Crazy priced food

[Franci]

Last goose I bought in Monaco from Formia butcher was 90 euros for a Bresse producer. It was really good.

 

Duvel, it escapes my mind the name of that fancy supermarket in Kowloon, inside the shopping centre by the pier...I remember a very expesive poulet de Bresse there.

 

 

[Franci]

What is crazy for me here in the US is the cost of rabbit...I don't buy it anymore. In France, ok, was farm raised but it was cheaper than chicken and many more things I don't buy anymore. To me, to eat in the US the same way I use to eat in Europe is far more expensive. Not even talking about jamon or cheese or fish...

Edited April 3, 2016 by Franci (log)

[huiray]

Roast goose (as distinct from roast duck) is a popular item in Cantonese-speaking areas (and some others, I guess). In E/SE Asia, and where the Chinese (Cantonese) diaspora has taken root.  There are places in Hong Kong where the specialty is roast goose, and aficionados argue about the merits of this-vs-that place, and many prefer roast goose over the duck equivalent.

 

Duvel, how much is a whole roast goose at the better places in HK running nowadays?

 

Roast goose in HK - Google image set, Google answers set.

Discussions (general search) on the Asia & SE Asia sub-forum (nowadays rather inactive after the last "update") of another forum.

 

As for pricey food in a general sense in the US, good fish has always been "up there", hasn't it? Particularly in places where one cannot just walk down to the docks and buy stuff (when allowed) off the boats (if allowed). Here in Indy, relatively cheap fish (although undoubtedly farmed) can be had from Chinese groceries, including live fish; while good stuff from Western places (all dead fish) can run up to $25-30/lb or even more sometimes. The last piece of nice halibut I got from a well-regarded (Western) fish shop here at not much over a pound set me back about $40.  Of course the source of the food and where one is and what the prevailing clientele is at a place influences what one pays for stuff.  At the Farmers' Market nearest me, in season, a bunch of carrots (say, around 6-8 smallish-to-medium-sized carrots) would typically cost $3.50 – $4 depending on the farmer/grower. Very nice stuff, but a far cry in price from the stuff in a general conventional Western supermarket. And so on. I posted about lovely ramps I picked up from the tail end of the Indy Winter Farmers' market one year, from folks who harvested it from their farmland just south of Bloomington and drove up to Indy to sell them – at $5 a bunch , each of which were maybe a 1/2 lb to 2/3 lb each (at least initially) and I remember a poster here exclaiming how expensive they were and wishing he could have got that price from folks when he had them available in abundance on his (former) farmland.  A lot of this stuff is relative in nature.  I once had a frosty - but civil - discussion with a vendor/grower at one of the farmer's markets about the small bundles of small bok choy she was selling, for something like $3 per bundle or something like that, and pointing out that I could pick up heaps of very nice and fresh bok choy at my local Chinese grocery for the price of 2 of her bundles. She icily lectured me about how superior and organic and so on her stuff was, and how her labor as a small-scale farmer and so on affected what she charged - and I could choose NOT to buy from her. All true. And, in most cases, I would buy the non-organic stuff from my Chinese grocer instead.

Edited April 3, 2016 by huiray (log)

[gfweb]

IIRC beef tenderloin at Costco runs around $95 which makes a 5lb tenderloin about $19/lb. So the goose isn't that expensive/lb, but all of the tenderloin is usable and would yield about 8 big filets + the tip + the butt. So about 14 or 15 meals.

 

Trying unsuccessfully to talk myself into cooking a goose.

 

Compared to dartagnan's site the store price is a bargain

 

http://www.dartagnan.com/all-natural-free-range-goose/product/FGORE004-1.html?cgid=poultry-game-birds&dwvar_FGORE004-1_freshFrozenWeight=Fresh%20%2F%2010-12%20lbs%20avg.#srule=2-most-popular&sz=12&start=39

Edited April 3, 2016 by gfweb (log)

[Tere]

Goose is amazing if cooked well. I haven't hit the motherlode yet and I might well strip the fat from the meat and try the sousvide approach next Christmas. But slow rendered goose skin in the Aga is one of life's pleasures. And I render enough goose fat for 6 months at least of roast dinner goose fat potatoes from my Christmas goose. Also goose liver parfait is to die for

[pastrygirl]

7 hours ago, huiray said:

As for pricey food in a general sense in the US, good fish has always been "up there", hasn't it? ...  while good stuff from Western places (all dead fish) can run up to $25-30/lb or even more sometimes. The last piece of nice halibut I got from a well-regarded (Western) fish shop here at not much over a pound set me back about $40.

