Ajooma

When I first came to London, I lived in Bromley, a suburbish area in zone 4. It’s only claims to fame were the dinky little train station that won a best platform award and that David Bowie grew up and got the hell out of there. I was still getting my bearings of not just Bromley but the English way of life, and shopped at the local Sainsbury for substance. Overall, I was not impressed with the offerings of British supermarkets, or the food culture. I could have eaten at the school canteen, but the only thing it had going for it was as a source bonding about the disgusting stuff they charged as food amongst students. I would trek to china town or the Korean supermarket in Centre Point for rations I couldn’t live without. (김치, 된장, 고추장, 김, 쌀) I knew I wasn’t going to live here forever, and I was a poor student, so I grimaced and bore it.

When I moved to (East) London, I lived with a Turk and an Argentinian. As 3 girls in a flat we tended to congregate in the kitchen; cooking, eating, and talking throughout the night. I’m not a good cook, but I missed Korean food so much, I ended up cooking most nights, and the Turkish girl was phenomenal in the kitchen. We all made cuisine from our homeland, trashing English food and way of life to make ourselves feel better. I had no more illusions of what British produce could offer me. All the vegetables tasted water logged. The sweetness level produced from bright sunshine never reached their potential, and I started avoiding fruit, something I relish normally.

At this point, I started going to Farmer’s markets, trying to get the best basics to cook with. In Korea, the produce you get anywhere is going to be pretty much the same standard - good. Here, it differs wildly between big brand super-chain and small time farmer. I found that the better ingredients I used, the better the food tastes. Not rocket science, but I think it makes so much difference in England. All the exotic foods shipped or flown from out of the country, or even continent are picked unripe and sprayed with chemical and preservatives, so I wanted to eat local. Through a period of trial and error, I discovered what tastes good here. A wealth of potatoes in variety and sizes, sweet cabbages (looking like nothing I’ve ever seen), creamy leeks, and sweet parsnips (which I thought were white carrots at first). As for fruit, there are delicious berries of all sorts and crisp crunchy apples. Aside from that, I really don’t like any other English food.

As good as Farmer’s markets are, they do start racking up on the purse, and I can’t rely on Saturday to be the only day I go shopping. So for about a year now, I’ve been getting my fruit and vegetables delivered home. This may sound extremely lazy, but I think it’s worth it. There is no doubt I’m more interested in the green/organic /ethical movement than the average polar bear, but I think it’s a trend that’s being heavily pushed and partly subsidized in the UK. As well as going with the flow of recycling and using public transport (I kind of have no choice here, I don’t drive and neither does my husband) I’ve tried my best to consume organic, local, seasonal, sustainable food. There are many out there who say environmentalism is essentially a bourgeois hobby, that working class people can’t live off 3 organic potatoes and a cabbage. While I can’t say it’s cheaper than shopping at Tesco (if you buy pesticide grown crops) I do think you can eat well and eat healthy in London.

I started ordering with Able & Cole, a London based grocery delivery service, and I’m pretty satisfied.

This is what we get usually, a box of fruit and a box of vegetables. It takes awhile to get use to this way to cooking, because you do not get to choose what goes into your box. It’s whatever is seasonal and what the local farmers are growing. You do get veto power to change items, but I’ve tried not to abuse it, as we get strange and wonderful items. Through this scheme I’ve had Jerusalem artichokes, black salsify, celeriac, sunflower seed sprouts, gooseberries, and strange looking cabbages. The vegetable frequently come caked with soil, as if they were pulled straight from the ground that very morning. To be a bit more cynical, it reminds me of a Berger and Wyse comic

Other than that, the boxes come with a newsletter that has a few recipe ideas and little blurbs about the people who grew your food. It’s really nice to be able to read about Pip Browning at Manor Farm who labours throughout the year to bring me my food. Able and Cole are not the only ones who offer this service, another couple in our flat of 8 also has deliveries, from Just Organic, who are exclusive to East and North London.
If you take into account the convince of not going out and shopping, the reasonable price, and better taste, I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want to do this. I was comparing living expenses with a friend recently, and I found out I spend less money than her on conventional shopping. However, you must take into account I don’t buy any meat of any kind. So take it with a grain of organic sea salt, but I think it’s worth it.