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Which supermarket for which food (ex Tesco thread)

Which supermarket for which food (ex Tesco thread)

Old Mar 6th 2016, 1:49 am
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Default Which supermarket for which food (ex Tesco thread)

Which supermarkets do you guys use?
Tescos / Aeon / Giant / Cold Storage / a combination of stores?
And why?
Are some stores better than others for certain goods?

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Old Mar 6th 2016, 2:09 am
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Default Re: Tesco

Problem solved. Our "local store" for online shopping (determined from our address) had closed for renovation. Just needed to update our address to the same address and it redetermined our local store. Then delivery slots available.

We use Tesco to home deliver bulky items / non perishables and shop in a combination of stores for meat, veggies, fruit, milk etc. We still don't trust home delivery for chilled items and items like fruit which is much better selected in person.
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Old Mar 6th 2016, 2:16 am
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Default Re: Tesco

A combination of Tesco at Tg Tokong and Cold Storage at Gurney and some times at Tg Tokong for me as they are the closest of the 4 you mentioned.
Cold Storage carries more varieties of cold cereals. Tesco for toileteries, dry goods etc
Tesco used to pile up the chickens on the ice and by the afternoon they look awful. But a few months ago I noticed they bring out smaller portions at different times so less on the ice and they look better. Some times the pieces are still not good as it depends on who's on duty I think.
If I buy whole chicken, chicken thighs, drumsticks I'd rather go to the Mt Erskin wet market. Chickens are slaughtered fresh daily at the side area of the market, then brought to the stalls. Good service too. If you want to have whole chicken or thighs or breasts de boned, skin removed, cut to you specific sizes for curries etc they do it at no extra costs. I asked to omit the head and feet and they follow instructions, so I don't get them bagged. They'll put the bones in for you to take home for soup, but you can omit that too. Just that you pay for all already. Same with my pork guy there, selects the cut I described for what use, slices them, grind them and bags them in the number of smaller bags I request.
Tesco chicken man cuts the chicken but he does a very sloppy job and they are not bother with de boning or skinning service.
Wet markets have better choices and quality veggies and fruits.

Last edited by columbine; Mar 6th 2016 at 2:24 am.
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Old Mar 6th 2016, 5:49 am
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Default Re: Tesco

columbine, I don't live in Penang so the locations don't mean much to me.

I use wet markets daily for chicken, pork, fish / seafood and most fruit / veg. My local Econsave also has a good selection of fish / seafood and veg. I use Giant for pasta, tinned tomatoes, passata. Target for beer. And a monthly visit to Aeon and / or cold storage for less common items (bacon, sausages, courgettes to name a few).

I have never used a Tesco store yet.

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Old Mar 6th 2016, 6:40 am
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Default Re: Tesco

Originally Posted by Scratcher
columbine, I don't live in Penang so the locations don't mean much to me.

I use wet markets daily for chicken, pork, fish / seafood and most fruit / veg. My local Econsave also has a good selection of fish / seafood and veg. I use Giant for pasta, tinned tomatoes, passata. Target for beer. And a monthly visit to Aeon and / or cold storage for less common items (bacon, sausages, courgettes to name a few).

I have never used a Tesco store yet.

Scratcher
Ah, not in Penang. Sorry I didn't realise it.
I notice you mentioned Target! In M'sia?
Target has closed its business in Canada.
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Old Mar 6th 2016, 7:16 am
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Default Re: Tesco

Originally Posted by Scratcher
Which supermarkets do you guys use?
Tescos / Aeon / Giant / Cold Storage / a combination of stores?
And why?
Are some stores better than others for certain goods?
We use Tesco, Giant, Econsave, but our main shopping is Tuesdays night market. 2 kilos of Mangos every Tuesday, hehe.

Tesco has best quality of meat, even our Giant is mostly useless for beef and not always has chicken breast. To the unhappyness of my wife I am a typical Westerner and only eat chicken breast. If I cannot get beef

Giant is closer and responsible for mineral water. Has good prices.

Econsave is cheaper and great for vegetable and fruit.

AEON and the very expensive Jaya Grocer are best for seafood and meat, but too far away for us for everyday shopping.

Our main problem is to buy fish. I don´t eat river fish, so the best choice for me is Red Snapper. Salmon we buy only if we can be sure that it is from Norway and not Chile. Tuna is hard to get unfortunately.

I will do more research on local sea fish, maybe can find alternative for Red Snapper.
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Old Mar 6th 2016, 11:46 am
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Default Re: Tesco

Mydin is worth throwing in for fish, they have a pretty extensive selection of pretty fresh fish if you are up too late for the wet market, They also do pretty good chicken breast, legs and the like, pretty good veggies and fruit.
Tongkol is close to tuna/salmon as an oily fish but is only for those who are prepared to pull all the bones out.

Tesco for their own brand milk and can sometimes find some very nice aged beef steaks. They also have fair quality ham and its 20% cheaper than Aeon.
Pork comes from the next town where a man appears in his front garden most evenings with most of a freshly killed pig which he then cuts up as folk point at bits.
This is usually followed by a nice meal of wild boar and fish head curry, beers etc!!!!

