Ubon & The Farang Food Famine

[OldgitTom]

UBON & THE FARANG FOOD FAMINE: OR, TESCO-LAND, WHERE SUGAR IS KING & CUSTOMERS ARE PEASANTS.

We used to have a ‘Tops’ food store in Ubon. It was great. Farang-type foods were available. Then, Tesco-Lotus, Big C & Macro set up superstores & put Tops out of business – a very sad day.

First, we can forget Big C. It only sells Thai-style foodstuffs.

Macro much the same, but it did sell large, catering-sized lumps of New Zealand cheddar cheese. These were indifferent quality, but eatable. They started off at 700 Baht for a pair – good value. That rose to 800 B for one, then to 1,200 B, at which point we lost interest (greedy bastards).

Having got rid of Tops, Tesco first went well, then gradually started eliminating farang foods.

First gripe, purt-near everything comes tasting of sugar. Thais prefer this mankyflavor? Fine, but what about choice for those who don’t, or who worry about fat kids, rotten teeth, diabetes & heart disease?

Tinned potatoes disappeared.

Tinned anchovies have never appeared.

Except for tuna (heavens be praised), all other tinned fish seems to come withtomato sauce or curry; oh, & lashings of sugar, of course. Lovers of Thaicuisine can choose amongst numerous brands of sardines with tomato. Just sardines, preferably w/out double helpings of sugar? Mai mi.

Findus fish fingers disappeared, replaced by a Thai version that smelled & tastedlike processed arsehol_e of octopus (with sugar). Even our dogs turned their noses up. Complaints to Tesco management fell on Isaan ears.

Reasonable quality cheeses such as New Zealand cheddar must sell well, because the relevant shelf sections are usually empty. Enquiries to staff elicit the reflex ‘mai mi’.

Shelves carry plenty of Kraft & Laughing Cow cheeses. That’s because

most farangs avoid them. They are the rock-bottom end of the quality

scale, utter <deleted>, expensive at any price.

All tinned fruit comes in ‘syrup’. Is that plus sugar?

The vegetarian sausage range used to be very good. Now, with extra sugar, it all tastes disgusting.

Note to Tesco: if your senior managers can’t do better than this, they need

their butts kicked till their teeth loosen – if they have any left after feasting

on their sugar-laden junk foods. Then hire some ex-Robinson/Tops

staff. Old git Tom

[ballbreaker]

Your very subject is one of the reasons I moved down to Bangkok.

[poshthai]

Dont move up country if you eat farang food.

[Dave the Dude]

Dont move up country if you eat farang food.

or live in Surin near The Farang Connection.

Dave

[bergen]

I must be on another planet when it comes to finding farang "stuff" in Ubon.

I've never heard about tops in Ubon, so I guess that is before my time?

We might not look for the same items, but in the +4 years I've been shopping in Ubon,

I find that the selection of farang food/wine, etc., have improved considerably.

Especially Makro for their imported meat/seafood (and they still have the NZ cheddar but maybe not every day), and Tesco for their redwine, fish, cheese, sausages, etc., and Makro, Tesco and Big C have now an ok selection of vegetables/fruit.

All three superstores in Ubon are way better than all others East of Khorat.

What I miss is European bread, and whenever In Bkk/Patters I stock up properly.

I guess the poster above who said move to Bkk (or Pattaya) is right, if the hunger gets too bad.

Me..................... I like Ubon

[jay-uk]

I only get to visit Ubon every couple of years but on our last trip I found most food products needed to cook a decent farang meal for my two sons and myself. Tesco and BigC both had very good fresh baked french sticks/bread which was great, most campbels condensed soups, pasta sauces and even custard. I always bring bisto gravy in my suitcase but apart from that we had a few nice roast chicken dinners with all the veg and potatoes we needed. Obviously you can't get everything you would like all of the time but I personally think things are improving and will continue to improve as more of us visit or live there. For the long timers maybe it can get frustrating at times as I appreciate but at the end of the day it is not our country so we should not expect to get evrything we see in the western world.

[NotNew2You]

First, we can forget Big C. It only sells Thai-style foodstuffs...

What else would they sell in THAILAND...a country that if full of THAI people if you haven't noticed already ...who actually like to eat THAI food!

Humm...someone moves to Thailand...and then moves out into the "sticks" in Thailand...and then complains there isn't a branch of Sainsbury down the road!

Get a f*ckin grip dude. The lack of "our" food is a major reason very few foreigners chose to live in Issan if they can help it.

[hansnl]

First, we can forget Big C. It only sells Thai-style foodstuffs...

What else would they sell in THAILAND...a country that if full of THAI people if you haven't noticed already ...who actually like to eat THAI food!

