Buying Food in Penang

Shopping in Canada was pretty straightforward - head to Superstore, get a big cart and proceed to fill it with everything we need for two weeks. It doesn't work that way here in Penang for several reasons:
  • Food doesn't keep very long in the heat, so stocking up for two weeks would result in a lot of waste.
  • I have a much smaller fridge, no freezer save for the one that is in the fridge and less cupboard space to store a large stockpile of food.
  • It seems that to get the 'best' options you must head to several different places to get groceries.

So, we shop more often and head to different stores. Nissi's, a small grocer close to our home, sells great New Zealand produced cheddar and mozzarella cheese, sour cream, beef and has the best prices on yogurt.

Straits Market brings in several imported foods that are hard to find anywhere else and tends to have the best price on cereal.

The morning outdoor wet market is the best place for fruit, vegetables, eggs (which are never refrigerated in Asia - still working on getting my head around that one!), chicken and pork (in the back where the M**lim people don't have to go so they don't get offended).

Cold Storage is the main grocery store that expats frequent. It carries a lot of imported goods from the US and Britain - and has the prices to prove it. I don't shop there very much!

TESCO is a British company and it is much like a Superstore. It has the best prices on grocery store items so I'm trying to shop there more often, even though it's a bit of a drive. I was so proud of myself this week - I drove there all myself for the first time!! And I didn't even get lost!

And finally, we buy our bread from a little local bakery called 'Rainforest Bakery'. They make delicious bread, cinnamon buns, scones, etc. Monday, Wednesday and Friday they set up their 'store' in our end of town, so we buy our bread on those days out of the back of a hatchback car across from the ESSO. I took pictures while we were buying bread last night.



So, there's another little slice of our life here. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

Eating well in Penang,

Karin

Comments

Tara Scott said…
If you like chocolate (who doesn't?), see if they carry any Galaxy at Tesco. It's a British brand, you can get it at just about any convenience store in Britain, but it's fantastic. Far better than anything you can get here in Canada.
June 30, 2009 at 6:11 AM
Adam Koleba said…
The pictures of your most recent post (the one about shopping), Bob is wearing his runners. . . are you guys still putting in lots of kilometers in the mornings? I'd imagine jogging in that country would be a pretty scenic experience. That true?
July 13, 2009 at 10:46 AM
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