Food – Page 4 – Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

The Fresh Market in Columbus, Georgia

October 11, 2010April 9, 2023 Bradley Farless7 Comments

After doing quite a bit of shopping in cramped, sometimes dingy Asian grocery stores, or in wet markets, it was a treat to shop in The Fresh Market. Granted, it’s more of an upscale grocery store, but that will just help to highlight the difference between what you usually see in Singapore and the Philippines, and what’s available in the US.

The first thing I saw when walking into the grocery store were these humongous apples:

The interior of the store is well decorated and there’s a pleasant aroma of cinnamon and other spices.

The fruits and vegetables in The Fresh Market are really awesome looking:

Notice how red the tomatoes are. When I went to Asia I couldn’t figure out why the tomatoes there always had more of a yellowish green look to them, instead of the read I was used to. I later found out that tomatoes in the US are artificially ripened using methane gas. Even knowing that, there’s something comforting about seeing bright red, luscious tomatoes. The ones in Asia always looked like they hadn’t been left on the vine long enough to finish growing.

Fresh baked pies:

They all looked delicious, and I really love pumpkin pies and pecan pies, but we picked up one that I hadn’t heard of before: praline peach pie. It’s delicious!

The cuts of meat on display looked incredible:

Ya, with all this good food, I’m gonna start looking like a pig if I’m not careful.

A whole wall of spices:

Mixed nuts:

The Fresh Market is clean, smells nice, everything is in order and it’s quiet inside. Most importantly, it has plenty of space. In Asian markets and grocery stores, as in most other areas, you’re constantly jostling around and past people to get to what you need. Shopping there is an ordeal that has to be endured, but in grocery stores in the US there’s enough space to take your time to find what you want, to enjoy the experience, and you enjoy looking around. Also, though this doesn’t usually apply to grocery stores, there aren’t jackasses hovering over your shoulder constantly trying to push you to buy something. I hate that!

This level of spaciousness is something that’s more available in Georgia than New York City, because there are far more people in the city, obviously. Even there, though, stores often have more space to accommodate people.

Visiting The Fresh Market was a fun experience.

Ever Heard of the Maya-Maya?

September 14, 2010 Bradley Farless8 Comments

A maya-maya fish on the chopping block at the wet market in Antipolo, Philippines.

It’s a big ugly bastard of a fish, with it’s big head being the biggest part. If I laid my hand across it, from the bottom of the head to the top, my fingers wouldn’t get past the eye. I was kind of shocked when I saw it laying there, not so much just because of its size, but because of how disproportionate it is.

Despite it’s odd appearance, it made a might fine soup.

More Strange Pringles Flavors from the Philippines

September 10, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless2 Comments

Last month on the 1st I posted a photo of some odd Pringles flavors, including Seaweed and Grilled Shrimp, that I’d found here in the Philippines. I think they’re totally weird and I’m not all that interested in trying them, but I suppose they’re patterned after local tastes, the way McDonald’s patterns it’s menu to match the country they’re in.

In the comments to that post, I was given a link to another blog called Everything-Everywhere. The blog writer, Gary Arndt, has a project going on that he calls “Project Pringles”. His intent is to document all of the Pringles flavors from all over the world, including photos. The commenter on my post recommended I get a better shot of the Grilled Shrimp Pringles since it wasn’t on his list yet, but it took me way too long to get back around to it.

I did finally remember to take my camera with me to the grocery store, but alas, it was too late. Someone else had already submitted the grilled shrimp flavor, as well as the other two I found:

Left: Soft-shell Crab Pringles. Right: Fruit & Nut: Lemon & Sesame Pringles

If you have an interest in weird Pringles Flavors or you want to participate in that guy’s project, head over to his site by clicking here.

Blueberry Ice Cream Flavored Oreos

August 26, 2010 Bradley Farless21 Comments

When I was out shopping I noticed these ice cream flavored Oreos. I don’t know if they’re local to Asia or if they’re being sold in the US, but it looked interesting, and kind of weird, so I figured I’d give them a try.

When I opened the pack I could smell blueberry right away, but there was also a weird minty smell.

The inside is definitely a blueberry color.

The taste is something that I couldn’t quite appreciate. The cookie part is fine. It tastes like the usual Oreo, but the cream is … weird. When I bit into it, it had a minty blueberry taste. It didn’t taste much like ice cream to me. Suddenly I realized that it tasted like menthol, from a menthol cigarette like a Newport or Marlboro Menthol. Once I made that connection I had a mental image of eating cigarettes and I couldn’t stomach it anymore. The rest of the pack went straight to the trash can.

Anyone know if these are being sold elsewhere? Have you tried them? What did you think?

Do They Have These Pringles Flavors Where You’re From?

August 1, 2010 Bradley Farless10 Comments

Somehow, these just don’t seem very appetizing to me. I prefer ‘normal’ flavors, like plain, salt & vinegar. I found these on the shelf at a Mercury Drugs store, which is a combination pharmacy and convenience type store.

