Spanish food prices v UK

[katy]

Yes I am a very misunderstood person. I should take a communicative writing skill course

[IreneD]

Katy said

Yes I am a very misunderstood person. I should take a communicative writing skill course

Lol! You are funny, your saving grace, which stops me from properly being offended at times

I know I am a sensitive little flower but I often get the impression you think I am a complete idiot. Hmmm........I may well be, I suppose

[anis]

..I know all the reasons why, Sid, but I am still mightily peeved that the leccy is being backdated to March and 3 rises in 6 months is just one too many for me at the moment.

[Julie]

I eat ready made frozen food a lot, home and away If I can, I always cook about 8 portions and freeze it after dishing up dinner, there are so many things you can cook in one dish and just add pasta, rice baked spuds or veg and all so easy to do.

Irene, I always think I have invented dishes all the time since I started cooking in Spain, especially with all the free fruit and veg that one gets given. Strange really, I make and eat a lot of dishes that I wouldn't make and eat when In Uk, must be the weather Enjoy !

[kexon]

I agree with the clothing issue,its either overpriced or poor quality.Regarding the food issue,i find Mercadona meat is awful,the latest chicken range looks like road kill and the lack of variety in most supermarkets is something which drives me nuts.Before anyone tells me if i dont like it i can go back to the UK,thats exactly what we intend to do.

[barry]

Kexon, I presume this decision is based on more than the poor meat quality in your Mercadona.

[El Cid]

I agree with the clothing issue,its either overpriced or poor quality.Regarding the food issue,i find Mercadona meat is awful,the latest chicken range looks like road kill and the lack of variety in most supermarkets is something which drives me nuts.Before anyone tells me if i dont like it i can go back to the UK,thats exactly what we intend to do.

I have to totally disagree with you. The chicken in Mercadona is as good as in any other supermarket or butcher and their "Corral" yellow corn-fed chicken is the best I have found.

How you can say it looks like road kill is beyond me - unless you ran over your shopping basket.

Enjoy Tesco's - it is obviously where you really want to be.

Sid

[country boy]

Have to agree with Sid; Mercadona is an excellent supermarket and their chicken is consistently of first class quality in all of the stores we use. They are also very good employers, a lot could learn from them!

[Devils Advocate]

I don't think supermarket chicken is the best no matter which country you are in In both Spain and UK there are places you can buy a proper chicken which has lived more than 8 weeks sat on its mates head.........and at not much more expense.

[kexon]

Yes can confirm our decision is not based on Mercadona lousy meat.However i can say that the we live in Seville province,not Malaga and can confirm that the new range of chickens are absolutely full of fat with the burn marks on the hock and are very,very flat chested,many of the meats are kept in chillers that are not cold enough.

[Lyric]

I'm not following "the new range of chicken" Seems the same to me and I'm with Sid on this.

I find Mercadonna consistently the best, and busiest, of the 5 supermarkets I have reasonable access to. Restricted range perhaps, but high turnover therefore good, not rotting veg as I see in some of the others.

[alisonb]

I don't often disagree with Sid, but here goes! Whenever I have bought the chicken breast fillets in Mercadona they have been horrid. They haven't been tidied up at all, and all the manky bits are tucked underneath where you can't see them until you open them. I buy mine in Lidl, or if I'm feeling flush, one of the Spanish butchers in Velez. They taste great and they are well tidied but you pay a lot for them. I don't know, but I'm wondering if Mercadona's meat is butchered locally, in which case there could well be differences in different areas. Chicken is the only meat I buy, but I find Mercadona's fruit and veg are not as good as some. Other than that, I'm a devout Mercadona shopper.

Although I don't buy meat there, Supersol in Velez invariably has long queues of Spaniards at the checkouts buying a massive range of meat. I guess their prices must be good. And they've just introduced a new bread - Pan Hogaza - which looks just like a normal unsliced white loaf, but tastes just how bread should (and never does here).

[anis]

Have to agree with you there Alison, there are always long queues of Spanish people in our large Supersol in Alhaurin de la Torre - good meat always, consistent quality, excellent pork particularly and many bargains offers, every week .

[kexon]

El Cid, a few years ago i would have agreed with your views in general of Mercadona meat,however during the last eighteen months or so the quality of chicken has become worse and with respect i doubt you know what the mercadona meat look like in my area as you dont live near Marchena.I have never stated in which supermarket i shopped in the uk,so i dont know where that comment came from!Since the crisis hit the Mercadona in my area have taken lots of different varieties of goods from the shelves and either stopped selling them entirely or switched the goods to very low quality to the point where we simply buy many more goods from alternative supermarkets.Blimey didnt realise the subject of chicken could be so emotive.

