Food...glorious food?

There's nothing quite like it....

Unless you're shopping in a supermarket in the Czech Republic that is.  It's a bit of a shock after Waitrose, M&S, Sainsburys...and frankly even Tescos in Leytonstone.

Supermarket food here is pretty grim.  Don't get me wrong  - you can buy most things nowdays, from pesto to parma ham, curry paste to sesame seed oil.  But it's the low quality meat, the so called 'fresh' produce that just leave a bad taste in your mouth.

The veggies are rank and last about 3 or 4 days, if you're lucky, but most end up like this;

or this

I complained to a Czech friend of mine who told me it's because the supermarket chains (including good old Tesco here) use the Czech republic as a kind of large disposal bin - they ship the products they can't sell anywhere else here because Czech's want cheap food.

But the thing is, it's not much cheaper and a lot of Czechs are beginning to realise they are being duped.  Outside of the cities of course, people like our Czech Rellies, still live a subsidence living and grow their own - but we all rely on the supermarkets at one point or another.

Slowly Czechs are waking up and smelling the coffee, realising that there are other choices - even around near me in deepest darkest suburbia a neighbour told me about a vegetable box delivery, and there is a van which comes once a week selling fresh milk and dairy produce, supposedly direct from farmers.

I've even read stories of Czechs driving across the border to Germany and Austria loading up their cars with groceries - it all sounds a bit extreme.

But if the old adage is true, 'you are what you eat', I'm afraid I might be a rotten tomato.