Fresh food in supermarkets

dh0661

Hi all, I'm just wondering where you buy your fruit/veg. and meat.
A couple of years ago I got fed up of buying fruit/veg. (especially fruit) in supermarkets, apples that went wrinkly after a few days, etc. etc..
So I decided to try the local greengrocer, as my Mam always does. The quality was so much different, the fruit has more flavour and stays fresh until it's all gone and the veg. is much fresher also.
I was saying this to Mam and she suggested that I should try the butchers for my meat also, better quality and flavour she said . She was right --- again.

truecrippler

And I couldn't agree with your mother more. I used to work in the fruit and veg section at a supermarket. The produce can be fresh, but the quality isn't usually great, even though they have "standards".

The Sweeper

I think it depends. I shop for whatever I want at wherever I'm going to get the best of it. Some days I can pick up veg in the supermarket that's so fresh it's still squeaking. It might be stacked next to a tray of sad, pitted, wilted-looking items. I might go to the grocer then, and find he's got a mix of fresh and sad looking items too.

Try not to shop to fill an out of season recipe if you can, instead go to the shop, see what looks good and buy it.

Minder

truecrippler wrote: »

even though they have "standards".

I think you will get a greater variety at the grocer. Supermarkets look for standardisation of products. While the suppliers may vary, the product must be the same. Whereas the local grocer doesn't have the same restrictions - they can pick and choose the lines they want to offer and be much more flexible about the seasonality of the products.

When was the last time you saw fresh horseradish, salsify, chard or white asparagus in the supermarket. The greengrocer probably doesn't carry these but I bet they could get them for you. I saw an old Rick Stein Food Heroes programme the other day - he visited a scottish garlic farmer. The guy grows big fat juicy garlic heads. He was telling a story how a large chain supermarket sent a buyer to see them. The buyer looks at the garlic and says it's too big! Nevermind what it tastes like.

And then there are the tomatoes. The big supermarket chains were criticised over the supply of generic tasteless pap that they labelled tomatoes. But instead of expanding the range on offer, the marketing people hit on a great idea, sell tomatoes on the vine. That is where a lot of the aroma of tomatoes is concentrated. So at best, the local supermarket will sell five or six varieties and not a single heirloom tomato among them - but at least they smell like a tomato should.

Lidl has great fruit and veg, because they make profits on quick turnover and have a massively simplified dustribution network when compared to say Tesco.
They also have a fantastic range of seasonal veg including fresh horseradish .

Pigletlover

Moonbaby wrote: »

Lidl has great fruit and veg, because they make profits on quick turnover and have a massively simplified dustribution network when compared to say Tesco.
They also have a fantastic range of seasonal veg including fresh horseradish .

QFT

I buy nearly all my fruit and veg in etiher Aldi or Lidl, Lidl has a better selection, but the quality in both is better than say Dunnes, Tesco etc. I know of one greengrocer where the quality of the produce is appalling, I'm convinced at this stage that they get their stock at a knock down discount becuase it's past it's sell by date and only fit fro dumping. I know this isn't the case for all greengrocers but I don't think you can generalise, saying greengrocers are better than supermarkets or vice-versa. Same with butchers, while some butchers sell fresh quality meat, others don't. People seem to think there is something wrong with meat from a supermarket, despite the fact that many supermarkets employ butchers. I think it's a snobbery thing.

Minder

Pigletlover wrote: »

People seem to think there is something wrong with meat from a supermarket, despite the fact that many supermarkets employ butchers. I think it's a snobbery thing.

Supermarkets do indeed employ butchers - or rather people with a very basic skill in butchery. Most supermarket meats are delivered in vacuum sealed bags - large joints waiting to be cut into steaks or chops by the in-store butcher. The meat sits in the bag in it's own juices until it is ready for the display. Any decent high street butcher will have carcasses hanging in the cold room - a dry environment. Now which will be the better quality meat (everything else being equal)?

Next time you are in a supermarket ask the Butcher at the meat counter if he or she would tunnel bone a leg of lamb for you.

oblivious

Minder wrote: »

Supermarkets do indeed employ butchers - or rather people with a very basic skill in butchery. Most supermarket meats are delivered in vacuum sealed bags - large joints waiting to be cut into steaks or chops by the in-store butcher. The meat sits in the bag in it's own juices until it is ready for the display. Any decent high street butcher will have carcasses hanging in the cold room - a dry environment. Now which will be the better quality meat (everything else being equal)?

Next time you are in a supermarket ask the Butcher at the meat counter if he or she would tunnel bone a leg of lamb for you.

Some of the big mutables will have are short hanging time, to increase turn around time

The Sweeper

Minder wrote: »

Next time you are in a supermarket ask the Butcher at the meat counter if he or she would tunnel bone a leg of lamb for you.

Hahahah our local supermarket doesn't have a butcher. My butchering skills aren't leet, so while I can section a chicken in five minutes, it takes me the better part of 15-20 minutes to bone out a leg of lamb and butterfly the meat.

