After picking up a couple boxes of doorknobs somebody was giving away on Craigslist we wound up at our first spot an hour early, and by pure luck found that the trash was also being put out an hour early, in order to clear the street for filming. We were able to quickly amass a great deal of good food (eight boxes of fresh figs… In March?) and then- since good luck tends to follow good luck- went to our second location to take a quick look and came back with all kinds of snacks and desserts and oils. Another dumpster diver– who I’d hoped we could share some of our food with, because we had so much, but he wasn’t interested– came up to the truck while we were on the way out to hand us four boxes of shortbread cookies. Here’s what I took home:

• Two small top sirloin steaks
• Breaded chicken patties
• Tempura shrimp with sauce
• Chicken pot pie
• Chicken tamales
• 10 eggs
• Jackfruit vegetarian crab cakes
• 2 bottles of olive oil
• A tub of shortening
• Raspberry vinegar
• Preserved bitter oranges
• Fig and almond spread
• 4 boxes of figs
• Assorted oranges (navel, Mandarin, blood)
• A couple of apples
• Carrot juice, quart
• Half a green juice
• Dried dates
• Dried Bing cherries
• Sundried tomatoes
• Banana chips (large bag)
• Almonds
• Cashews
• Mixed nuts
• 2 bags of peanuts in the shell
• Frozen edamame
• 2 Southwestern salads
• 2 containers of cocoa powder
• 2 tubs of chocolate caramel cashew popcorn
• 3 small bags organic M&Ms
• Chocolate almond butter bars
• Chocolate babka
• Shortbread cookies
• Lemon wafer cookies
• 4 assorted pastries
• A couple of wrapped almond nougats
• Pita
• Challah rolls
• Chocolate cereal
• Maple cereal
• Lasagna noodles
• Pink striped garganelli
• Basil polenta
• Aged Gouda
• Cheddar sticks
• Cashew cheese dip
• Coconut and blueberry yogurt cups
• Buffalo wing sauce
• Almond milk
• Mint toothpaste

In addition, my friend gave me a large can of duck foie gras he’d dumpstered a long time ago and had been saving. The last time I’d had foie gras it had been essentially the same scenario with someone else, and I couldn’t remember whether I liked it. For a late breakfast this morning I had tempura shrimp and a whole box of figs.