With Thanksgiving upon us, we American expats often have "extended family-like eating events" where we go out a bit more with meal preparations to bring some of those memorable past fall events from yesteryear, that remain embedded in our memories.
For various reasons I am already a bit hypersensitive to food/meat quality and find my options are even less here in the PI. This time last year I dropped into a local Sav-more store to check on a small turkey. They had two (not frozen solid but with severe freezer burns) and when I checked the date codes, one was dated 2007 and the other was 2010. When I questioned the meat department manager on why this store was selling out-dated meat, his response was that since it is imported from USA, it is expensive and they don't mind if it is 5-8 years old since it is frozen.
Fast-forward to turkey day 2016 - As selection of the best raw materials remains a concern for many expats here in the PI, I wanted to both share some recent experiences and opinions on the topic of where we go and what we buy to prepare a proper meal for our households. Yesterday, as I prepared for an SnR run I received the news that a local family member did not get her contract renewed (she was fired) for not wanting to climb upon wet cardboard boxes in a "Sav-(less)" freezer. It seems this store's freezer gets switched off overnight and each morning the already old and stressed freezer "spits out" water with only cool air for many hours.
This cycle has resulted in many wet cardboard boxes, standing water on the floor and the strong smell of decaying flesh in the walk-in freezer. Since this relative did not want to climb wet boxes filled with partially thawed meat, the contract was not renewed. Does anyone think this practice is isolated to one store in Tagaytay City?
It is my opinion that this is a very common practice! Therefore, I will only buy the Magnolia brand vacuum packed whole chickens (I do not let the store open or cut my chicken). I only but US, NZ or Ozzie beef and US or Norwegian Salmon. Now my phil family members completely understand my strict requirements on store name, brand & meat selections.
Although I am not a Pork eater, I remain concerned with all people that are buying ANY meat (beef, pork, seafood and or poultry) from such places that use extremely poor/ill-advised raw meat preservation measures to save a few pesos.
Please share any similar experiences and or concerns?
PS - SnR had small Butterballs from under P900 and large California Toms for about P2100 today.