The chinese supermarket and why I love it so...

Petlamb

I have walked past one for years and always been too nervous to go in! (Idiot, lol)

I think i did when I was little... but never since!

Silly, really, as I'm veggie so could do with buying some cheaper tofu and other meat replacements and I've heard good things of mock meat that they stock.

egon

Does anyone know of a turkish or greek supermarket in either worcester or cheltenham?

I definately try out the chinese one in worcester soon!

Thanks

Egon

Skint_Catt

I'm going to try and find the one in Worcester at lunch time today - I must have been blind to miss that one - but I'm only working in Worcester until next Monday - typical! :rotfl:

baby_fuzz

Vampiric_Addiction wrote: »

I have walked past one for years and always been too nervous to go in! (Idiot, lol)

I think i did when I was little... but never since!

Silly, really, as I'm veggie so could do with buying some cheaper tofu and other meat replacements and I've heard good things of mock meat that they stock.

You're right about the vegetarian meats! I adapted something from this recipe when I cooked for my veggie friends:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/crispyducklesspancak_74508.shtml
it went down very well, and I was pleasantly surprised when I tried some myself!

The mock duck generally comes canned (although a lot of the mock meat products come frozen) and looks like this:
http://shop.waiyeehong.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1392

Hope that you enjoy your visit to the chinese supermarket!

flyingirl

Glad to hear all this support for Chinese supermarkets - hopefully that will mean we will get more of them! I wanted to add that their frozen food like prawns are really cheap. I bought a kilo of them for about £4, without heads but with tails in-tact. They aren't massive ones but sizeable and quite succulent for the price you are paying!

Amoy's a good, authentic make and their web site has loads of great (free) recipes.

For the more adventurous, can I also recommend Chinese steamed dumplings (bao). They are either in the frozen or chilled section, white cake/bread things that have a selection of sweet and savory fillings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baozi

They make a great, healthy snack or breakfast if you find yourself becoming an enthusiast!

flyingirl

Oh one last thing, spring rolls are really easy to make for a snack and cheap (per piece). You can get the spring roll skins for a quid or so from the frozen section of a Chinese supermarket. They are sometimes also called samosa skins. A brand which is commonly stocked is called Spring Home.

I like my spring rolls small. So I usually get the 9" square skins and quarter them. If you defrost the skins overnight in the fridge then quarter them. If you get the 6" ones, I find they make the medium/ large spring rolls which I am less keen on in comparison.

Filling wise, the world's your oyster. Julienne your vegs like carrots, mooli (white long veg that looks like a big white carrot but I think it's from the turnip or maybe radish family), onions, beansprouts, Chinese mushrooms. I normally use mince pork but any mince would work as well.

You fry the mince followed by the vegs. I use oyster sauce (or veggie oyster sauce) for seasoning and some sesame oil. Veggies can try to use tofu if you like but I find I can't get the mix dry enough. Once cooked, try to get the mixture to drain and get as much of the liquid out as possible. When cooled, you can start rolling up your spring rolls.

When I am organized enough, I usually make up batches of this and freeze them - make sure everything properly cooled down before rolling and before freezing. You can cook these from frozen if you know how but if not, you can always defrost it in batches overnight to cook the following day. Brilliant for catering for parties as well... and they are a lot healthier than reconstituted chicken bits!

If you try to do this and find it's too hard, don't bin the skins. Get some cream cheese and make cream cheese 'won tons'. Literally plop a spoonful of cream cheese in the middle of a small square of the skin, fold it over from diagonal corner to diagonal corner to make a triangle, then bring the two side corners of the triangle to meet one another. You might want to use some milk or beaten egg to seal the corners. Deep fry and enjoy - just beward as they can be VERY hot.

Horasio

Are there any on the south coast of England. There were a couple on Leith Walk in Edinburgh.

Raspberry_Swirl

CCStar wrote: »

Are there any on the south coast of England. There were a couple on Leith Walk in Edinburgh.

I would've thought that there would be a good selection of them in cities like Southampton, Portsmouth, Brighton.

Where abouts on the south coast?

acjc

Re: south coast - there is Yau Brothers in Southampton, but it's quite small compared to the London equivalents.

They have a web site http://www.yaubros.co.uk/

sccarig

Does anyone know of good Chinese, Turkish & Greek supermarkets in Derby? - we're always willing to try new things & maybe learn a bit more about another culture as well...

If you haven't found them already Pak & Shariff's on Normanton Road are both brilliant Asian grocery stores.

Fabulous value fruit (14 oranges for 99p), yogurt (4x425g. tubs of 'live' set for £1), spices, dry goods etc. - saves us lots of money!

Sccarig.