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Post by lola on Mar 11, 2010 15:50:58 GMT
I was all set to be mightily impressed. Still am, really.
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Post by onlymark on Mar 11, 2010 16:32:37 GMT
Still am what? Set or impressed? I expect the former.
You might be waiting a while.
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Post by onlymark on Mar 11, 2010 18:02:57 GMT
Mark, April 1st is still more than two weeks away. Just practising.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2010 18:22:01 GMT
And you sure need a lot of it.
(sorry, I'm in a silly mood) ;D
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2010 18:11:30 GMT
I was going to do a little photo shoot in one of the Indian supermarkets today, but the moment I was in the store, this little old Indian man was all over me and there was no way to get rid of him. "What are you looking for? Let me show you where it is!" I told him I was after biryani mix, and he proceeded to show me 25 different kinds and then he continued hovering. So no pictures today....
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Post by onlymark on Mar 12, 2010 18:16:12 GMT
Maybe your reputation precedes you.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2010 18:20:44 GMT
And on top of that, I bought two biryani mixes.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 12, 2010 18:44:44 GMT
Heh heh heh ~~ now he's gonna pounce on you every time you enter the store. ;D
I think I'm going to try to co-opt the ladies in my superette and get them to pose.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2010 17:32:06 GMT
Mustard and pickles at Carrefour
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Post by onlymark on Mar 13, 2010 18:09:44 GMT
Nice to see you have real Heinz ketchup.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2010 18:17:25 GMT
But the only ketchup I buy is the sort shown at the top left -- although of course I would buy the Carrefour brand instead.
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Post by Jazz on Mar 13, 2010 19:05:28 GMT
Oh! I have never seen so many mustards at one time! Great topic, Lagatta. I love to spend time at supermarkets, of whatever size, not only for food, but it seems to be the most therapeutic thing I can do. If I am totally upset, I go and hang out at my market of choice and calm down. In my neighborhood, there is a great selection, either by economy, ethnic, organic etc. Economic class seems to be the key breakdown. All of these are within a ten minute walk. Pusateri's (the furthest away, a 10 minute drive) is on the whole more expensive, but has fresh and beautiful produce, food from all over the world and to be there is a satisfying aesthetic experience. If I am giving a special dinner and don't have much time, (given that I am cleaning the house, need to cook etc) this is where I go. But, close to home, Loblaw's is a huge player and caters to the middle to upper middle class market. Food Basic's, is much cheaper and dominates much of the market, but with less selection. Fiesta Farms is great...between Loblaw's and Food basics in price, and has a huge and delicious selection of organic and local produce. There are several small Asian and West Indian markets, but one special Asian market is fabulous for fresh, inexpensive fruits and vegetables. There is a health food store that satisifies all 'health food' needs and has been here for 30 years. Not really for this section, but there is also the excellent Wychwood Barns farmers' market on Saturday mornings, two blocks away. It has been open for about a year now and is helping the shift towards buying locally grown produce. All of this is within five blocks of my home, but there is one great market that I love, T&T. This is a chain of Asian supermarkets with about 5 outlets in the Toronto area. www.tnt-supermarket.com/en/index.phpThis is a great supermarket! It is huge, with many exotic and unknown items in additon to the known at very cheap prices,...you feel that you are in SE Asia. Cheap, lush, a huge seafood counter, a great Japanese take out, a chinese in-house deli to pause and eat delicious food, a small but great aisle of pots, pans, steamers etc. etc. A wonderful outing.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2010 19:30:44 GMT
overview coming from the upper level beans: nothing to write home about a bit of seafood...
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Post by cristina on Mar 14, 2010 0:24:38 GMT
Today, I made my first visit to the Middle Eastern market here and I was duly impressed. Especially by the selection of spices and the butcher counter. Pretty much every piece of meat is cut to order and the prices were quite reasonable. I have plans to make a lamb tagine and had I known, I would have bought my lamb here (I had already ordered one from Safeway). This is probably the only place in the the Phoenix area where one can by fresh goat as well. I really wanted to take a picture of the meat section but the men (with big knives) behind the counter did not look as though they would appreciate my documentary efforts so I have no evidence. I really wanted to take a picture of the animal heads (goats? mutton? I'm not sure) in the case because their eyes were still intact. I have to confess that I found this just a little bit creepy. However I am dying to know what cooking purpose they serve as much (although not all) of the meat had already been removed. I did not find what I came for but left with a number of things that were not on my list, among them pita bread, baked fresh on premise daily. I just had a bit and it was awesome (and still warm!)
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2010 6:19:45 GMT
The local sidewalk rotisserie machines in my neighborhood often have goat and sheep heads roasting along with the chickens. I have not been tempted yet.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 14, 2010 6:41:55 GMT
Aw, Cristina -- you should have gone where no mystery mutton shopper had gone before!
I took my supermarket pictures today (lots! all bad!). The Piticó ladies were all curious, so I got to explain it several times and watch the WTF thought-ballons form over their respective heads.
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Post by spindrift on Mar 14, 2010 15:18:03 GMT
When I take out my camera in stores a member of staff usually stops me. If I ask permission then I'm told picture-taking is forbidden. I wonder why?
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Post by onlymark on Mar 14, 2010 15:42:38 GMT
Because you might be from the competition?
K2, the brown tins in your second photo bottom left, are any of them lentils? I can't quite make them out. Or are they also beans? The reason is because we used to get those large tins of lentils here and we ate quite a few of them. But when we asked after a while when there were none left, we were told Carrefour doesn't stock them any more.
And what is on the upper level? Household cleaning stuff etc?
