Rainbow Rolls from ShopRite

The lunch hour is a convenient time for running errands, so if I can grab lunch while grocery shopping, two birds are killed with just one stop. The salad bars at Kings and Whole Foods, both just over the township's borders, have long been favorites of mine (Kings more so than Whole Foods). But Springfield's grocery stores never struck me as lunch spots: Food King I found depressing and ShopRite is less convenient for me, and it sits in the shadow of Kings.

A week after being pleasantly surprised by the , I drove up Morris Avenue to sample the food at ShopRite. As any passerby can see, the building itself is about as dated as the interior of Food King.

Just outside the entrance, peaches for 69 cents per pound looked like they were suffering in the August heat. Inside is a bright, crowded grocery store – but still not as modern and spacious as the others that have spoiled me.

The deli counter was bustling, mostly full of customers ordering a pound of this and a pound of that. While Food King sells Boar's Head selections, the deli at ShopRite is stocked with meats and cheeses from Black Bear, a Philadelphia-based company that dates to 1939.

No one was ordering sandwiches, and I had no indication that the deli personnel made sandwiches to order. I looked down and saw a diverse selection of premade sandwiches: turkey, Italian, roast beef with cheese and so forth, each for $4.99.

I am no fan of premade sandwiches, and had no patience to take a number and wait to ask if the deli personnel made sandwiches to order. Soup on a hot, humid day like this was out of the question. So that left me with sushi.

Bearing the label of the Minnesota-based Sushi Avenue, the selections in the counter included the usual salmon, tuna and California rolls. Billing itself and the most flexible sushi supplier in the industry, Sushi Avenue also works with Acme, Whole Foods and a host of other markets to offer anything from a small sushi case to a full-service station with trained chefs.

ShopRite appeared to have both. I pulled from the counter a rainbow roll: cucumber, avocado and imitation crab rolled in white rice. Each roll was then rolled in either tuna, salmon or shrimp. A beautiful assortment with a $10.45 price tag to match.

I searched for a side to complement this (even 12 pieces of sushi won't fill me up). Nothing appropriate came to mind, so I found myself a small bag of potato chips and a pricey bottle of Odwalla juice, with 2,000% of the Vitamin C I need for the day to ward off what I thought might be an impending cold. Perhaps it was the Odwalla or perhaps it was the wasabi, but the cold never arrived.

The sushi was satisfying, my only regret being that I didn't look for chopsticks or napkins. What struck me most was that amid all the flavor, I could definitely taste the avocado, and I love avocado. But at $10.45, I would have been better off at one of the township's sushi eateries, like Hinari on Morris Avenue.

My favorite part of eating sushi is the pickled ginger, and fortunately, whether you buy it here, at Whole Foods or Kings, the premade packages always include it. Marinated in sugar and vinegar, the ginger served after sushi cleanses the palate well. Ginger itself also brings with it a wealth of health benefits. Though not all the claims are universally accepted, it may protect against colds, settle upset stomachs and perhaps lower cholesterol. I should have picked up ginger tea in the tea aisle while I was there.

I enjoyed my meal, but with apologies to ShopRite, the next time I need to pick up lunch while grocery shopping, I would rather hit up the salad bar across the street at Kings, or the deli in the half-lighted, sometimes half-dead Food King. And the next time I have a taste for sushi, you'll find me at Hinari.