This is Planet Money from NPR.
Every February here at Planet Money, we dedicate a show to the things in our lives that have been giving us butterflies that could be an obscure online marketplace or a piece of stunt journalism that we wish wed thought of first.
And then, as tradition dictates, we go out into the world to proclaim our love in the form of a Valentine, which, in the case of my co host, Sarah Gonzalez, brought me recently to a random parking lot in LA.
There she is.
Sarah has appeared in the distance.
Here I am, Sarah Gonzalez.
Alexi Horowitz.
Guys, happy Valentine.
Oh, happy Valentine's Day.
All right, so you've brought me out to a mysterious kind of shopping center, like a little strip mall.
What are we doing out here?
So the story is, I moved to LA from New York.
Love New York.
Sarah told me how when she first moved from New York to LA a few years ago, she encountered this little disappointment.
She'd been told the food was gonna be just as good in LA, but every time she tried some new restaurant, she found herself pining for her favorite places in New York.
Then, in the middle of her gastronomic dark night of the soul, Sarah discovered something that put her heart and taste buds at ease.
The grocery stores.
The New York grocery stores have nothing on the California grocery stores.
Nothing.
The produce selection, it's just unmatched.