Gluttony For Punishment

One of the best things about travelling is getting to tour grocery stores in different parts of the world. You don't know the brands, you might not be able to read the package, and in a lot of cases you just don't have a clue what you are looking at. On top of that, you may find that the importance of certain foods has shifted quite a bit from what you are used to. Last night, I was wandering around ASDA (becoming more and more like Wal-mart every day) and noticed that the canned food section is much smaller than the USA but most of it is different kinds of beans. Frozen potatoes (chips!) occupy about 60 feet of the frozen food section. You could get lost in the cheddar cheese section. There are a lot more kinds of bacon here. You can buy off-brand Marmite. And so on. If you look, there is as much culture at the grocery store as there is at a museum.

So, back to beans. I've blogged about the Hunger Breaks products before and just how nasty they are. I know I said I wouldn't do it again but oops I did it again. I stumbled upon another variety in the store and since our days in England are numbered, I had to check it out. That can was a beast to open.

This time its, "All Day Breakfast". From the can, a tantalizing mix of baked beans, tomato sauce, sausages, button mushrooms, bacon, and the real highlight: pork and egg nuggets with cereal (this was the deal closer for me.) I was pretty excited (not really) to find that the pork nuggets had a fancy yellow egg center, kinda like a Cadbury Creme Egg.

Of the three Hunger Breaks, this was actually the best -- edible enough with a healthy covering of Vulcan Fire Salt. I was happy to find that the mushrooms weren't 'pressed and formed.' Or could it simply be that I am just getting used to bland, mushy, soggy meat coupled with bland, mushy, soggy beans? Will I miss this stuff when we go?


Only one bean blog left before... the end.

Cheers!




"Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear." - Aesop