North American Supermarkets are horrific

[DaddyCool]

We've been complaining about the supermarkets around here (Canada) for months. I'm sick of buying sandwich meat and produce and it being rotten two days later. I was looking carrots last night but couldn't bring myself to buying them. I was able to bend them a full 180 degrees.

so anyway, we were watching old reruns of "Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares" last night on BBC Canada. There was a scene of the in Tescos and we were drooling at the mouth.

I mean, Tesco's is considered crap in the UK but its superior to these pits.

the selection of meat, cheese, real dairy products, organic, alcohol....

Oh, I know, when we're home, I find myself searching desperately for food when in the supermarket.

But hey, at least you can get those little pots of tapioca pudding that don't need to go in the fridge [drool].

Brits are always startled when I explain that it's much easier to get organic stuff here.

What do you wnat DC Sympathy? ~See you shoulda stayed put then you'd not have had these problems

i know, i know..

could not believe how utterly rubbish the supermarkets were when i lived in new york. ok you have dean & deluca and all those marvellous high end foodie shops but the standard supermarkets really were very poor. Me: Excuse me, do you have any cheese? Supermarket worker : Yes ma'am, we have both kinds, swiss and american... i kid you not. dire.

"produce" that brings back memories

Don't get me started DC! They never check the use-by dates so you have to and the meat is often past its date already. There is hugh fructose corn syrup in everything, as well as loads of other additives, preservatives, etc. Fruit and veges are terrible quality. And I want proper sausages and proper Cadburys!

Ah, I would expect 'both' kinds to be 'white' and 'orange' in some parts of Canada. Both 'cheddar' in some sense.

Ooooh, sometimes we had 'marble' cheese - which was a marbled blend of white and orange. It was my favourite .

i bet you can find high quality stuff - in a city at least - but ime you will have to pay through the nose for it.

lol at nqc! that's why they were so proud of the variety at food emporium on 43rd St then!

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surely things couldn't get worse?!

It really depends where you are, there are some great food markets, but the supermarkets really are terrifying shite, by and large.

I do really miss a lot of the food I can get back home easily (mmmm, toulouse sausages. Boudin Blanc, curd cheese, mmm).

nasty walmart

ooops sorry

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Produce is fresh fruit and veg. Is that not a British term?

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Does Mr Cod say 'erb?'?

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cod - fruit and veg.

it's horrendous.

and yes. the use by dates. we've bought many things that were past the date. you don't expect it.

i took some chicken back the other day that smelled like... excuse me... sperm

You've got to stop describing him as 'Canadian'. It's actually very Canadian of you to call someone who is only very very tangentially Canadian, Canadian. Like claiming Bell, or Rutherford or whatever.

ShopRite are excellent

here's a bad one.

you can't buy cream here. sorry I lie, you can't buy cream in 99% of places.

there is one place where you can get cream that has the ingredients "cream".

all other stuff is either UHT or got additives and weird things with numbers in it.

Can't you get half and half? Or whipping cream? They're pretty easy to get in Montreal?

Are you living in the Canadian equivalence of flyover country? I forget.

no, GTA!

Yes, you can get half and half, whipping.... but these aren't pure cream! they have other stuff in them. i showed my parents/brother and they had no idea.

I thought they were just cream, like here? To be fair, I only started cooking with cream after moving to the UK, and when I'm home, I'm normally in quite 'nice' bits.

What bit of the GTA? I grew up in a total pit of a neighbourhood in the GTA.

Come to Colorado - you can buy cream here . Seriously though I don't have a problem with supermarkets here - Whole Foods ( I know it's expensive but hey it's all organic), Safeway, Vitamin Cottage and King Soopers. Weather's good too.

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