Groceries Specializing in Western Foods

[malcontent]

My eyes almost popped out when I saw 48oz Califa Almond Milk sold at Cold Storage for S$21.60, whereas California it’s commonly found for $3.99.

Reminds me of a saying I heard in my youth: there’s a sucker born every minute.

[Strong Eagle]

The costs of imported American goods. Cold Storage used to have Life cereal at outrageous prices. And I'm sure you've priced Thanksgiving turkeys.

[malcontent]

The costs of imported American goods. Cold Storage used to have Life cereal at outrageous prices. And I'm sure you've priced Thanksgiving turkeys.

Aah, Thanksgiving — there’s a holiday that evokes a lot of curiosity from both locals and expats (outside of North America) alike. Turkey dinner is something locals associate with Christmas, so turkey is barely marketed towards Americans/Canadians — and some years the shipments are poorly timed, especially for Canadians.

In my early years in Singapore when we had no kids, I didn’t bother, although one year we made the mistake of trying a restaurant that served their version of Thanksgiving dinner (never again). Another year we had an American in our midst who wanted it, so we ordered a precooked turkey from Cold Storage. One hilarious moment was when our helper at the time thought it was just a giant chicken and started whacking it with a cleaver (like those chicken rice stalls) and at one point (after a well placed whack) this stream of turkey juice squirts clear across the kitchen! Still cracks me up to this day!

When our oldest turned 4, I started making Thanksgiving dinner religiously. You must be ready to make things from scratch. One year there simply was no stuffing and all of our kitchen counters and dining table was covered with pieces bread laid out and being dried. Another year I couldn’t find cream of anything soup for green bean casserole, so I made that from scratch. And of course, pie crust for the pumpkin pie… shortening (if you can find it) costs more than butter, so I leaned to make a butter crust from scratch, which was even better.

Sometimes you can find stuff on sale in the summertime (in fact I happened to see Mrs Cubbins stuffing on sale at Cold Storage just a week ago), it might be just past its best before date by Thanksgiving — but it’s perfectly fine. I usually buy Libby’s Pumpkin Pie Mix (with spices premixed), but one year I could only get Pumpkin Pie (no mix) which requires a bunch of spices you can’t easily get in Singapore… I had to do a lot of substitutions, but it came out reasonably well.

Initially, my in-laws were a little stand-offish about Thanksgiving, but eventually they learned to like it and it became much anticipated and loved… almost like reunion dinner. Cost wise, I’ve kept records going back to 2009, but in recent years the cost was around $155-175 or $12-13 per head. More than half of that was the turkey. It turned into an all day affair, staring with baking the pie in the morning. I always made it Friday since there was no day off in Singapore, and when I had a Slingbox I would record the game and even the parade overnight and play it the next day.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Thanks to Strong Eagle loaning me his frying rig many years ago after joining this forum I started frying turkeys again (always did in the US while living in the south. I then bought myself a rig and had it shipped here from the US (Bayou Classic). I've been deep frying ever since anywhere from two to three every year. Maximum size I can cook due to the pot limitations is a 7 kg turkey which is a perfect size unless your family exceeds 8 people. The average 7 kg turkey here is around $50 give or take. I buy two at thanksgiving time and keep one frozen until Xmas. Occasionally I'll buy a third if someone in the family or close friend wants one for some other special occasion (I'll usually fry it for them but they have to buy the oil. (It takes 17 ltr of oil) If you use Canola Oil, you can use it for Thanksgiving & Christmas and then use it all year for general stovetop frying (Canola Oil doesn't go rancid like veg or other oils). So the cost oil wise isn't all that much on an annual basis. I normally only have 14 to 16 people in attendance and my daughter would usually get the ham and stuffing fixin's. I still do it every Xmas & Tksgvg. I never buy from Cold Storage. To deepfry a 7kg prepared turkey takes around 55 minutes. I marinade the turkey the night before 12 to 18 hrs. (deep injection). Some like to brine but I'm not all that keen on it so stick with deep injection marinade and a rub on the outside. What locals cannot believe is how juicy & tender a deepfried bird is compared to a normally roast bird from an oven. The only drawback is you cannot stuff the bird so can only have stovetop stuffing. I like bread stuffing but the major member of the local family prefer a meat stuffing which to me, what with the ham and turkey becomes a bit much.

This one was done at one of the East Coast Park Chalets for my Daughter's birthday party in March 2011.

[Strong Eagle]

Giving us the bird, are you SMS?