I asked a counter gal the other day "Would you have a butcher here who could butterfly this leg of lamb for me? /me brandishes vaccum packed lamb leg."

"No, sorry" she says. Which is fine.

"We don't have a butcher here - well, we do once a week, but he's not here today." Okay, also fine.

"Anyway, we wouldn't have the equipment here to do that."

...

So you don't have a sharp knife and a chopping block then?

Gavin "shels"

Try the street sellers on Moore St, always great fruit and veg at great prices. My mam got 20 lovely bananas yesterday on Moore St for €1.:eek:

Quality

dh0661 wrote: »

Hi all, I'm just wondering where you buy your fruit/veg. and meat.
A couple of years ago I got fed up of buying fruit/veg. (especially fruit) in supermarkets, apples that went wrinkly after a few days, etc. etc..
So I decided to try the local greengrocer, as my Mam always does. The quality was so much different, the fruit has more flavour and stays fresh until it's all gone and the veg. is much fresher also.
I was saying this to Mam and she suggested that I should try the butchers for my meat also, better quality and flavour she said . She was right --- again.

I hate supermarket meat, I go to an excellent crafts butchers. It is more expensive, but worth every penny.

Pigletlover

Minder wrote: »

Supermarkets do indeed employ butchers - or rather people with a very basic skill in butchery. Most supermarket meats are delivered in vacuum sealed bags - large joints waiting to be cut into steaks or chops by the in-store butcher. The meat sits in the bag in it's own juices until it is ready for the display. Any decent high street butcher will have carcasses hanging in the cold room - a dry environment. Now which will be the better quality meat (everything else being equal)?

Next time you are in a supermarket ask the Butcher at the meat counter if he or she would tunnel bone a leg of lamb for you.

Sure not every supermarket will have a decent butcher, I'm sure very few do because the majority of meat sold in most supermarkets is pre-packed and it's wouldn't be worth while paying 2 butchers wages. But there are supermarkets who actively seek experienced skilled butchers, not the 'people with a very basic skill in butchery' that you speak of, who can tunnel bone a leg of lamb and do any of the other things that you seem to think only a butcher working on the high street can do. I'm saying that you can't say all butchers are superior to all supermarkets.

Pigletlover

Quality wrote: »

I hate supermarket meat, I go to an excellent crafts butchers. It is more expensive, but worth every penny.

No Dunnes Stores chickens for you so

oblivious

Pigletlover wrote: »

No Dunnes Stores chickens for you so

My local butcher is not much dearer than Dunnes and has a better quality

Quality

Pigletlover wrote: »

No Dunnes Stores chickens for you so

Ah chicken is alright from the supermarket, especially when you can get free range.;)

The meat from Dunnes is brutal though. the mince is like rubber when you cook it. The steak and roasts are usually swimming in blood. The pork chops are tough. And the ribs have no meat on them, like trying to pick the muscle off bones.

I would buy ham, corned beef and chicken from Dunnes. No complaints about them.

Minder

Pigletlover wrote: »

People seem to think there is something wrong with meat from a supermarket, despite the fact that many supermarkets employ butchers. I think it's a snobbery thing.

Pigletlover wrote: »

Sure not every supermarket will have a decent butcher, I'm sure very few do....

So which is it, supermarkets employ decent butchers or they don't. Sounds like you're not sure. Strange because you sound sure that I am a snob if I prefer to buy my meat from a butcher...

Pigletlover

Some supermarkets employ decent butchers, some don't, I never claimed they all do. The point I was making is that you can't simply say meat that comes from a butcher shop is better than that from a supermarket. My local butcher sells absolute muck. I'm not arguing that supermarket meat is better by the way, I just hate people who automatically rule out meat from a supermarket when there are supermarkets that sell quality meat.

ash_18x

on the subject of chickens, i used to work in a chicken factory and we used to pack whole chickens and pieces etc for the likes of super valu and dunnes (under their brand), these had to be the best quality ones, better than those that were packed under the companies own brand!
i would buy meet in a supermarket any day and fruit and veg, the local fruit and veg shop closed down so i cant go there anymore! i used to find that the quality in the supermarkets was often better than that in the fruit and veg shop anyway!

dh0661

Hi - back again, it's great to read all of your replies. I still believe that the local greengrocer and butcher provide much better quality, and value than any of the supermarkets. I must admit that it takes me time to get to what I believe are the better ones in Tralee, where I live.
My local butcher has recently moved from town centre to Manor, about two miles away. I tried two other butchers close to town centre, but I was not happy with their attitude, quality or prices.
Even though a branch of my greengrocers opened next to my butcher it's still not good, they don't stock some of the items that I want, and when I asked why not, I got that dumbfounded look, like, what are you talking about, (this could set me off on a rant):mad:
So it's back into town, and on to Rock Street, but at least that's on my way home.
I know that all of this sounds like an awful lot of effort to buy food, but the effort is worth it, I think. The rest of my groceries are bought in Tesco on line.

kerash

I find Lidl or Aldi great, they have a better selection than my local Tesco/dunnes or Fruit and Veg. Although I find supervalu great for fresh veg too. I'd totally agree about the butchers tho. supermarkets do not compare!:)

IronMan

I find Tesco to have the most appalling fruit and vegetables. Soggy, green tomatoes, brusied peppers. Buy their "finest" range so you can get the quality you should be getting anyway. By far the worst for all meat, fruit and veg when it comes to the major retailers.