A Smiling Pig in the Market

July 27, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless3 Comments

So, you’re strolling through the market and you stop to check what’s for sale at the butcher’s stall next to you and then you see this:

Somehow, the poor bastard looks like he’s smiling. I imagine they’re waiting for someone to buy this head, probably to make pork sisig or grilled ears. We went tame this time and just bought some pork chops.

I’m sure we’ll have a smile on our faces too when we’re eating them!

The Sake Inn

July 20, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless6 Comments

The Sake Inn isn’t actually an inn, though it would be a good name for one with a free sake gimmick. The Sake Inn is a store in Singapore that sells mostly sake, but it’s also where I picked up the canned drinks I showed in a previous post. I’ve never actually tried sake before, though I’m interested. My wife and I bought a bottle of sake from a Spring Kyushu Fair in another mall in Singapore, but never had the opportunity to drink it. We got busy with packing and wound up giving it away as a gift. Maybe next time.

I was impressed with the amount of Japanese goods that were available in Singapore. Besides sake stores there were Japanese themed bakeries, restaurants and clothing stores, like Uniqlo. I’m a little disappointed that there isn’t as much available here in the Philippines, but maybe I’m just not looking in the right places yet. If you’re wondering where in Singapore this sake store is, it’s in the basement of Tampines 1, located right next to the MRT station.

The Antipolo, Rizal, Philippines Wet Market

July 20, 2010 Bradley Farless3 Comments

The last time I was in the wet market in Antipolo I didn’t take a lot of photos because I was worried about offending the stall owners. Well, that and thieves. The place was really crowded at the time. On our last trip I realized I had my camera with me and the place was relatively quiet, so I started snapping photos. The reactions were different from what I expected. A lot of the girls behind the counters smiled and laughed. Then the guys started laughing at them for getting so excited over a picture being taken. It was fun!

We don’t normally get our rice inside the market. We go to a stall just outside it. I haven’t checked to see if the prices are any different, but my wife’s family all buy rice from the same guy, so it just seems natural to go there as well. Besides, the stall owner is always smiling and seems really pleasant.

I can’t remember if I posted the photo or not, so I’ll post it again here!

Pig feet anyone? No? How about those intestines? Nothing goes to waste in the Philippines and every part of the animal gets put on sale. Someone must be buying it…

A Filipino type of sausage called longganisa. We bought the redder looking kind on the left and had it for breakfast. It was a little sweet for my tastes but it was good anyway.

Fish, crab, shrimp… You can get almost every imaginable seafood here. I think I even saw some sturgeon for sale. I noticed that there were a lot of very large bangus (milk fish) for sale. Some of them were as long as my arm. My wife said that after typhoons the milkfish swim closer to the shore so it’s easier for fishermen to catch them. The prices were low too at 40 PHP (about 0.95 USD) per kilogram.

A row of stalls selling vegetables and random cooking items like oil, spices and sauces.

Going to the wet market is always interesting because there’s so much activity and so many people wandering around.

Hello Kitty Pizza Bites

July 9, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless3 Comments

Check these out! This is a lot more creative and fun than your run of the mill pizza bites! I bet these things are delicious and they’re giving me a serious craving for microwaveable Bagel Bites mini-pizzas, which I haven’t had in quite a few years now. I swear I used to live off those things. I’d go through two or three boxes a week.

Ovens weren’t common in homes in Singapore, but they’re available here and this is getting me interested in putting on my apron and breaking out the oven mitts.

Be sure to visit the Flickr user’s photo stream for other cool stuff like Hello Kitty Bento Boxes.

via TokyoMango

Old Spaghetti House at Galleria

July 6, 2010 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Yesterday afternoon, after a day of running around trying to do job interviews and visit the GSIS office for my father-in-law, we stopped by Galleria on our way home to have dinner. I wasn’t sure what to eat, but I was in the mood for something Italian, so my wife recommended Old Spaghetti House. I’m glad we went. The food there is great! It’s not fine dining per se, but it’s well worth the money.

I went with the Vietnamese garlic spaghetti with shrimp. I’m not sure if it’s actually a popular Vietnamese dish. It tasted really good though!

My wife decided to have their puttanesca, which is translated literally as “whore’s spaghetti”. There are conflicted theories about the origins of this dish, but the more colorful one is that it was a dish that prostitutes in Italy’s state run brothels made for themselves out of the odds and ends in their larders. As a condition of working in the state run brothels, they were only allowed out one day a week, so they were often low on supplies and this light sauce made from few ingredients was the result of their attempts to get by. More information can be found in the Wikipedia article.

After dinner, I finally got the chance to introduce my wife to funnel cake. Funnel cakes are popular at fairs in the US, but they’re pretty rare in Asia. I don’t recall ever seeing a place with this on the menu in Singapore. She loved it! You can see in the photo that they don’t add quite as much powdered sugar as they do in the US, but it came with a choice of toppings which made up for it.

Speaking of Singapore… it seems like you can’t get away from it over here. I found this stuff on the menu:

I don’t care for the original Tom Yum soup, so I really don’t think I’d like the way it tastes as a pizza or spaghetti.