Humm...someone moves to Thailand...and then moves out into the "sticks" in Thailand...and then complains there isn't a branch of Sainsbury down the road!

Get a f*ckin grip dude. The lack of "our" food is a major reason very few foreigners chose to live in Issan if they can help it.

Yes, I agree with the first parts of your comment.

The part about getting a grip, and the reason very few foreigners choose to live outside the Isan.

Whatever the reason, oh yes, don't come to Isan, I like being with Thai people, I like Thai food.

And if you can help it, please stay away from Isan.

Indeed, the shops are getting low on Farang food.

Why?

Because shops tend to cater for MOST people, and they prefer the part of that people that make the articles in the shop sell very fast.

About Tops, there is still one in Khon Kaen.

I really could not find very much farang food in there.

If I really want some European food to eat, I prepare it myself, including unsweetened bread.

Good thing, being able to cook yourself.

Besides that, for most European food, the basic ingredients can be found in Tesco, Big C.

Try it out for yourself.

It can be fun

[feffejonsson]

First, we can forget Big C. It only sells Thai-style foodstuffs...

What else would they sell in THAILAND...a country that if full of THAI people if you haven't noticed already ...who actually like to eat THAI food!

Humm...someone moves to Thailand...and then moves out into the "sticks" in Thailand...and then complains there isn't a branch of Sainsbury down the road!

Get a f*ckin grip dude. The lack of "our" food is a major reason very few foreigners chose to live in Issan if they can help it.

Thank´s for writing this. Otherwise I would have had to write it. I just wan´t add a question of my own. Who, with their mind in working order, would want to buy tinned fruit (with or without syrup or sugar) if they are living Thailand?

Edited August 23, 2008 by feffejonsson

[tommyj4]

Always found everything in Surin to make a good english breakfast or roast dinner, decent baked beans, bacon & sausages little bit weird eating it out in the jungle somewhere but sometimes need some stodge. Maybe a bit far from Ubon, depends how desperate you are.

[jay-uk]

i made a great spagetti for the kids in Ubon with mince pork and a pasta sauce from BigC. my son loved it.....

[plachon]

First, we can forget Big C. It only sells Thai-style foodstuffs...

What else would they sell in THAILAND...a country that if full of THAI people if you haven't noticed already ...who actually like to eat THAI food!

Humm...someone moves to Thailand...and then moves out into the "sticks" in Thailand...and then complains there isn't a branch of Sainsbury down the road!

Get a f*ckin grip dude. The lack of "our" food is a major reason very few foreigners chose to live in Issan if they can help it.

Thank´s for writing this. Otherwise I would have had to write it. I just wan´t add a question of my own. Who, with their mind in working order, would want to buy tinned fruit (with or without syrup or sugar) if they are living Thailand?

Somebody who looks like a square peg in a round hole when out shopping?

I lived in Isaan 10 + years and lamented the decline in Thai food quality as farang food <deleted> found its way into the shops and markets. The saddest day was when my local town got a KFC and Pizza Hut.

Cheese is just inferior pla daek anyway.

[vision]

Living in a small suburb outside of Sisket I see very few Farang but the guys I do meet seem to be cool well traveled and well spoken types that have had a lot of adventures in their life and are open minded about new foods and culture. The more Farang food we get here the more attractive this place will be to the absurd farangs that move to Thailand yet insist that every bit of food, decor and cluture that surrounds them be from what they are used to? Why move to a forign country if you only like what you have at home? Stay in your home country and save all the hassle.

[OldgitTom]

NotNew2You:

What else would they sell in THAILAND...a country that if full of THAI people if you haven't noticed already ohmy.gif ...who actually like to eat THAI food!

Humm...someone moves to Thailand...and then moves out into the "sticks" in Thailand...and then complains there isn't a branch of Sainsbury down the road!

Get a f*ckin grip dude. The lack of "our" food is a major reason very few foreigners chose to live in Issan if they can help it.

Oh dear, another of those ever-angy flamers. If you had bothered to read/comprehend what I wrote, I focussed on Tesco-Lotus management, not Thailand or Isaan in general. Particularly, why so little choice? Tesco is a half-half international/Thai operation. Catering to minority tastes should be no problem. In the case of topping up cheese shelves, for them it is only a matter of tickling the computer keys. If this farang item is so unpopular amongst Thais, why does reasonable-quality cheddar disappear almost as fast as it appears?

Please, YOU get a grip. Cowabunga, ‘dude’!

Vision:

The more Farang food we get here the more attractive this place will be to the absurd farangs that move to Thailand yet insist that every bit of food, decor and cluture that surrounds them be from what they are used to? Why move to a forign country if you only like what you have at home? Stay in your home country and save all the hassle.