As grocers are becoming rarer and rarer (in the suburbs) at least, I do find myself buying more fruit and veg in the supermarkets. Superquinn does have good quality fruit and veg, at a premium price. I called into Lidl one day, and was surprised at the quality and price of the fruit and veg.

So I'm boycotting Tesco going forward, got one too many rotten tomatoes, peppers, soggy bananas. Horrible.

ladyA

I have to agree that Tesco's fruit and veg is generally appalling. I can't understand how they are even allowed to sell half the stuff and it never lasts for long.
I find Marks & Spencer's fruit to be the best around. I think everyone would eat more fruit if they bought it there - its consistently good but unfortunately expensive.
Lidl's fruit and veg is great. Dunnes veg isn't too bad but a lot of the time they don't seem to have basic things like peppers.
The main problem I find with the bigger supermarkets is consistency. I could go into Dunnes buy a lovely apple, then return a few days later to buy the same variety of apple from the same country of origin and its god awful.

The Hill Billy

In a way I am lucky that one of my local supermarkets - Gerry's in Skerries (an independent grocer) - always has a relatively good stock of locally grown veg. It písses me off though that this isn't the case with the larger supermarket chains. Country of origin on their vegetables - "Anywhere But Ireland".

Where I live is surrounded by market gardeners, but do you think that you can buy their veg easily? Not a chance. There is a small farmer's market in the Little Theatre in Skerries on Friday mornings (I think). But that's feck all used to me when I'm stuck in the office 30k away.

There was also a "Farmers Market" (& I use this term in its loosest possible meaning) at the Pier House on Sundays. It was great if you wanted to buy pasta or olive oil from Italy, seafood from N Ireland (what about seafood from Skerries pier, 10 fcuking metres away?!), spuds from Wexford (what about Kerr's Pinks or Queens from Rush, 6km away?), jewellery from God knows where.

Bring back the Village Greengrocer! Local seasonal veg for all!!!

* goes for smoke to simmer down *

cozmik

IronMan wrote: »

I find Tesco to have the most appalling fruit and vegetables.

It varies from store to store. The new Tesco on Parnell st has nice fruit and veg some of the older branches are a different story.

Minder

Hill Billy, I completely agree on the large supermarkets. Somehow it was decided that we need all fruit and veg all the time - to the extent that we no longer know what is in season and when. Why does my weekly food shopping have more air miles than I do?

dh0661

Hill Billy wrote: »

There was also a "Farmers Market" (& I use this term in its loosest possible meaning) at the Pier House on Sundays. It was great if you wanted to buy paseta or olive oil from Italy, seafood from N Ireland (what about seafood from Skerries pier, 10 fcuking metres away?!), spuds from Wexford (what about Kerr's Pinks or Queens from Rush, 6km away?), jewellery from God knows where.

Bring back the Village Greengrocer! Local seasonal veg for all!!!

There are also a lot of local growers around Tralee, we get the most amazing carrots (in fresh bunches) from the Maharees, probably from June to November. All other veggies, potatoes and strawberries are locally grown.
As for farmers markets, please don't me going.:mad: I have actually seen grapes, bananas and oranges on sale at one of these markets recently.

oblivious

Hill Billy wrote: »

There was also a "Farmers Market" (& I use this term in its loosest possible meaning) at the Pier House on Sundays. It was great if you wanted to buy pasta or olive oil from Italy, seafood from N Ireland (what about seafood from Skerries pier, 10 fcuking metres away?!), spuds from Wexford (what about Kerr's Pinks or Queens from Rush, 6km away?), jewellery from God knows where.

The English have seem to tackled this problem by only allowing produce sold that is produced in a 30 mile radius

Minder

oblivious wrote: »

The English have seem to tackled this problem by only allowing produce sold that is produced in a 30 mile radius

Where? At farmers markets?

oblivious

Minder wrote: »

Where? At farmers markets?

yep, sorry if it was not clear

suzi-suz

got some " fresh " chicken in tesco on monday and was with the doctor on tuesday myself and my son got food poisoning from the chicken so word of warning tesco chickens are not always as fresh as they say they are.... imagine if a pregnant woman had eaten it.

i have been in contact with the branch i bought the chicken from and they tried to pay me off....seems i was not the first to complain, how they think they can sell products that clearly are not fresh and get away with it is disgraceful

oblivious

suzi-suz wrote: »

got some " fresh " chicken in tesco on monday and was with the doctor on tuesday myself and my son got food poisoning from the chicken so word of warning tesco chickens are not always as fresh as they say they are.... imagine if a pregnant woman had eaten it.

was that cooked in store or by you?