 

 

Yes, $10/# isn't that crazy for premium ingredients, even here in Seattle wild salmon and halibut can go over $30/#.  Also many cheeses and wild mushrooms - the goose just seems like a lot because it is a relatively large animal.  And the bones decrease the yield, but if you were having a dinner party for 15-20, could save the rendered fat and use the bones for stock, it might not seem overly dear.

[liuzhou]

One of the local hotels (a 5 star international operation) opened a small deli just off their lobby. They sell exotic (to most Chinese people) foodstuffs. Things like jarred olives, Dijon mustard and somewhat bizarrely, Maldon sea salt from England.

 

For this stuff, they do us the honour of charging ten times more than I can buy the same stuff elsewhere in town. They haven't a clue. There is a breed of ex-pats who never venture out of their western style hotels in case they catch something.

 

And who in the world books into a 5-star hotel and suddenly thinks, "I really got to buy some overpriced salt before I leave!"  Regular, local sea salt costs 3元 and I can buy the Maldon stuff for 45元, if I so choose. I tend not to.

[Anna N]

8 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

 

Yes, $10/# isn't that crazy for premium ingredients, even here in Seattle wild salmon and halibut can go over $30/#.  Also many cheeses and wild mushrooms - the goose just seems like a lot because it is a relatively large animal.  And the bones decrease the yield, but if you were having a dinner party for 15-20, could save the rendered fat and use the bones for stock, it might not seem overly dear.

Surely you are not suggesting that a goose would serve 15-20 people?

[Martin Fisher]

6 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I can buy the Maldon stuff for 45元

 

It's about the same here. $6.59 for 8.5 ounces at the grocery I frequent the most,

[liuzhou]

25 minutes ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

 

It's about the same here. $6.59 for 8.5 ounces at the grocery I frequent the most,

 

But wouldn't you prefer to buy it in a 5 star hotel for $30.86?

[Duvel]

Huiray: a proper roast goose (from a local source) will run around 450-600 HKD. You may experience higher prices if you go to places in Central.

 

Franci: yes, exactly like in your experience the shops catering for the affluent expat community do stock basically everything and unfortunately also charge accordingly. And people buy it. I am currently living in a golf club-type of expat enclave on one of the islands of Homg Kong and our supermarket (from a crappy chain, mind you) does carry everything from imported quails from France to Matsutake from Japan. My wife always says that they carry more Catalan items than "her" supermarket in Barcelona ...

[liuzhou]

1 minute ago, Duvel said:

Huiray: a proper roast goose (from a local source) will run around 450-600 HKD. You may experience higher prices if you go to places in Central.

 

Franci: yes, exactly like in your experience the shops catering for the affluent expat community do stock basically everything and unfortunately also charge accordingly. And people buy it. I am currently living in a golf club-type of expat enclave on one of the islands of Homg Kong and our supermarket (from a crappy chain, mind you) does carry everything from imported quails from France to Matsutake from Japan. My wife always says that they carry more Catalan items than "her" supermarket in Barcelona ...

 

Why on earth would they import quails from France. France imports them from China!

Similarly, most matsutake in Japan now come from China. The Japanese have all but wiped out their own supply.

[Duvel]

Unfortunately, most people here (and especially the expats) do not trust in the quality produce from mainland. Its all available and at a fraction of the price of the imported material. Yet, the latter is more popular.

It might be a combination of wanting to buy something "safe", from home, as well as not really being bothered with the cost of living*.

 

____

* Disclaimer: working in the chemical industry, which unfortunately does not keep the same salary profiles as the banking sector, the latter does not apply to me ...

[liuzhou]

26 minutes ago, Duvel said:

Unfortunately, most people here (and especially the expats) do not trust in the quality produce from mainland. Its all available and at a fraction of the price of the imported material. Yet, the latter is more popular.

It might be a combination of wanting to buy something "safe", from home, as well as not really being bothered with the cost of living*.

 

 

Or it may be self deception. Those expensive imported French quails are probably the same cheap quails exported from mainland China to France then re-imported to HK.

Edited April 4, 2016 by liuzhou (log)

[Duvel]

I find this rather unlikely. It would not make sense for the shop to deceive a well paying clientele with something pretending to be from one's home country while come from across the border. And it is most probably the French housewive buying this product just as I would pay only a premium to get my Weisswurst that I know so well from home.