See above remarks. Your logic is flawed. Wrong: many farangs come here precisely because they love Thai cuisine (my brother does). Wearily, God forbid ‘every bit’ of the Thai environment becomes the same as everywhere else. The bit I criticize is Tesco’s lack of choice. I like it here. Please don’t generalise me with attitudes I reject & did not mention.

Hansnl:

Indeed, the shops are getting low on Farang food. Why? Because shops tend to cater for MOST people, and they prefer the part of that people that make the articles in the shop sell very fast.

Wrong: supermarket retailing is almost a science. The big hitters do not stock stuff of minority appeal for nothing. E.g., both Tops & Tesco support (expensive) in-house bakeries & sell quite good farang-style bread. This appeals to few Thais. BUT, the few who do come for it will also do their week’s/month’s shopping at the same time. They tend to be the Western-influenced, affluent middle-class professionals who like sugar-free bread, & have more money than time to shop. Make sense?

It should make sense to Tesco management, since about 90% of the stuff on their shelves is also hawked by the 4 other supermarkets in town, plus numerous lesser outlets.

Irrelevant to what I wrote, but as others have weighed in, I also deplore the foisting of Western junkfood on Thailand. I hate it. But, I also shudder at the excess sugar & fat in popular Thai foods. Let’s not flog ourselves to death on non-controversies.

I go for tinned, because that is most convenient for ME, my choice, & I can’t cook. I eat out at Thai restaurants, & love some of the nosh. The last time I ate Lao, I fired tracer-bullets, & couldn’t taste anything next day. Lao food is about the worst in the world. I occasionally need to get my my farang teeth round some ‘real’ grub.

As said, Tesco has no fundamental or commercial reasons for not supplying my wants, apart from crap/inert management. Its profits internationally are enormous. Locally, who knows? Old git Tom

[abdulrahman]

I go for tinned, because that is most convenient for ME, my choice, & I can’t cook. I eat out at Thai restaurants, & love some of the nosh. The last time I ate Lao, I fired tracer-bullets, & couldn’t taste anything next day. Lao food is about the worst in the world. I occasionally need to get my my farang teeth round some ‘real’ grub.

As said, Tesco has no fundamental or commercial reasons for not supplying my wants, apart from crap/inert management. Its profits internationally are enormous. Locally, who knows? Old git Tom

Fortunately,I like Thai food,but must admit the choice of farang food in the mentioned Supermarkets is very poor and unreliable.

When I can be bothered to cook,let the ingredients come from Bangkok;a farang meal,once in a while,appeals to many of my friends,and,of course,all of our children.

This said,I believe there is an international conspiracy to sell in Thailand only western junkfood,in the market and the restaurant-chains!

[OldgitTom]

Fortunately,I like Thai food,but must admit the choice of farang food in the mentioned Supermarkets is very poor and unreliable.

When I can be bothered to cook,let the ingredients come from Bangkok;a farang meal,once in a while,appeals to many of my friends,and,of course,all of our children.

This said,I believe there is an international conspiracy to sell in Thailand only western junkfood,in the market and the restaurant-chains!

Thanks; yes, Tesco sells the same filthy junk cheese brands in UK, but alongside quality alternatives. Why no choice here (Ubon)?

I would email Tesco, but their website has no customer feedback address, unless anyone has it?

In a similar vein, I advise scotch lovers to avoid very expensive labels. The bottles & the labels are identical to what you see in Scotland itself, but the stuff inside is NOT.

A wealthy Thai scotch connoisseur confirmed this. He buys his abroad - avoiding a farang scam.

Of course, if you mix in lemonade or coke, any hooch will do. I can recommend Thai Regency brand. Altho Regency is actually brandy, it's rattling good taste & value.

[Naam]

I can recommend Thai Regency brand. Altho Regency is actually brandy, it's rattling good taste & value.

it also cures athlete's foot joke, aside. Regency is indeed a local brew which is not too bad.

[bergen]

I can recommend Thai Regency brand. Altho Regency is actually brandy, it's rattling good taste & value.

it also cures athlete's foot joke, aside. Regency is indeed a local brew which is not too bad.

Agree that Regency is the only Thai "whisky" (yes I know Brandy) that's drinkable.

However I have found Jamesons (Irish) and Famous Goose, to be authentic, ..............together with the cognacs (Hennesy/ Courvoisier/Martell)

and over a short period last year (or earlier this year) Big C had Glenlivet malt which was "real stuff".

