Big Bear Today April 2018

Page 12—April 2018
To-go meals that are to-die for
R
oasted triangle tip that’s downright
addictive, seasoned just right.
Homestyle meat loaf and enchiladas
that taste like they came from the local
cantina. All just a couple minutes of microwave
time away!
Say hello to what Community Market
owner Mark Doucette calls “cold fast
food,” delicious fully-cooked entrees and
side dishes that are the ultimate in convenience.
Prepared in Community Market’s
convection oven and commercial smoker
and then vacuum-sealed air tight for freshness,
the meals have become wildly popular
and for good reason...just grab and zap
for a real homestyle dinner, at very reasonable
prices.
“We put out heartland comfort food
that’s preservative-free and cooked the way
you would do it at home,” Doucette said.
“Most items are portioned for two people
or servings. Everything we do is fresh,
done right here and handmade.”
Like the enchiladas, rolled by hand in
chicken, pork or cheese varieties. “Pork is
always topped with green sauce, cheese is
usually red, and the staff goes back and
forth on which sauce chicken should get,”
Doucette said. Either way just 90 seconds
or so in the microwave delivers a delicious
Mexican meal right at home.
Roasted triangle tip is another highlight.
It’s perfectly seasoned and cooked
before spending time in the store’s sousvide
oven that utilizes precise temperature
control to deliver consistent, restaurant
quality results. “It’s still pink edge to edge,
medium rare tri-tip that’s perfect every
time,” Doucette said. Roasted pepper pork
loin is prepared the same way.
Kahlua pork comes from a recipe an
employee raised in Hawaii provided whose
uncle roasted pigs in the ground. Community
Market simulates the process in its
pressure cooker and duplicates it amazingly
well. Especially with its homemade
barbecue sauce, Doucette’s own recipe,
that adds tangy sweet, tangy flavor.
Side dishes create full meals, like
baked potato stuffed with cheese and all
the fixings or potatoes O’Brien, vegetable
medleys, savory mac and cheese and more.
“There’s even smoked tofu for vegetarians
that’s very popular,” Doucette said. All of
the take-home items are dynamite, usually
priced around five bucks or less, which is
why Community Market added a second
refrigerator case to meet demand.
Community Market has long been famous
for hot foods like its chicken kabobs,
which started from humble beginnings a
quarter-century ago to being at least part
of the reason the Kentucky chain left town.
Each kabob boasts a whole coop’s worth
of bird, with succulent pieces of skinless,
boneless chicken first rolled in Community
Market’s own barbecue sauce. Then
it’s breaded in special seasonings and flour,
cooked and assembled onto a skewer, five
golf-ball sized pieces apiece.
Typically Community Market goes
through 250 pounds of kabobs each week.
Yet they’re only cooked in small batches,
12-15 kabobs at a time, so they’re always
fresh and
tender. Get
`em early
though for
the last
Community Market chicken kabobs;
owner Mark Doucette shows off smoked
chicken breasts
batch is
usually
around 4
p.m. Homem
a d e
burritos
made with
flour tortillas,
tasty
taquitos and
guacamole
sauce, poppers
and rotisserie
chicken are also in the deli.
Gotta mention the filet mignon, sold
in packages of two expertly-trimmed halfpound
cuts regularly priced at $10.89/lb.,
sometimes a couple bucks less during a
sale. Even discriminating eaters find virtually
no fat or grisle on the filets and that’s
not by accident.
“Filet mignon comes with a strip of
grisle in the middle that we take off every
time,” Doucette said. “It takes five seconds
to remove it, but most places don’t.”
Put them on the grill at home and it
works out to filet mignon dinner for two
for around ten bucks. Warning: eating filet
mignon for five bucks a steak lowers
tolerance for top sirloin and other cuts!
Community Market is at 100 E. Big
Bear Blvd. in Big Bear City, four miles east
of the supermarkets. Call (909) 585-2641.
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