No, I didn’t get royally screwed, because I exercised discretion. I’m talking about my grocery shopping excursion to the Royal Duty Free supermarket, of course. What? You were expecting something exciting? Sorry to disappoint, but Tuesdays aren’t the day for excitement around here. Not that that will stop me from sharing the story of my boring day. Here goes:
My biggest issue with Royal is that the items I want are often out of stock, and when they are available, they are overpriced. Take cheese, for example.
And it wasn’t just the cheese.
Well, I survived the drama and didn’t yield to the temptation to be gouged. When I got back home, I was feeling tired for some reason, but figured I could just walk it off with a neighborhood hike.
And then I heard a rumbling up in the sky that wasn’t thunder.
I’d recovered sufficiently by beer o’clock to make the trek into town for some bar socializing. We began our hop at Sloppy Joe’s, and things seem to be going well under the new ownership. The RSL (Returned Services League, the Aussie version of our VFW) invaded on their after-meeting barhop, so we gave up our space and moved next door to the Alaska Club. We had the usual pleasant visit there before moving on to Nipsey’s. I raved about this place during our previous visit, but those great vibes we enjoyed then were not evident last night. For one thing, they didn’t have red wine available for Swan. And the music being played wasn’t to my liking either. Needless to say, we didn’t stay long. A disappointing nightcap at Cloud 69 followed, so we gave up and caught a trike for home.
Yep, just one of those days where things weren’t bad but could have been better. But there’s always tomorrow, and today is already showing improvement. But that’s for another post.
Back in October 2009, I wrote a post about a week in my life. There was certainly more substance in those days when I had a job to attend to, but even then I was looking forward to the life to come in the Philippines (I was supposed to retire in 2010 and make the move, but fate had other plans for me and I didn’t get here until 2018.)
Let’s check in with Reekay for today’s YouTube video. Reekay talks about the dangers associated with a bad end to a relationship, most of which I somehow managed to avoid during my dating life here. Now, the incidents that happen sometimes when you bring a girl to your hotel room were lessons I learned the hard way. More than once, I had girls helping themselves to things in my pocket when I wasn’t looking.
Maybe you’ll get a smile out of these:
And on that note, I will mercifully end this post.
What are the stores that reliably stock the items you want, preferably for a fair price? I used to have to go all over the place to find various non-Korean items since none of the local stores consistently stock everything I want; these days, though, I consolidate my shopping by using the Coupang delivery service, and I rarely shop anywhere other than my building’s basement grocery or, possibly, the Shinsegae Food Market three subway stops down. I rarely go to Costco these days because the taxi fare isn’t worth it… which reminds me, I need to renew my rarely used Costco membership this month. It expires at the end of June. (I’ve renewed after June before: they simply tell me the validity period that I’m renewing for remains the same, i.e., from June to June.)
Quality cheese slices from Kraft have newly arrived. I’m no cheap Charlie, but damn, even if I can afford it, I’m not paying almost a dollar per slice.
Yeah, I just Googled the average price of 16 slices of Kraft America Singles in the States, and it’s anywhere from $2.50 to a bit over $5. 8 ounces of shredded cheese is in the $3-4 range. Yikes. The moral lesson: local food is undoubtedly cheaper.
What the duck? I don’t even eat that bird, but if I did, I’d have to be daffy to pay fifty dollars for one.
I checked prices for duck, too, and in the States, whole duck varies wildly depending on quality, from a little over $5 per whole duck to $80 for a whole halal duck. Median price seems to be around $30.
Smoked duck is a great substitute for bacon; in Korea, it’s also fairly cheap and sold in pre-sliced packages, making prep easy. I’ve made tons of duck “B”LTs. It’s a lovely fatty meat; duck breast, when cooked right, is to die for. But you live in the land of lechon, so I imagine that pork products are cheaper and more readily available.
…before moving on to Nipsey’s. I raved about this place during our previous visit, but those great vibes we enjoyed then were not evident last night. For one thing, they didn’t have red wine available for Swan. And the music being played wasn’t to my liking either. Needless to say, we didn’t stay long.
So you learned something about Nipsey’s consistency. Sorry to hear that things had gone downhill. The truest things prove to be true only over time, whether we’re talking about a person’s character or a bar-restaurant’s quality.
A bowl of vanilla ice cream with crumbled Orea cookie topping was a sweet ending to the day.
I think this is the second time I’ve seen “Orea.” Sounds like a bodily byproduct.
Kev, this is the Philippines, “sorry sir, out of stock” is a standard saying in all the stores. I get it that imported goods will be less reliably available, and you can expect to pay more to cover shipping expenses, but damn, TRIPLE the price? Nope, not for me, I’ll do without.
Interesting that the duck price wasn’t as inflated. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a duck-based dish. I’ll stick with chicken and turkey…
Yep, nothing stays the same. Some big changes coming to the bar scene in Barretto if rumors I’m hearing are true.
It’s weird that I keep misspelling Oreo (heh, I just caught myself doing it again). The “o” and the “a” aren’t even close on the keyboard. I guess my brain says “o” and my finger hears “a” for some reason. The wonders of old age!
Hey John, I get it, Kraft cheese slices can be a splurge. Maybe we can look into some other options that fit your budget better? There are some affordable alternatives like Velveeta or even store-brand processed cheese slices that might do the trick.
I’m here to support you, and we can figure this out together.
Send me an email, Reginald.