Did we luck out on the lychees!
Exterior Oriental Food Centre MississaugaI thought luchees must be in season as I'd seen them at mainstream grocers that week, but they looked so sad and beaten up, I gave them a miss.
But here, at the Oriental Food Centre, they looked fine, and better still, they were being sold in bags (about 3-4 lbs) for one dollar!
As soon as I got home, I emptied the bag into hot, soapy water, as lychees in the husk can get mouldy in a heartbeat, and this morning, I shelled them all to keep them from spoiling and popped them in the fridge.
It's fast and easy to shell a lychee fruit -- just make a split in the shell and squeeze the meat into a bowl. Your hands never touch the insides.
And Oh, what a lychee feast we are having! Replace the pit and stuff in some creamy cheese, or chop them and mix with crushed ice in a glass, or put them on ice cream and add a splash of fruit liqueur, or just eat them out of hand.
This busy supermarket apparently has a very high turnover, which means that produce is not only fresh as possible, but very well priced.
Beautifully ripe pineapples from Costa Rica were 2/$5, and and extravagant bunches of fresh coriander just 99 cents each.
A friend of ours who loves to boil up a mess of crab from time to time always buys it here.
Good thing we'd just finished dim sum, or we'd have gone wild.
Related: Snapshotjourneys.com Oriental Food Centre Mississauga
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Snapshotjourneys.com Mississauga Chinese Centre
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9 comments:
one dollar canadian for 3-4lbs of lychee. thats as cheap as buying them from China. how fresh were they?
well, they were likely so cheap because they were so ripe. The next morning, I peeled and pitted them, and piled them in a bowl, and they were a hit that afternoon at the Robot Pride Day annual picnic.
I don't think the Mississauga location is a good place to shop because the lady who do the cash is not clear. She always not enter the amounts in cash registrar and give you less changes back (not sure if she did it on purpose, but really fishy).
when you get your changes back from the cash lady, remember to check the amount she gives you back.
Thanks for your comment. We still shop here every week or so, and haven't ever had the experience you describe.
There are a number of cash lanes, and the clerks may not always speak fluent English, but we never have had a language or a money problem.
They use regular bank machines and computerized tills.
Is it possible you were at a different store/mall?
I will pay particular attention the next time I am there.
Thanks again.
Karen
Attention customers: PLEASE READ
If you choose to shop at Oriental Food Centre at 888 Dundas Street East in Mississauga Ontario, you better check your reciept and change accurately. Today I went to that supermarket and bought 2 cauliflowers for the supposed price of 2/$3. The clerk actually keyed in $3 each cauliflower for a total of $6. When I checked my reciept, I knew something was amiss. You know what the clerk said (in chinese) "its not my problem; you must have looked at it wrong" EXCUSE ME! I even showed her a cell phone pic of the price display which didn't convince them. I wont be shopping there for the forseeable future.
WOW!
Thanks for telling us about this.
Did you/ were you able to get a manager or someone in charge to check this?
That clerk for sure has an attitude problem. Mainland Chinese in China are taught customer service to a high degree.
To have this clerk not even check into it or call a manager is not acceptable anywhere in the world.
Thanks again, and for sure I will watch how amounts are entered.
This is one of our fave Chinese supermarkets.
Karen
Hi, Karen.
My name is Betty Angala and I live in Pearl City, Hawaii. We visited this supermarket recently and what I enjoyed were the lanzones(yellow skin fruit). I would like to buy more of this fruit but I don't know
if the store could ship or mail them to our home address here in USA.
Would you please do me a big favor by asking the manager for me if this can be done? customs requirement and the cost?
Hi Betty,
As it turns out, we plan to go to dim sum at Sun Sun in this plaza on Sunday.
I'll see what I can find out.
I don't know this name/fruit, though - will have a look.
Coincidentally, the Toronto Star published an article about the particular mangoes that come from Pakistan at this time, and how they are not imported to the US, so Americans who know this mango drive to Canada to buy them.
I'll post what I found out here, so check back next week.
Cheers!
Karen
Hi Betty,
I did go to the Oriental Food Centre (http://www.snapshotjourneys.com/oriental-food-centre-mississauga.html) and had a look, but I couldn't find the lanzones.
From what I can find online: some sites say they are a longan, others say no, they are their own fruit.
I will keep looking for them. I didn't find a manager on duty at the time I was there.
Karen
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