Sustainability and supermarkets

The majority of us do our food shopping in supermarkets. In 2013, Colruyt took first place in providing consumers the Belgian food market, with Delhaize in second place, closely followed by Carrefour.

I think all of us are aware of the environmental issues surrounding growing and transporting food. As consumers, every decision we make has consequences. I’m not going to get into discussions over flying in green beans from Kenya versus growing bananas in artificially lit and heated environments in countries where they could not otherwise grow. Neither do I claim to offer exhaustive research on sustainable food – I’m just trying to throw a bit of light on the topic so that I – and maybe you – can make more informed decisions about how and where we feed ourselves.

First thing up is finding out how the supermarkets fill their shelves so, here we go! And before we go any further, just be aware that I got all of the information below from the supermarket’s own websites, so if course they’re all going to say that they are wonderful at this whole environmental thing! Hmmm.

I'm going to look at Colruyt in this first post, followed by Delhaize and Carrefour in the coming weeks. 

By the way, Felicity Cloake wrote about the food shopping dilemma in this article recently. 

First, catch your kangaroo

Many thanks to all of you who voted in 365things first ever poll. The resounding winner of what I should cook this week was something Australian. I did a quick google search for Australian food. It’s pretty much food from all over the world, recognising the multicultural nature of the country. So, I turned to Hubs and in exasperation asked “what’s Australian?” “Kangaroo!” he said with a smile. Right. Thanks hun...

So where do you get kangaroo in Belgium? Someone told me you can get it in the GB at Pl Jourdan. That is completely off my route, so I tried the Carrefour in Waterloo (Mt St Jean).  I asked with the friendly butcher behind the counter if they had any, which resulted in the typical type of conversation I frequently have with salespeople in this country:

Me: est ce que vous avez du kangourou?

Butcher: huh?

Me: est ce que vous avez du kangourou?

Butcher: du quoi?

Me: c’est un grand animal qui vient d'Australie, et qui saute (hand gestures to indicate jumping).

Butcher: de l’autruche?

Me: kan-gou-rou !!!

Butcher: ah, kangourou! Oui, bien sur!

So, kangaroo ‘caught’. To save you the embarrassment of repeating this conversation in your local supermarket, here’s a photo of what pre-packaged kangaroo looks like. In the local store, it's kept in the fridge with poultry. Incidentally, there was also some ostrich there too. 

Kangaroo, as for sale in your  local Carrefour. Possibly. 

Fun fact: in researching kangaroo I found out that Australians don’t eat a lot of kangaroo. In fact, Belgians eat more than the Aussies do.

But back to the kitchen… Roo is very low in fat, so according to all the reading I did, you only need to cook it for a very short time, and it’s best eaten medium rare. I thought I’d cook it like a steak – pan fried for a short time. I did about 8-9 minutes in total on a hot pan. Everything I read said that you should let the meat rest well after cooking.

I made a sauce in the pan while the meat was resting, with a little red wine (about a glass) and a teaspoon each of onion jam and fig jam. I also boiled a few potatoes and served some mange tout on the side.

Verdit? I thought it was quite good. I certainly would eat it again, and would buy it if it were on offer in the local shop – I think I paid about €4 for around 200g. Its tasty and low in fat. It has a strong taste however, kind of like venison and with an iron tang. Hubs thought it was good, if a little too strong tasting for him.

As I am cooking today to celebrate Australian Anzac day, I cannot fail to mention Anzac cookies. I found loads of recipes for these, and they are very similar to the chewy cranberry oatmeal cookies I regularly make. As I’ve already blogged about them and make them regularly, I decided not to make them again this week. If you fancy some yummy treats (and you could argue that they are good for you will all those uber-healthy oats in them!), you can find my recipe here.

I’ve written three posts on grocery shopping in Belgium (on-line and in real shops) and what to do with some of the goodies you can find here that you cannot find in supermarkets at home (boar and venison).

Shopping

Oh grocery shopping, how do I love thee, let me count the ways…

Let’s get things straight. Grocery shopping is not the most exciting thing in the world, and shopping in a strange country can be difficult and time consuming.

Here, I hope to bring you news of where you can buy some UK/Irish goodies ‘locally’, or where you can get them delivered to your door. As this topic is quite broad, this is just a taster. I will expand on some of these topics some other time. If all goes well, I may also be able to decipher what some of those strange things in the supermarket are and what to do with them.

Of course, my experience is limited, so if you know of somewhere of interest to expats, send me a mail or tell the world about it in the comments below!

Internet

First up, there are internet-based companies that import goodies from the UK to Belgium. One of these is the Internet Grocer, which stocks a wide variety of those little things that you miss. Order by Tuesday evening and the lovely Giles will deliver it on Friday.

Brussels and surroundings-based shops

There are several dedicated expat shops around Brussels that sell Irish and UK store-cupboard foods. Catering for fresh food enthusiasts however, is Jack O’Shea’s butchers on Rue le Titan (corner of Rue Franklin). As well as excellent Irish beef, lamb, pork and chicken, Jack’s also stocks Irish cheeses, home-baked goods, fresh brown bread, Tayto crisps and a wide range of condiments to complement everything they sell. The staff are very friendly and knowledgeable.

Grocery shops and chains are finally copping onto the fact that there are a lot of expats here who like buying food that reminds us of home. The big supermarkets are getting better about stocking ‘foreign’ food and many, particularly in areas with a high expat concentration, now have ‘foreign’ food shelves/aisles. The range of goods is fairly much the same everywhere. On my travels, I’ve spotted English goodies such as Coleman’s mustard, Dorset cereals, Digestive biscuits, Cadbury’s chocolate and the like.

Carrefour (Kraainum and chaussee de Bruxelles, 299 Waterloo for example) seems to have the biggest range, without having to go to a specialist shop. The Carrefour at the Mont St Jean in Waterloo (chaussee de Charleroi, 579) has a dedicated long aisle. The GB in Merode also has a selection, albeit much smaller. The fruit and vegetable selection in this store is the best I’ve seen in this country, with a vast selection of exotic and not so exotic (parsnips anyone?) fresh* produce. You also have the charming experience of having someone weigh your choices.

Of the Delhaize’s I’ve visited, the choice of expat food stuffs is more limited. Saying that, the Delhaize in Braine l’Alleud is the only shop in which I’ve seen halloumi for sale.

Things I’ve never seen for sale

I’ve never seen fresh breadcrumbs for sale, so you will have to make your own or talk nicely to your local baker. Supermarkets do sell boxes of ‘chapelure’ which is balls of some unknown (to me) hard substance, which translates into breadcrumbs. Make your own. I've also never seen bags of frozen sweetcorn in the supermarket. 

I’m still on the look-out for a fishmonger that sells fresh fish at an affordable price. And that doesn’t weigh the fish, offer to gut it and then tries to sell it to you for the pre-gutted price.

Markets

There are many food markets in Brussels and its environs. You can find a list here (in French).

Non-grocery shopping

On a more interesting note, many more UK and Irish high-street shops are now delivering to the continent. The list is ever expanding. Mind the conversion rate, and if possible buy in GBP as (usually) the Euro price is much higher.

* usually it’s quite fresh, and keeps for a few days. As with most supermerkets everywhere, you may be better off shopping little and often.