apples and oranges

[david and julie]

Some of our recent chats seem a little serious so just to lighten things a little... I was in my greengrocers earlier and wondered why some fruits have little stickers showing origin and maybe variety but others don't. Does anybody know why?

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

Well, if they are 'Branded' are they more expensive???

P.S. Anyone ever mistakingly eaten a label...?

No, I haven't, before you ask!

 

[securespark]

The cynic in me says the unlabelled produce is unlabelled cos they don't want us to know where it's from....

But it could just be that they forgot.

I know in s/markets, some of the checkout peeps don't know their Sharon Fruit from their Williams Pears, so it helps to have a label, and nearly everything is labelled.

"I'm a pear" "I'm an apple" etc... Sad, when young people don't even know what different fruits there are in the world and how to tell them apart!

 

[breezer]

if you have mistakenly eaten the label how would you know ?

 

[AdamW]

As one who strictly chooses produce on its country of origin, I have seen lots of stickers. In my experience the British fruit usually has a Union Jack worked into it somewhere, sometimes subtley but almost always there. So, perhaps the unlabelled fruit is from countries that many would rather not buy from (there are many countries that I refuse to buy from. I know it sounds silly because Sainsbury's have already paid for it, but I would rather eat expensive inferior apples from country A than eat a sweet juicy cheap apple from criminal regime B)

I think this selectiveness has been drilled into me because as a child of the 80s my parents were always very careful not to buy South African produce and after apartheid ended it was a big novelty that we could have SA fruit and veg. Also I like to buy British where possible to support our farmers and growers... obviously you can't get bananas from Kent but I think Torquay is missing a pineapple opportunity

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

if you have mistakenly eaten the label how would you know ?

Thanks Breezer,

I now have an image of a floater with 'Product of Spain' written on it...

 

[AdamW]

I know in s/markets, some of the checkout peeps don't know their Sharon Fruit from their Williams Pears,

I like to anything once (ooh-err), twice if I like it, so I have tried all the "exotic" fruits at my local supermarkets (doesn't appear to be an independent greengrocer in my town). The sharon fruit to me tasted a bit like a gone-off tomato! I was trying to eat it like an apple, is there some trick to it (like cooking perhaps).

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

I think Torquay is missing a pineapple opportunity

Have to dig up all those bloody palm trees first!

 

[securespark]

MMJ

Yes, I have eaten a label.

When I'm in a car, I tend to eat the whole apple, core, stalk and pips included. Oh, and labels, too, it seems, although I spat half of it out!

Adam.

They have to be fresh, if not, then the skin can be tough, but I haven't heard of cooking them. Of course, if it's something like passionfruit, then you don't eat the skin. Chop off the top, and eat like a boiled egg.

Have you ever had proper suishi? Like, tuna raw?

Next time you go to the fish counter in SainscoSomerwaysons, look at the tuna. Invariably it is WAY past it's best, being dark brown in colour. YUK!

When you know that fresh tuna is actually a very delicate pale pink, you'll never buy fish from a "super"market ever again.

I usually have a word with the manager about the fish not being fit for human consumption and a quick, quiet utterance under my breath of the words Standards and Trading rearranged, and magically it is whisked away and replaced with fresh.......

 

[Studders]

Next time you go to the fish counter in SainscoSomerwaysons, look at the tuna. Invariably it is WAY past it's best, being dark brown in colour. YUK!

When you know that fresh tuna is actually a very delicate pale pink, you'll never buy fish from a "super"market ever again.

You're dead right. A friend used to own a fishmongers until he sold up. He always said "never buy fish from a soopermarket, it's the worst you can get and rarely stored in ice as it should be"

Mind you, can't bloody stand fish maself.

 

[nstreet]

I've been trying to grow fruit with labels for years, never actually managed it, so i'm sticking with the money tree. It's only giving small change at the moment, but it may give a monkey or two in a few years.

 

[AdamW]

Have you ever had proper suishi? Like, tuna raw?

Unfortunately I am allergic to most fish. Not severely, it just makes my lips swell up and/or the skin to peel off them. So I avoid all fish to be on the safe side. Still, I think if I were going to eat fish then I wouldn't eat tuna, it stinks!

The deli counter at my local supermarket can be pretty variable. I always avoid any meat where they have cut a load of slices off in advance, I had some turkey that tasted decidedly strange! If I wanted pre-sliced I would get the stuff in the protective atmosphere packet. Of course you always have the option of asking them to cut some fresh for you, but we are English, we hate complaining to the person who can do something about it!

 

[kendor]

The "best before" labels you see on meat, fish products in the supermarkets are based on how long the produce has strayed from the
"-18 degree delivery chain" in other words how long it spent not being refrigerated also the produce may be stored refrigerated for long periods of time from time of slaughter, catching, obviously this is usually not an exact science and therefore you no doubt have occasionally experienced the food you buy going off before it's "best before" date.
I know in this day and age that we are highly critical of hygiene etc but like all things, human involvement will stick a variable in the efficiency of that hygiene and sometimes we can expect too much for our moolahs.
Think back to just a hundred years ago and how dangerous the food was then ( rogue shopkeepers putting extremely toxic additives in the produce to bulk it out or make it more tasty!), we have come a long way, at least you can demand your money back these days.

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

Think back to just a hundred years ago and how dangerous the food was then ( rogue shopkeepers putting extremely toxic additives in the produce to bulk it out or make it more tasty!), we have come a long way, at least you can demand your money back these days.

Yes, nowadays they only inject water into our meat to bulk it out. That's real progress...

 

[AdamW]

With beef, they leave it hung out to develop the flavour. I have often wondered how they do this without it going bad, or is this going slightly bad what gives it the flavour?

Obviously they wouldn't do this with chicken. Have you ever seen a chicken plant? The workers hang the chicken by the feet on a special conveyor. The machine then electrocutes, plucks, washes the chicken. I think the actual butchering is done by hand but I could be wrong.

They don't just use water to bulk up chicken, they put beef proteins in the solution. Which is great for any Hindu chicken eaters out there.