food and stuff

london 11.24am 16.9C sunny wednesday 2017

2.35pm cloudy;

i got chinese chives today. because they were reduced from £1.60 for 150mg to 50p each. i so happen to be lucky to get there (it was a chinese supermarket in chinatown. ) when they reduced it. there were plenty of these packs.  and this is because the chives are beginning to go past their best. still very good actually, but you can see some of the leaves are decaying. i bought 6 packs total £3. i love chinese chives they go so well with stir fry noodles and impart that distinctive flavour to it and they can keep for a long time if frozen. they are all in the freezer now, so no pictures to show you as i forgot to take a picture of them. haha. well they are just chives really and most of us know what they look like. they dont look like much, like grass actually. 

i decided to go to chinatown this morning, just at the spur of the moment, after i finished reading the papers  at the pimlico library…

earlier on, i went to the tesco store near the library, and saw they have lots of strawberries that will expire today… so i shall go back there later today and see if the reductions are big enough for me to buy them. i saw a newspaper report saying tesco is selling 1kg strawberries for £3, but this is false, because they never did sell them at that price. these ones are 400mg for £2. no wonder they did not sell and there are lots of them still. i am looking at 40/50p each for any reductions they are going to make later today… then i might buy them.) 

added. 8.08am 30.6.17 friday sunny 18.2C. when i went back later, there were few of them left, but those that remain still are not showing any reductions. makes me suspect they throw them away… to replace with new ones that are poorer in value, 300mg instead of 400mg and for the same price £2. i think these small branches ,they are very similar to  convenience stores, dont really reduce much. i wonder if there are anyone still raiding the waste bins near these stores. i am sure they will find lots of nice stuff in there. 

 the bus 24 runs by the library and it goes right near chinatown ; i thought i shall go there to buy some more of the instant noodles. i am rather addicted to it.

on the bus there was a indonesian malay tourist, with his wife and daughter. he came to the front to take pictures, that is how i got to talking to him. whilst his wife and daughter sat further back. they are here on a short visit. i thought it rather strange to come all this way, like 20hr flight just to stay a week or two. he is an IT consultant. so must be quite rich. though he said he was staying near victoria and when i ask him how much his room ,  for about £40 a night bed and breakfast, which i thought was reasonable… considering i have been looking at the hostels, and they charge that much for staying in a 12bed dorm having to share with so many others. though if u have 4 people u can get a room and share it just amongst yourselves for £55 a room. the rates seem to penalise the single traveller, which is a different proposition long ago, when these hostel type places catered to a single traveller and charged a low rate for having to share with strangers. now it is the reverse.

he said they got tickets to go inside westminster cathedral, hence the reason why they are on this 24 bus. he ask me where i am going, and i said to chinatown to buy the instant mee, and i ask him how much are they in indonesia, he said they cost about 5000 rupiahs(30p) and considered cheap by the locals.  he said it is 17000 rupiahs to a £, and so my 10p price is even cheaper than what he can buy in his own country. i wonder how much are they in malaysia, maybe Rm1.50. each. i googled it, and it seems it is from about 60cents. which is about 15p or so.

actually when i went to that supermarket, it is new loon moon, i see they got 20p sardines 120mg. that is quite a good price so i bought 3. but sometimes after a period, they can reduce it even further, like they did the coconut milk. i bought some at 20p each, and then found it being sold for 10p when i went back a few days later. but the coconut milk is not very concentrated so i did not buy anymore. 

i have eaten one of the tinned sardines , and it is quite nice. a bit salty though. i think sardines are much nicer cooked like this in tins. simon bought some fresh in the past, and they are not so nice to eat. they have a lot of bones. the cookng process to make them into tinned sardines make the bones very soft and edible.  i think sardines are one fish that benefit from being canned. haha. they taste better than fresh ones.

added. i have been thinking, all these bargain foods are quite fun to play with. i wonder if london or uk, are the only places in the world where we can play this. i dont remember malaysia or singapore ever have these reducing of prices when they come to their sell by date. in fact, i dont even know if products in those countries have these sell by dates.  what about europe and the usa, or canada, or australia, do they have these price reduction bargains due to the sell by date ? my suspicion is that the businesses would rather throw them away than reduce the price. when u think of it , it is logical to throw them away.  otherwise people will not buy at full price but wait till it reduces.