The Flavors of Dublin - Food Shopping

In Dublin center, there are several Asian supermarkets. The one in Drury Street in the cheapest one for most things (some noodles are cheaper in Oriental Emporium chain, and the selection is also slightly different). It also has sales for items that are going to pass the best before date or that have already passed it.

I was totally shocked to see live crabs in the supermarket, but Gerald said it's very common in Asia to buy living crabs and kill them by boiling once at home, he said it's a very quick death too... Well I hope so...

The Korean ginger tea is a miracle if you catch a cold and feel too sick to make fresh one by grating ginger, or if you cannot get good honey anywhere near. Just scoop some in the mug and add hot water.

Do you like Japanese Curry rice? Then you would have loved this offer for 1 kg of solid curry sauce. We split it with Anette and the girls.

My favorite soy milk is coconut flavour by vitasoy, but the chocolate one is OK too. Though I actually prefer the banana one I had in Paris, but it was some Korean brand I don't remember.

Super expensive Ramune.

I really really didn't like this soymilk.

 

Popular Filipino biscuits. They had an offer where each box was only 1 E something, so I bought so many I can't even look at them now. It's very very sweet.

Pricey mixed grain porridge.

Glutinous flour for dumplings.

There is a Korean grocery store in Dublin 1, it's a street parallel with Bachelor's Walk and it's near the D1 end of Hapenny Bridge. They also sheet masks and some cosmetics and accessories too. The prices are higher than Asian Market, but they have more Korean and Japanese products and there's also a restaurant in the back.

You've seen my photos of Avoca - we splurged and bought these coffee syrups. I'd say they taste pretty fake though, I don't really recommend them.

Tesco has heaps of local, organic, wholesome etc. foods for pretty reasonable price. The spaghetti is 1.5 Euros for about 500 g. 

I got this in Marshmallow Fluff in Avoca, but they have it many stores. It tastes the best if you put it on rice krispies and heat in a microwave for 1 minute. It tastes like the super expensive Marks and Spencer strawberry popcorn.

This is stuff from Asia Market in Drury St. They had the mied mushrooms on sale, they're pretty nice in stews and soups. The korean mushroom soup was not bad, the dried persimmons are really good to quench hunger and sweet craving, but they're hard to chew. The sesame dessert is not something I would buy again, ever.

These are mainly from the Korean store, the eggplants are from an Indian store in Parnell street, at around 5 E/kg they were the cheapest among all the Asian stores. I got squid (more expensive than Oriental Emporium), garlic stems, kimchi, cooking pastes, ice cream and instant coffee.

Asia Market again. They have the cheapest staples like bulgogi sauce, corn starch and I got a salmon head for soup. I haven't had the chance to taste it, but Gerald liked it. There was a decent amout of meat for just 85 cents, but it's a real pain to cook and get the meat from it.

Oriental Emporium - we had it closer to our house and they have a different selection of fresh produce. So I have enoki mushrooms, radish, Teriyaki sauce and bean sprouts.

Tesco has sales for Ben and Jerry's ice cream, so when that happens, I would buy a pot. They taste really nice, have funny flavours, whimsical design and are fairtrade.

OK, another Asia Market haul - Gerald's favorite beer, some more beer, crry sauce and a great frying mix, I really recommend it. At 4 E/kg it's inepensive and lasts for half a year or more.

I got these cute bonbons at Oriental Emporium, but they didn't really taste great.

For some reason this cheesecake was on promo in Tesco for just 1 E. For a frozen supermarket own-brand product, it tastes really really good. 

Fruit jelly, soymilk and kumquat from a small Asian store in the part of Parnell street that goes towards Mountjoy Square.

One of these shops also had this giant candy bag, I really recommend it!

Marshmallow type with filling.

Caramel

Wedding candy

I think this one was mint?

These were kind of chewy, different fruit flavored ones.

Forgot

Orange jelly

Strawberry jelly

Coconut 

Green tea

Coffee

Strawberry caramel

Milk tea?

Not sure anymore

Lichi

Veeeery strong ginger

The cheapest nuts in Dublin - 4 E/kg, sunflower snack (don't recommend) and Japanese "kimuchi" base for making the Japanese version of kimchi. It tastes different, it's kinda sweeter and it's a sensitive thing for some Koreans. I think I read a gossip that Si Won from Super Junior even tweeted about the difference between kimchi and kimuchi. So, not a good conversation starter.

There's a leaf tea shop in St Stephen's Green Mall - I recommend the 7 Samurai green tea. 

All Easter chocolates go on massive sale after Easter. So here are some delicious Belgian chocolates for 1.5 E from M&S.

I found this interesting pack of one-serving hot chocolate cups in Dealz for 1.5 E. Sure, it's convenient, but actually all the cups have only 2 lids, instead of each cup having it's own lid, so you have to be careful not to spill the powder when you take one, and it's veeery wasteful when it comes to packaging. Especially since the cups are from PS, which I believe is not that commonly recycled in Ireland. So, just get a normal chocolate pack, this is just a ton of plastic waste and very little chocolate.

Eurogiant has very convenient spice mixtures for 1.5 E per box. I got Indian and Chinese, but they also had Thai and several more.

You should definitelly buy Bewley's Coffee in Ireland, it's Irish brand and the coffee is very good. Twinings launched Chai some time ago, but since the pack has like 50 bags, it becomes kinda boring quickly.

Some premium/ish all-in-one coffee. The taste is not bad, but since there are only 6 sticks inside, it's seriously excessive packaging. It really makes me go nuts when I see brands cheating in this very stupid way. It's not like customers can't check the net weight and the number of servings - why waste so much material? 

Gerald's favorite cake.

Wonka chocolate is just too cute.

M&S makes adorable desserts, but they're usually pretty expensive.

Mochi! Most Asian stores have quite a good selection of them, this is the cheapest if you consier price per weight and they're pretty good.

Haha well we ate also bacon, pudding, beans, potatoes and fish and chips, but somehow we mainly cooked Asian food...

Yours truly

Vita