[pab]

Fortunately,I like Thai food,but must admit the choice of farang food in the mentioned Supermarkets is very poor and unreliable.

When I can be bothered to cook,let the ingredients come from Bangkok;a farang meal,once in a while,appeals to many of my friends,and,of course,all of our children.

This said,I believe there is an international conspiracy to sell in Thailand only western junkfood,in the market and the restaurant-chains!

Thanks; yes, Tesco sells the same filthy junk cheese brands in UK, but alongside quality alternatives. Why no choice here (Ubon)?

I would email Tesco, but their website has no customer feedback address, unless anyone has it?

In a similar vein, I advise scotch lovers to avoid very expensive labels. The bottles & the labels are identical to what you see in Scotland itself, but the stuff inside is NOT.

A wealthy Thai scotch connoisseur confirmed this. He buys his abroad - avoiding a farang scam.

Of course, if you mix in lemonade or coke, any hooch will do. I can recommend Thai Regency brand. Altho Regency is actually brandy, it's rattling good taste & value.

Go to the Tesco website and under the heading "Community" select "Talk to us".

I live in Si Sa Ket that now has a Tesco outlet and have received good feedback from their site re requests and suggestions

[klikster]

The saddest day was when my local town got a KFC and Pizza Hut.

Odd that two fast food franchises with menus that Thais find attractive could elicit such sadness.

[plachon]

The saddest day was when my local town got a KFC and Pizza Hut.

Odd that two fast food franchises with menus that Thais find attractive could elicit such sadness.

Why do you find it "odd"? Unless one consider's such junk food outlets as shining examples of quality farang cuisine, then witnessing Thais desert delicious local gai yaang or fried rice in favour of these tasteless, factory farmed, additive-laced, fast food shops, was indeed a sad day for me. But of course it was inevitable with the Thaksin-led sell-out to globalisation and the rise of corporate raiders that food would sink to the lowest common denominator and every shopping mall/town centre must have its share of the worst of Coca-Colarisation served up for the masses to consume.

Yes, I know, people deserve "choice" and all that, but as the US mall culture has shown, in the end you are left with no choice at all between junk food outlets owned by a handful of companies. It is my observation that there is/was more choice in a pre-NIC society, where numerous small, local operators competed with each other for custom in what far more approximated to a "free market" than the style of business represented by KFC and McDonald's offer.

Ditto, with corporations like Tescos sueing for one billion baht critics of their expansion model, leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Perhaps, rather than emailing Tescos to provide farang cheese for those that like such things, you could be going to your local independent trader and exploring ways for them to bring such products up from Bangkok, where they exist in places like Foodland and no doubt can be purchased from foreign food importers.

As I prefer to be given true "free choice" and quality when buying food, then my opinion is not odd at all. At least, not to me.............

[gzu88bv]

Living in a small suburb outside of Sisket I see very few Farang but the guys I do meet seem to be cool well traveled and well spoken types that have had a lot of adventures in their life and are open minded about new foods and culture. The more Farang food we get here the more attractive this place will be to the absurd farangs that move to Thailand yet insist that every bit of food, decor and cluture that surrounds them be from what they are used to? Why move to a forign country if you only like what you have at home? Stay in your home country and save all the hassle.

Food is a big item among Farangland where I live as well and discussed every day. Dont believe that it will get better with time, these big shops will only put items on their shelves what will move and the few Farangs are just not a big factor outside the big cities.

[Dave the Dude]

However I have found Jamesons (Irish) and Famous Goose, to be authentic,

Does it taste like 'Famous Grouse' then ?

[bergen]

However I have found Jamesons (Irish) and Famous Goose, to be authentic,

Does it taste like 'Famous Grouse' then ?

See............I knew it had something to with a flying object

[NotNew2You]

...why so little choice? Tesco is a half-half international/Thai operation. Catering to minority tastes should be no problem.

Tesco has no fundamental or commercial reasons for not supplying my wants...Its profits internationally are enormous...

Well to start, Tesco UK bought out the Thai half of "Tesco-Lotus" years ago so it is an entirely UK owned brand/store now. Of course, the Thai operations have both expatriate and Thai managers.

"No commercial reason"...of course they do...the reason being your "wants" for farang food products makes up maybe 1/10 of 1 percent of the market for fresh and packaged food products in Ubon, Udon, or wherever it is upcountry you said you reside.

The reason they make good profits is because they don't order-up a bunch of expensive cheese and try to sell it in upcountry Thailand, where 99.9% of the locals wouldn't want it, couldn't afford to buy it if they did, most likely can't digest it (most Asians being lactose intolerant), and ending up throwing the lot of it out when it rots!

