Reality vs Advertising

I wanted to do a reality check.

I'd copied down the sales items which interest me and dutifully bounded off to the relevant shops to see how reality would knock on my shopping basket.

Unfortunately, a bout of sudden food poisoning (from drinking some not-so-fresh milk, which again reinforces my decision to cook more at home and not eat food from external and oftimes-dubious-in-hygiene sources), forced me to stay home on Sunday.  So I only managed to do the shopping on Monday.

I headed for the first stop, NTUC, during lunch time.

Here's the chart. (Only items in grey were purchased/available/for human consumption)

Most of the items listed in the ad was not even available.  And one, which was, was of such deplorable quality that even dogs would turn their noses at it.  Well, my dogs would!  But then again, they were used to quality grub back home.

The Japanese cucumbers were fine though and I thought I might either make some kimchi or pickled cucumbers since they seem fresh and crunchy.

Instead, I purchased a couple of things which were on promotion but were not advertised.

I did not purchase the rice at NTUC as it was too heavy to lug home from work, which I thought was rather a pity.  Well, God was obviously looking out for me.  Passing the local Shop N Save today, I popped in on impulse and voila!  There it was.  A big arse sign advertising that their 5kg No Frills Thai fragrant rice was going at $8.45.  That's $0.45 cheaper than NTUC.  And it was near home that I only had to lug it for a short distance.  Brilliant!

So if wasn't that bad a haul this week as I had enough to cook up a couple of nice meals.  I'm planning a stir-fry beef and asparagus dish and am trying out a recipe I found on another blog which focuses on Chinese medicinal and herbal concoctions that are healthy for the body.  Am a little sceptical about the efficacy of the recipe but I will try anything once.

I also wonder if someone from Carrefour is trolling the food blogs as a couple of days after I gave them a rather scathing review for their out-dated website, they put a "Coming Soon" tag on their promotions page.  About time.