Giant has its uses but not for much for us, pasta is home made, but they do seem to do a good line on tinned tomato for the sauce.

For a treat and a day out a 100km drive to KLIA2 Jaya grocer for some interesting cheeses and frozen goods Branston pickle etc.

Eggs.............night market.
Oh the whole sale bakers suppier for cheddar and mozzarella, cheese, butter, cream and flour etc etc.

Cold storage is too far and too much in the city of KL to be bothered to drive any more..

After all, being retired can take time shopping and then enjoy the cooking..
Till I wrote this lot I did not realise how varied our shopping is..............

Bottom line is you can easily use all the supermarkets and wet markets to get the best deals you are happy with both quality and price.

Last edited by PoolieAbroad; Mar 6th 2016 at 11:49 am. Reason: inability to spell first time around
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Old Mar 8th 2016, 1:37 pm
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Default Re: Tesco

My wife and I live in Penang (Tj. Tokong) and we use a combination of shops. We used to buy everything at Tesco ("one-stop shopping") but have lately become dissatisfied with several of their offerings and have looked for better alternatives. We do once per week a "Tesco run" to buy toiletries, milk, yoghurt, eggs, soft drinks, detergent and so on. The amount of foodstuff we buy there has reduced substantially. Not only were we already from the beginning not so impressed with the quality of the fish and meat, we lately also notice a declining trend in the quality of their offerings of fruits and vegetables. Nowadays we buy most of the meat, fish and vegetables at Cold Storage and our fruit at a road side fruit stall in Tj. Bungah. We took a look a few times at wet markets such as Pulau Tikus and Mr. Erskine for vegetables and meat, but were not impressed with what we saw.

One remark though: our food consumption at home has reduced substantially since we moved to Penang. We now go out for lunch and/or dinner much more often than we used to do. So our overall food shopping needs have also reduced.
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Old Mar 14th 2016, 3:24 pm
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Default Re: Tesco

Originally Posted by PoolieAbroad
Tongkol is close to tuna/salmon as an oily fish but is only for those who are prepared to pull all the bones out.
I saw the Tongkol at Tesco today, very small fish! Will try even if the bone things already annoys me now

The fish situation in Malaysia is really a lit bit sad, so we decided to just try as many whole fish as possible, maybe we find a suitable one.

Today we bought a "Bawal emas". Yes, also very small. But easy to handle the bones are big. Taste is OK, but not really what I expect.

We actually planned to buy the "Bawal hitam", but that was sold out. Next time.
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Old Mar 15th 2016, 12:29 am
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Default Re: Which supermarket for which food (ex Tesco thread)

eCdD
Bawal Hitam is cheaper than Bawal Emas but tastewise the same.
Siakap is also quite OK when it comes to bones.
And then there is a dark brown fish shaped as the Bawal, but bigger with quite agresssive looking teeth (don't know the name of it)

Generally look for clear eyes and fresh (red) looking gills on the fish you choose.
I would recommend buying fish in in Teluk Bahang, about 100m past the roundabout.
But you have to be early there to catch the good ones.
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Old Mar 15th 2016, 2:09 am
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Default Re: Which supermarket for which food (ex Tesco thread)

Originally Posted by Gunnar45
eCdD
Siakap is also quite OK when it comes to bones.
I agree, and they are cheap too.
I think it's because the siakap (Sea Bass) in Malaysia are generally sea-farmed.
Talking of sea bass, there's an excellent Jamie Oliver video about how to fillet sea bass on YouTube.

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Old Mar 15th 2016, 2:13 am
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Default Re: Which supermarket for which food (ex Tesco thread)

JC3,
Yes, I believe the siakap you buy in Tesco is farmed.
(Like the Bawal Emas and some more)
But in T Bahang the chinese lady (Ah Kim) up at the top corner of the fish section oftenly has some very big sized siakaps.....
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Old Mar 15th 2016, 3:21 am
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Default Re: Which supermarket for which food (ex Tesco thread)

Originally Posted by Gunnar45
JC3,
in T Bahang the chinese lady (Ah Kim) up at the top corner of the fish section oftenly has some very big sized siakaps.....
Sounds good to me!

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Old Mar 15th 2016, 5:45 am
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Default Re: Which supermarket for which food (ex Tesco thread)

Originally Posted by Gunnar45
I would recommend buying fish in in Teluk Bahang, about 100m past the roundabout.
Justed googlemapped this, OK, it is on Penang Island, can imagine that buying fish there is much easier

I also think most of the fish at Tesco or AEON is from farming. Is there any species that so far cannot be farmed?
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Old Mar 15th 2016, 6:15 am
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Default Re: Which supermarket for which food (ex Tesco thread)

There is an interesting report on Malaysian fisheries here which provides a lot of information. It's not the easiest of sites to navigate though.

Malaysia does not seem to be very well placed with regard to natural fish stocks and combined with exploitation difficulties (shipping, oil and gas fields etc), poor transport links and an affluent market in neighbouring Singapore this perhaps explains why we have such limited choice and high prices.
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