shopping
One of the great bonuses of living in a transition point like Ealing is the massive diversity of different cultures that pass through. Since the war (WW2 if you 're being pedantic) there has been a sizeable population of Poles, not a particularly integrated community it has to be said, my polish school friends' parents as often as not spoke very little english despite having been here for 30 years or more. Nonetheless, through the shared torture that was our schooling, elements of polish culture were gradually incorporated, and the polish deli holds little fear.When I was at school we also had the great expulsion of asians from Kenya and Uganda and the rise of the corner shop with its irresistable packets of spices and weird pickles. Since then we have had waves of Chinese, Sri Lankans, misc middle eastern and most recently Turks, and it is the latter that seem to have taken the concept of the neighbourhood store and run with it, producing that most marvellous of things the turkish supermarket.
This being a very multi-cultural area, however, they don't just confine themselves to turkish produce; my personal favourite, in West Ealing, is called 'Cudi' and has a huge selection of very cheap fresh vegetables and fruit stacked up outside for you to make your own selection from, inside they have a bewildering selection of stuff, from afro-caribbean spices and ingredients to lebanese breads and sweetmeats.
Naturally, if all you want turkish delight, they have it, loose in great boxes in various flavours, or pre-packed in little trays. Now they seem to have taken it upon themselves to go for the polish market, offering a better selection of sausage and sweetmeats than the more established delis do, and, this is the killer for me, they seem genuinely pleased to sell you things and are polite and friendly to boot. I have to say that the fruit and veg is usually of very good quality, and substantially cheaper than the supermarket offerings too. The best thing of all, is that there are several different stores within a limited area, so the choice is always good.
posted by Lampy @ 1/17/2006 04:06:00 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home