Published by Swiss James on 28 Mar 2008 at 04:30 pm
Tesco
One of the things I miss about the UK are the supermarkets. Great food, bakery section, they’ll develop your photos whilst you browse through the CDs and load up your trolley with cut price liquor.
It’s a great day out for all the family, and the king of the UK crop is Tesco’s. So imagine my delight when I saw people walking around my neigbourhood with Tesco carrier bags and realised there was one right on my doorstep.
The sign just inside the door of the place promised I could get what I want. Well I wanted Chicken Kievs, some Wensleydale cheese, Pickled Onion Monster Munch, and a box of Ice Cream Mars Bars.
Amazingly, they had sold out of all of these items. But here’s what they did have:
Some kind of Jelly made out of grass. The way Emma’s (she’s had it before) eyes shone when she said
“Get some. Go on, I dare you to get some of that and eat it.“
made me realise that it probably wasn’t the nicest thing she’d ever had in her mouth, and I decided not to bother.
Meat floss. They had a few different kinds, including vitamin-enriched floss for kids.
It looked like good floss, nice and dry, but I’m trying to cut down, so again I didn’t bother.
Live turtles.
I really, really don’t remember seeing these down at the Bagueley Tesco’s when I was picking up a sandwich for my lunch. They probably keep them in a separate section in the UK, pets instead of food perhaps.
Although Black Sesame is not my favourite dumpling flavour, it’s nice to see the Tesco Value range popping up in China. From here it can only be a matter of time before cheap Spaghetti hoops and Sausage rolls flood the middle kingdom*.
*That’s China Mum.
Tesco- ZhengNing Lu, near Yan-An Lu (ish)
So what is the nicest thing Emma’s ever had in her mouth, hmmm?
Oh. Hi Emma… hope you’re keeping well and all that…
King of the crop?
Have you never been to Waitrose? Or even a Sainsburys?
Actually you’re from Yorkshire aren’t you?
Forget I said anything.
was there anything in the market that you *did* get?
(locally we have this great chain of groceries that is SOOO great, there’s only a handful of competitors - they have chicken kiev, too.)
uh, Hi James’ Mum (that M-O-M btw, James) . . . and Hello to Emma, too.
Angie - You can meet us all when you come in June, but if you just want to see me alone, I’ll understand!
Neil - In terms of market share, it really is a giant. They sell more than Asda and Sainsbury combined, but just a few years ago, Sainsbury was bigger than Tesco. Ironically, Harrogate (in Yorkshire) is the only postcode Tesco doesn’t have a store! Ok, I’ll shut up now, need to stop talking about my work.
James - Some of the bigger stores do actually carry some of the UK Tesco range. You need to get this Chicken Kiev obsession out of your mind though!
The turtles are actually called Jia Yu in Chinese which means fish. So it’s really a type of fish that evolved looking like a turtle you’ll be eating! LOL. I have never tried. Too scared to do that!
Does that mean that Dogfish evolved from dogs and Catfish evolved from cats?
Do fisherman catch them using slippers and balls of wool?
dingle: what about the lion fish? and tiger sharks? or lion seals?!
And the Conga Eel?
I love Le Gou, it’s soooo cheap! and just a cheap taxiride from my house.
Angie - HEB? Central Market? Whole Foods?
(I’m a huge Central Market fan - maybe that makes me frou-frou)
Tesco gets everywhere these days - I used to like Asda but prefer Morrisons these days, although for fresh food I still like to use the local shops in the market.
T - I was talking about HEB. (Central Market is HEB, BTW.) I don’t like Whole “Paycheck” their pre-made foods are crap and the produce is overpriced compared to HEB.
who *doesn’t* like Central Market?! whenever I walk in, it’s like I get distracted by every single item in the store!
I never went to HEB in Houston (the closest one to me was outside the Loop on the 10), but I practically lived at Central Market. I don’t know why everyone got all excited about Whole Paycheck, when Central Market was just as good.