People living in Asia- Grocery list

Moooosey
Moooosey Posts: 5
in Food and Nutrition
Hey there! I live in Singapore, which is a tiny red dot island that's situated in South-East Asia. With surrounding countries like Indonesia,Malaysia.
Just wanted to see if there's any one having problems like me having to buy organic/ natural food with much varieties in supermarkets for a good affordable price (because I'm only a student).
Supermarkerts like Cold Storage/ NTUC/ Fairprice/Giant have very limited organic range.
The best so far would be Cold storage. But it mildly expensive for a student like me to afford.

The next thing is that the vegetables here are named so differently. Like, there's isn't any kale in Singapore or many its just named in some weird chinese name. ;/

125g- $4.95 to $3.95 for blueberries (WHY ARE STUFF HERE SO EXPENSIVE IN SINGAPORE.)

-zzuuuuuuumm-
It's hard to live healthly in Singapore, especially since I'm being surrounded of all kinds of food here- chinese, indian,japanese,korean,malay,peranakan. You name it we have it.

Replies

  • shellr06
    shellr06 Posts: 14
    Do you have food markets? You could go there and buy your food, par-boil some and freeze so it doesn't go off before you cook it. Good luck with your journey.
  • MoRiv1986
    MoRiv1986 Posts: 379 Member
    Don't they have fruit and vegetable stands? They have them here in Korea. They are abundant. Koreans eat tons of veggies and fruits. Many Asians do.
  • hbunting86
    hbunting86 Posts: 952 Member
    Have you been to FairPrice Finest in Clementi mall? They have a fair selection of organic foods - it's never going to big as regular supermarkets I'm afraid, but they don't do a bad job.

    H
  • Rarity2013
    Rarity2013 Posts: 196 Member
    I've never been to Asia, but I do frequently shop at our local Chinese supermarket. Most everything is labelled in Chinese or Japanese. I get by because I'm very enthusiastic about Asian food and have done a fair amount research as to what these vegetables are, have tried them, and know what I can put them in.

    You might find you can't get kale, but you'll be able to get so many Asian vegetables like pak choi and daikon which are healthy and delicious.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    I live in Bahrain... not anywhere near you, but the organic food range here is extremely limited and way overpriced and aimed at western expats... personally, i don't buy it. I buy locally produced (or as local as possible) meat, eggs, dairy and vegetables. It's not organic but the farming methods are more traditional than in the west. If you're on a budget you want to try local markets rather than supermarkets, find out where local people get their food from and get it there.

    Also find out what local people eat, e.g. traditional homecooked foods... outside of western culture, people generally eat very healthy, locally produced, homecooked meals (in fact this is true even in western culture, where people eat more traditional homecooked stuff rather than processed). And as rarity said, try local vegetables and other local products. Here in the Arab world, there's a dairy product called laban that's totally delicious but you can't buy it in the west. It's very healthy and naturally probiotic. If I hadn't been prepared to try local foods, I'd never have found out how delicious laban is.

    Regards the language... can you find someone who's bilingual who can help you out with this? If you're buying fresh fruit and veg you can identify them yourself by what it looks like and smells like (in the case of herbs/spices). And if you're trying new foods, you don't even need to know the English for it. I've was eating labneh (another dairy product) for at least a couple of years before finding out it's the Arab name for greek yoghurt...

    ETA: you think blueberries are expensive there... they're over 3 dinars a pack here... and dinars are a lot bigger than dollars! (sorry I can't remember the exchange rate)

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