Edited August 29, 2008 by NotNew2You

[bergen]

...why so little choice? Tesco is a half-half international/Thai operation. Catering to minority tastes should be no problem.

Tesco has no fundamental or commercial reasons for not supplying my wants...Its profits internationally are enormous...

Well to start, Tesco UK bought out the Thai half of "Tesco-Lotus" years ago so it is an entirely UK owned brand/store now. Of course, the Thai operations have both expatriate and Thai managers.

"No commercial reason"...of course they do...the reason being your "wants" for farang food products makes up maybe 1/10 of 1 percent of the market for fresh and packaged food products in Ubon, Udon, or wherever it is upcountry you said you reside.

The reason they make good profits is because they don't order-up a bunch of expensive cheese and try to sell it in upcountry Thailand, where 99.9% of the locals wouldn't want it, couldn't afford to buy it if they did, most likely can't digest it (most Asians being lactose intolerant), and ending up throwing the lot of it out when it rots!

I agree, most products needs a satisfying turnover, to earn it's place in a supermarket shelf, and no big superstores bases it's produkt range on the minority customer.

[jts-khorat]

i made a great spagetti for the kids in Ubon with mince pork and a pasta sauce from BigC. my son loved it.....

Spaghetti Bolognese the pinnacle of western food. You must be Thai and have never left the country, other than this it is inexplicable how you can have such a narrow horizon. At least your son will know that leaving Isaan will be just wrong, if this is the best food he can get outside...

[jay-uk]

i made a great spagetti for the kids in Ubon with mince pork and a pasta sauce from BigC. my son loved it.....

Spaghetti Bolognese the pinnacle of western food. You must be Thai and have never left the country, other than this it is inexplicable how you can have such a narrow horizon. At least your son will know that leaving Isaan will be just wrong, if this is the best food he can get outside...

My son was 12 months old at the time so I was hardly going to let him eat Som-Tam while we were on holiday just to say we had the real Isaan experience with our kids. Get real please I eat often and love thai food in UK when my wife cooks it and when we're over in Thailand. However, my two young sons will not eat Thai food and my wfe has tried several times since but they only seem to like western food. If they were born in a village up in the sticks then maybe they would be eating sticky rice every day but not here in UK.

[OldgitTom]

NotNew2You,

‘Well to start, Tesco UK bought out the Thai half of "Tesco-Lotus" years ago so it is an entirely UK owned brand/store now.’

That doesn’t surprise me. Tesco stores in UK did not impress either – an ambience of slimy PR, arrogance & greed.

I already covered the commercial angle. To repeat briefly, retail marketers know minority appeal items drag in valued punters, those with more cash than time. They then do the rest of their bulk shopping on site. That’s why in Thai they run expensive bakeries of limited appeal. And I live in Ubon, not Udon. Please read before leaping. OK?

Check your arithmetic. Your putative ‘1/10 of 1 percent of the market for fresh and packaged food products in Ubon’ hardly amounts to a significant financial outlay for Tesco. You self-contradict: it is not therefore ‘a bunch of expensive cheese’, is it? By your argument, for Tesco it’s a fart in a hurricane.

Are you correct?

‘99.9% of the locals wouldn't want it, couldn't afford to buy it if they did, most likely can't digest it (most Asians being lactose intolerant), and ending up throwing the lot of it out when it rots!’

?

Please read posts before replying. As I said, the decent cheddar disappears as fast as it is put on sale. So who is snapping it up? Tesco also seems quite complacent about displaying ample quantities of Europe’s poorest quality cheese brands (Laughing Cow, Kraft, etc.). It’s <deleted> quality-wise (as I said), but expensive price-wise. Maybe there is a cunning commercial connection there?

But you are part-correct. Some of this cheese does indeed go mouldy, but before it reaches the shelves. I love it!! It tastes much better – pity I don’t have a cellar/cave to get the same results. But this suggests a refrigeration/storage deficiency – so slack management, as I suggested.

If most Thais are lactose intolerant, I am very sad so many drink milk. It’s heavily advertized & promoted as a ‘health’ drink. Milk gives me gut trouble (but not cheese). It’s actually a junk food. Most of it is water. The remainder is mostly animal fat globules in suspension. Yerk! Give it to the cat, not your poor kids.

[OldgitTom]

Pab,

thanks to your tip, I connected to Tesco customer suggestions online service. They even replied by phone as well as email. Nice PR, but will let you know if the customer choice actually improves.

Mai pen rai; Wrong Way café Ubon supplied me with a fresh, chewy loaf of bread & a chunk of Stilton (ex-BKK) today. When my gnashers are dancing, suddenly it’s spring, everyone is young & in love, even Old git Tom.