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Post by lagatta on Mar 14, 2010 16:18:26 GMT
Mark, why don't you cook your own lentils? Not rare at all in Egypt and unlike most beans, don't take long cooking.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 14, 2010 16:31:09 GMT
I was taking tons of pictures and it's such a small store that of course it attracted notice. Finally the manager came over and said she was worried they were going to be fussed at. (by whom?) I launched into a fuller explanation, telling her about this thread and how products in one country are exotic in another, using the large variety of mustards in the French supermarket as an example. ("Mustard?!") We were standing by the flours, so I gestured to the Maseca (powdered tortilla dough) and said that was an example of something totally commonplace in Mexican stores that maybe wouldn't be found at all in some other parts of the world. That was what seemed to convince her that I didn't have some nefarious purpose. At any rate, here's superette where I do most of my non-market shopping. It's at the end of my road, right on the highway, so most convenient. Besides, it's friendly. The first photo below shows a great example of Local Color. The wooden object on the far right is a bed. It's on a hand truck being drawn by a man going up and down streets looking for a buyer. This is a common sight around here. Yes, this is the entire mustard section. You can find "deli" mustard, Dijon, and whole-grain mustard in larger supermarkets, but I doubt anyone besides me and my Canadian friends in Nazareno would ever buy that fancy stuff if it were offered in this store. Lots of coffee and chocolate, which are both important beverages around here. La Soledad is a large local producer of table chocolate, something for which Oaxaca is known, as well as for its coffees. Tradicional and Arabia are both local brands and both are good. Legal, on the other hand, is something I never encountered before living in Mexico. It's coffee cut with burnt sugar. I find it undrinkable. Doña Maria is a national brand of mole, but La Soledad brand can be found over by the meat counter, along with locally produced salsas.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 14, 2010 16:31:53 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 14, 2010 16:32:29 GMT
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Post by Don Cuevas on Mar 14, 2010 16:44:23 GMT
Wow, Bixa; that's a pretty big Pitico. I've only been to the one near the ADO bus station, and it's tiny.
"I love to spend time at supermarkets, of whatever size, not only for food, but it seems to be the most therapeutic thing I can do. If I am totally upset, I go and hang out at my market of choice and calm down."
I used to HATE shopping at our neighborhood Kroger's in Little Rock. The Moms with kids they didn't watch, running around the store, once, bouncing a beach ball up and down the aisles. Then, on other occasions, Moms wheeling their brats darlng children around in special kiddie shopping wagons the size of VW Bettles. And the clueless b*tches who parked athwart the entrance to an aisle, while they perused at their leisure the sugar corn cocoa crunch pops loops cereals or whatever.
It's a wonder that I didn't "go super", the shopping equivalent of "going postal".
Ever had your heels run into by a shopping cart pushed by a heedless shopper? It happened to my wife in the insanely busy E. Hanover, NJ Costco. Sra Cuevas wasn't shy in expressing her pain and annoyance.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Mar 14, 2010 16:48:53 GMT
The wooden display shelves in that Pitico, especially the one for breads, are very attractive.
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Post by onlymark on Mar 14, 2010 16:57:32 GMT
Mark, why don't you cook your own lentils? Not rare at all in Egypt and unlike most beans, don't take long cooking. It's a question I did ask myself several times, and I did do it each time. Lentils are common here and you'd think there would be no problem to do that. But one unknown factor was always the quality control. A lentil is a lentil, easy enough, but the amount of small stones that accompanied each bag did vary. There are a few different manufacturers of them (the lentils, not the stones) but each time this resulted in me and the kids chomping down on a piece of grit all too frequently. I tried a few times to sort them out and sieve them through and pick them out but we always ended up wondering with every mouthful if we'd got one. It became too much in the end and we decided that if we can't get the tinned ones then we wouldn't bother. That's the only reason why I don't do them myself.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 14, 2010 17:05:46 GMT
Thanks, Don Cuevas. The wooden gondolas remind of the general stores of my childhood.
That Piticó by the bus station is one of the relatively recent convenience-mart style. All of them used to be more superette style like the one I show above, although I find mine to be much nicer and less cramped than most.
Ha, Mark -- I heard a local person refer to bean sorting and picking as the national women's sport of Mexico.
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Post by bjd on Mar 14, 2010 17:08:04 GMT
I love the name Virgina FUD. The little local shops in Taganga, Colombia also sell those big blue plastic water bottles.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 14, 2010 17:31:10 GMT
"Fud", a cold-cut brand name, is a constant source of amusement to English-speakers.
The 5-gallon water bottles are ubiquitous. Blue seems to be the most common color, although clear ones and slightly gray ones also exist, along with glass ones.
I love that cartoon!
Another source of unkind amusement -- when I was trying to get that cold cut picture, the woman at the end of the bread rack in Reply #51 kept getting in front of me. That's when I noticed her giant hams were stretch wrapped in the same alarming pink as the ersatz meats I wanted to photograph.
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Post by lagatta on Mar 14, 2010 19:44:47 GMT
Ha!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2010 21:07:29 GMT
Because you might be from the competition? K2, the brown tins in your second photo bottom left, are any of them lentils? I can't quite make them out. Or are they also beans? The reason is because we used to get those large tins of lentils here and we ate quite a few of them. But when we asked after a while when there were none left, we were told Carrefour doesn't stock them any more. And what is on the upper level? Household cleaning stuff etc? Yeah, I think the almost-out-of-stock big tins are lentils. You will find those big tins (and the half size) in every supermarket in France. Upstairs at that Carrefour is the bookstore, automotive, video, paint, kitchen appliances, electricity and most of the other non food stuff except for clothes and gardening, which are downstairs.
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