possible plastic bag ban

I'm pleasantly surprised:
https://www.wistv.com/2019/07/10/no-more-plastic-richland-county-council-moves-closer-bag-ban/

While I take reusable cloth bags with me most of the time when I shop, I don't always. I use the plastic shopping bags that Qiao and I get for household trash, and for the trash I pick up from the road by my house.

If stores start having only paper bags available, I'll have to use the paper bags for my trash instead. Plastic bags are more convenient for trash as they are less likely to break or leak from wet contents, and you can tie them shut with the handles. Paper bags can be closed by pinching the top edges together and rolling them down from the top, but that's not as secure and limits how much trash you can put in them. Maybe stapling them closed would work better. Maybe I'd finally use up that ancient box of staples which is in the back of my drawer.

But what about those narrow plastic bags containing mostly advertisements, which they throw by everyone's driveway at least once a week. Which are supposedly "opt-in", but good luck trying to find out how to opt out (I think my mom did; I need to ask her). I hope they ban those.

Indian grocery findings

I went to a Lowes on the other side of town yesterday, as per the website that store still had 17 of an item (rubber stair treads) that was out of stock over here. When I got there, I looked all over but couldn't find the item. An employee found them for me. They were on a top shelf, above my line of sight. That's probably why that store still had so many in stock; other shoppers probably didn't see them either.

While over there, I went to an Indian grocery store I hadn't been to before. They had several interesting items.



Cumin soda! I want to see what that tastes like.

Lemongrass Basil seed drink! There were several flavors, but this was the only one that seemed to be without artificial coloring.

This morning I remembered my spice cabinet has a jar of Thai "sweet basil seed", which either my mom or I bought a long time ago in an Oriental grocery. Tiny black seeds with a mild cucumber-skin flavor. We never could figure out what to do with them. But now I've read that they can indeed be used like chia seeds, to thicken drinks or desserts. So I finally have a use for them.

Rose petal spread! I believe I bought this same thing a long time ago, and didn't remember it being particularly good. Even so, I couldn't resist, because rose petals. It does taste good, but the texture is very sticky and thick; not something easy to spread on bread.



The Sabudana Poha is tapioca flakes. I've bought that before. The flakes soften and cook much quicker than tapioca pearls, so I can make a quick pudding out of them.

The Namak Para are fried wheat-flour chips flavored with Ajowan seeds. I seem to recall having a jar of ajowan seeds in my spice cabinet at some point in time, but it's not there now. Maybe I didn't like the flavor enough to keep it. (I'd say ajowan tastes similar to oregano.) But it tastes very good in these chips.

The Gol Matthi are "fried round patties" flavored with black pepper. I haven't tried them yet. I was initially attracted by the picture on the box because they look like chocolate chip cookies. But the ingredient list does not include any sugar or sweetening, so I'm intrigued.

I avoid buying any Indian grocery items which list chili powder or even generic "spices" in the ingredients, because even what they consider very mild is too hot for me. That rules out a large portion of the items for sale, but makes my choices simpler.