One of my favourite things to do when I travel is visit the local grocery stores. You can learn a lot about a city/country by what they have going on in their supermarkets. You get an indication of the immigrant communities that influence the food, how health-focused a country is and how much North American culture has invaded that particular locality. I love it!
While in London I was lucky enough to stay with friends in their neighbourhood which meant I had many an occasion to visit my local Tesco, Sainsbury, and Waitrose. While London supermarkets are pretty neat I was even more fascinated by two unique aspects of their grocery culture: food halls and take-away.
Food Halls
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Compared to anywhere that I’ve been, London has a pretty big food hall culture. Now I’m not sure of the exact definition of a food hall but in the context that I’m using it here it basically refers to specialty food “department stores”. Places where you can stock up on variety of fancy food items from superior preserves to caviar to Iberico ham and beyond. In London’s case, from what I could tell, all the major “nice” department had impressive food halls.
My first food hall was at Harrod’s. Their food hall has a bit of whimsical feel to it and feels right out of a fairytale. It’s very ornate and pretty over the top. You can go there to pick up groceries, have lunch at the sushi bar, seafood bar or grill, among other places, or you can pick up prepared foods. I was definitely enticed by some of the desserts that I saw and also resisted buying a few prepared food items. What I wasn’t at all enticed by was the pomegranate for £8! Yes, for one pomegranate!
Next up was a visit to Fortnum & Mason’s. Their food hall was very luxe and elegant and I loved the focus on their branded preserves. If air travel wasn’t such a pain these days I totally would have brought home jars upon jars of their preserves. And if I wasn’t rolling solo I would’ve LOVED to get a Fortnum and Mason’s hamper and have a picnic in the park.
I also visited the food hall at Selfridge’s. This one was very different from both Harrod’s and F&M as it had a much more contemporary feel to it. It was very bright and white and had a fantabulous candy section. They also have a Pierre Herme so you know I made multiple visits. I love when stores have American food sections. They ALWAYS have marshmallow fluff and corn syrup! EVERY TIME!
This time around I didn’t buy any prepared foods from the food halls because I was on a constant mission for my next restaurant meal, but the food for the most part looked great. The food doesn’t come cheap but by the looks and sound of things the ingredients in most cases seemed pretty top notch.
Take-Away
One of the most intriguing aspects of food-shopping in London is the emphasis on ready-made and grab-and-go. I don’t use either of these terms in a negative way because those Brits sure know how to hook up some pre-packaged foods. Most supermarkets have a section of pre-made sandwiches, salads, pasta dishes etc. that are packaged and ready to go for the lunch crowd. Sure, we have those here but they usually look sketchy and the options are never that enticing. I give huge props to Marks & Spencers for doing this right. In addition to interesting sandwich combos you can get pre-made snacks such as Prawn Cocktail and Smoked Salmon Terrine to take back to the office. I think my workday would be vastly improved if I could pop out and buy things like Smoked Salmon Terrine. I paid around £3 for the terrine (with crackers and a cute spreader) and it honestly felt like something I would buy in a restaurant. I’m hoping that the take-away culture spreads to our side of the “pond”.
Grocery Shopping
Here are a few highlights from the grocery store.
I always have to check the yogurt aisle. Why don’t we have rhubarb, gooseberry or apple & elderflower yogurt?
KitKat yogurt? Sure, why not!?!?
I’m always so fascinated by the fact that in parts of Europe the eggs aren’t refrigerated.
Don’t these jams sound divine?
Totally cool that these beans come in tetra packs and not cans!
Crisps in Roast Chicken, Smokey Bacon and Prawn Cocktail. I’ll take it.
I love that Heinz makes both Oxtail Soup and Mulligatawny soup in the can. But we’ve always known that the Jamaicans and Indians hold down London.
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I love grocery shopping when travelling too. This is such a good collection of images. I lived in London back in the ’80s it certainly seems supermarkets have improved
I’m glad you enjoyed the food shops here in London. I do, too. Don’t you think the packagings are so cute? Harrods and the lot are places to enjoy but not shop (I think) because the prices are quite exorbitant.
I generally LOVE the packaging in Europe. So much cooler than at home
Thank you so much for the post, it was pleasure to read …I miss it, didn’t been in London for a while, can’t wait to go back and visit:)
I want to go back already!
Love this! Visiting grocery stores when I’m traveling is literally one of my favourite things to do. In fact, it’s where I do all my gift shopping.
The grocery stores are a great place to get gifts!