In my last post I mentioned that I have spent probably an embarrassing amount of time surfing the web in search of baking ingredients to order online. While my mother has been diligent in sending me ingredients like cocoa powder and vanilla extract at a surprising 7-10 day turnaround time, there are just some ingredients (ie powdered egg substitute, agave nectar, etc) that are simply hard to come by no matter where you call home.
While services like PeaPod that deliver groceries from your local supermarket right to your doorstep are commonplace these days, I think they might have a little trouble getting baking soda from Harris Teeter to my doorstep over 6,000 miles away. Enter the glory of NetGrocer. Before coming to Afghanistan, I'd never heard of this site so popular with the military and diplomatic corps. Delivering to all APO and FPO boxes, and with an intimate familiarity with the items that can and cannot be shipped via government mail, the site allows you to order (or send) all your favorites from back home.
But don't think that NetGrocer is only for your long-distance ordering needs--they also ship to all 50 States and are a great source for lots of ingredients that may simply be hard to come by at your local grocer. For example, just a quick search for "flour" returns nearly 90 results. I don't know about you, but I can't remember ever seeing garbanzo bean flour at my grocery store. NetGrocer has it. Wondering about refrigerated items? NetGrocer supplies those too, but only to a handful of states (DMV included!) Additionally, while services like PeaPod require you to be home during a preselected timeframe, NetGrocer simply delivers like any other package.
Has anyone else used a similar service for hard to come by ingredients or as a time saver? I'm sold.
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