So, while I admire your enthusiasm for Chinese quail exports, I strongly feel that "French quail" sold here is just that. I will try to make a picture when I am back from Vietnam ...

[pastrygirl]

6 hours ago, Anna N said:

Surely you are not suggesting that a goose would serve 15-20 people?

 Wild guess, I admit. 11.67 # whole, if you get at least 60% yield there would be 6 or 7 pounds of meat on that goose. It wouldn't be gluttonous feast proportions, but even at 1/3# per serving you should be able to serve a fairly large party. Is there so much fat the yield of meat is far lower?  How many servings do you get from a 12# bird? 

[Anna N]

@pastrygirl

I would say 8 to 10 people at the very most and that is assuming lots of side dishes. If you had goose lovers at the table as I frequently did they would feel short changed if I stretched it this far.  I consider it a "feast food" and one does not want to treat it as "fasting food". 

[pastrygirl]

Ok so for $120 you get meat for a gluttonous feast for 8-10 goose lovers. Still way less expensive than many other premium meats!  

[kbjesq]

3 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

Ok so for $120 you get meat for a gluttonous feast for 8-10 goose lovers. Still way less expensive than many other premium meats!  

Last holiday season, "prime" standing rib roast (the whole thing) was ~$300USDand that fed 10 meat gluttons and 2 flexitarians. 

Various snapper, hog fish, flounder grouper, etc that is caught less than 1/4 mi from my house is often well over $30USD/lb buying direct at the dock. 

And the price of stone crab claws (which is mostly shell, by weight) is never less than $30USD/lb and that's for the small ones. The best ones are bought by restaurants who pay even more. I read somewhere that waiters at Joe's Stone Crab in Miami make well over six figures per year. I only are there once, but I didn't understand what all the fuss is about. Then again, I'm perfectly happy with a bowl of rice and beans. (Preferably Rancho Gordo beans, LOL) 

[Tere]

OK, so last goose I bought was I think 6 kg. That was Christmas dinner for two (the breast), a couple of well stocked sandwiches, and a tagine which I think was about 4 portions. So 8 portions, maybe 10 because I ate half my breast. Plus delicious delicious slow rendered goose skin, which is amazing, 50 ice cubes worth of goose fat at least which does my goose fat roast potatoes for 6 months, and 2 good sized portions of goose liver parfait. And stock / soup obviously. Goose throws a LOT of fat, so it does slightly less than you would think in terms of meat, but it's going to pay dividends in other ways.

[SLB]

The goose prices are wild, but at least it seems like an adventure (of a sort).  

 

Admitting that I do not purchase food in this format ever, this photo (taken in good ole NYC Fairway) is the kind of food-form that makes me think the apocalypse is upon us:

 

 

I mean.  It's not like I haven't made a meal out of stir-fried onions and mushrooms.  But.  But.  I mean . . . for five bucks???

Edited April 4, 2016 by SLB (log)

[Tere]

*sadcheer*

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, Tere said:

*sadcheer*

 Six months ago I too would have sneered.   Today not so much.   When we are healthy and capable cutting up a few mushrooms and onions seems like a simple task.   It doesn't take long when you're handicapped to understand the appeal of already cut up vegetables at any price.  Like I said, six months ago I was equally unsympathetic.   

[blue_dolphin]

1 hour ago, SLB said:

Admitting that I do not purchase food in this format ever, this photo (taken in good ole NYC Fairway) is the kind of food-form that makes me think the apocalypse is upon us

 

Having had the opportunity to spend a good bit of time over the past year helping elderly or sick relatives with meal prep, sometimes in places without good kitchen facilities, I can say that I have purchased and paid the attendant, inflated prices for such items.  Sometimes it's only a small hurdle that separates one from a satisfying meal, but if it's unsurmountable to me some day, I will purchase them for myself as well.  It's often less expensive and more nourishing than options like fast food or delivery.

 

 

Edited April 4, 2016 by blue_dolphin (log)

[Tere]

Well in that case you just need a group hug. (not being sarcastic, that's quite genuine). Also my intent with *sadcheer* might not be interpreted in the way I intended. That was on the lines of I understand the reasons but I had a sad...

 

(pre prepped stuff exists here comfortably and I do understand the need but it's about 50 to 60% of the price I think). It still feels very overpriced.