sort of face mask, apparently. Odd to find in a six pack of an adult beverage.

Apparently, this stuff is an acquired taste. To me, it tastes like what a rocks glass of vodka tastes like after the ice melts. Which makes sense, considering that this Korean beverage is distilled from sweet potatoes and is about 20% alcohol -- about half the alcohol content as a typical 80 proof vodka. This stuff might work as a component in a sake sangria though.

Costco Takes an Interesting Tack in Responding to the Recession

We noticed something new at our local Costco last weekend: USDA Prime steaks. Previously, the butcher section of the Hackensack Costco only carried the lower grade, USDA Choice. We picked up some Prime-grade rib eye steaks for $8.99 per lb. After marinating them in a little red wine (a drinkable $4 dollar bottle of Chilean Shiraz from Costco's liquor store), Worcestershire sauce, olive oil, and steak seasoning, I threw them on the outdoor grill for ten minutes, flipping them once half way through. Cooked medium rare, they were excellent. With a Choice steak, there's usually 10% or 20% of it I don't want to eat and I end up feeding to the dog; with this one, he just got a couple of tiny pieces.

Interesting tack for Costco, going upmarket a little in a recession. It probably makes sense. Last summer, Ruth's Chris offered a special dinner for two for $89, and, today I heard a radio commercial for a similar $90 deal at one of Manhattan's upscale steakhouses, Ben Benson's. Upscale steakhouses are going a little down market, and Costco's going a little upmarket: they're both competing for customers who want prime steaks but don't want to pay prime prices for them.

The image above, of the Prime-grade rib eye steaks, comes from Costco's website. According to the site, these are 1855 Brand steaks, packaged for delivery. The steaks we bought were cut by the in-store butchers and were less expensive.

Lobster Rolls in Lean Times

Last night, Cheryl and I had lobster rolls and a couple of pints of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for a total of about $25, including tax & tip at McCormick & Schmick's (Nasdaq: MSSR). The lobster rolls are about $20 each, and pints of Sierra Nevada are $5 each, so normally this meal would cost about $60 with tax & tip. Here's how we paid less than half that much. Cheryl found and printed out a buy one, get one free entree coupon from The Bargainist. After tax and tipping based on the pre-discount amount, our total bill came to $32. Then we paid with the McCormick & Schmick's gift card shown above. Since we bought two $50 gift cards from Costco (Nasdaq: COST) last week (which came with a cook book) for $79.99, we got a 20% discount on the $32 bill, so effectively, our total cost was only $25.60.