[El Cid]

El Cid, a few years ago i would have agreed with your views in general of Mercadona meat,however during the last eighteen months or so the quality of chicken has become worse

To be fair I praised the yellow corn fed chicken which is more expensive but much better. We usually use the breast fillets which don't have any excess fat on them. If we buy the ordinary chicken it is usually the thighs for curries and then quality isn't really an issue.

I did buy one of their baby yellow chicken and that was good. They have introduced a lot of very cheap frozen meat which looks pretty poor but it is pretty cheap.

Sid

[Wicksey]

To be fair I praised the yellow corn fed chicken which is more expensive but much better. We usually use the breast fillets which don't have any excess fat on them.

Sid

We only buy that type as well and have no complaints about it either. In Eroski they have the Natur range which is supposed to be better quality and the corn fed chicken there is also very good. I would rather not buy chicken at all if it was only the 'cheap' variety on offer .... I can live without meat if I have to. The Natur pork also seems better quality and have always tried to buy that. We don't eat much meat so maybe that's less of a problem for us to be choosy.

My only complaint about my favourite Mercadona shop is that they have reduced the choice of fish on the counter and now have prepacked salmon. I would prefer to be able to get the fishmonger to cut a piece to how I wanted it as before (mind you, I haven't asked ... perhaps he would??).

[Devils Advocate]

I can't speak or comment on the Mercadona chicken as I've never been in a Mercadona store, however we've bought the Eroski corn fed bird once and it was just like...........well errrr chicken

It's funny how the pukka, low volume, genuine free range birds fed solely on corn don't turn that bright yellow colour as the supermarket ones do , and that applies both in Spain and the UK, I can't see that being natural, bit like the yellow smoked haddock really. Internet comments and facts seem to add fuel to my thoughts to.

Supermarkets pride themselves in having bright red beef, yellow chickens and such things, I think they think,that the public thinks that that is correct and expected, I beg to differ

[karandjon]

After spending 5 weeks in the uk recently, i can honestly say we found it wayyyy cheaper there for food! The choice was also utterly outstanding!

I spent 3 hours every week doing my Tesco shop on-line i was so impressed!

I didnt like the price of wine tho, and only bought 3 botles the whole time we were there! Why i didnt think to put a case of 12 of my favourite 2euro bottles in the car i will never know!

I did find i bought more 'convenience' foods whilst there, but i was holidaying and not actually living. If living there i would buy all fresh like i do here.

Eating out was ona par too surprisingly. Loads of pubs had '2 for a tenner' lunches that were perfectly lovely.

My favourite though, was being able to meander uptown for a coffee...and have a full mug, and not just a mouthful! For 1.20gbp too, not bad!

[katy]

Can't say I was fond of Mercadona, perhaps it varies from town to town. It always looked cleaner and tidier than the other shops but lots of pre-packed fruit tasting of nothing and grey chicken and meat. I always used a small butcher in Marbella who was so popular it took ages, I rarely buy meat in UK supermarkets either.

I find the price of fruit and veg much cheaper in the Uk. I have noticed there is hardly any produce from Spain in the local shops. Today I bought strawberries, sweetcorn, tomatoes and cucumber all local grown. Oranges from Morocco and pug nose peaches from Israel. Perhaps Spain is pricing itself out of the market There was someone on this forum who said they took tomatoes to Spain

I am sure I said this before but when we were newly arrived in the UK. we went to Sainsburys and one of the staff asked OH if he could help, he said yes could you please stop selling so many varieties of potatoes as my wife can't make her mind up which to buy

[anis]

.... Katy, nobody will pay us anything worthy when we take our fruits from our finca to the local wholesale market. It is back breaking work for nothing and not worth it. That is why the oranges are left on the trees to rot. None of us finca owners are going to pick for nowt - we would rather give the fruit away and we do, all the time....that is ...until friends start expecting us to pick it for them too

We have had quality avocados, mandarins, satsumas, clementines, grapes, oranges and the prices are all the same - rubbish - it barely covers the cost of the petrol to take them to market. Something is seriously wrong with fruit exportation from Spain and it isn't the growers, pickers pay, nor the condition of the fruits. Someone is being very greedy somewhere along the line, doesn't take much to work out where does it ?