This isn't terribly local, but close enough.
The last few weeks I've been buying our groceries from Yasar Halim on Green Lanes. We discovered it purely by accident, but now I go out of my way to shop there.
Half of the store is a fantastic bakery. They do lots of tasty Turkish/Mediterranean things like boreks, but also good, cheap bread. Every time I've been in there, it was busy. They must have a high turnover because the bread is often still warm. The cakes look particularly tempting, but thus far, I've resisted.
The other half of the store is similar to Woodys, but better. There's a large selection of very fresh veg that's better and cheaper than at Tesco. I got a whole basket of aubergines, peppers and courgettes for under 6 quid. Next time I'm going to try their selection of olives.
The staff are lovely, too. There's lots of them, and they keep several tills open so you don't have to queue for half an hour.
It took me around 20 minutes to walk up there, going around the park. The bus back isn't a lot quicker, but I take it anyway because I'm too lazy to carry the groceries.
Comments
He looked miserable with a face like thunder when there but I thought the staff were friendly and the way the food was layed out reminded me of an Australian supermarket like Coles.
But...
When we got to the cash till I was thinking - god this really isnt that bad and they everyone went quiet as a horrible yobbish man started squaring up to a poor little indian man and trying to fight him - shouting and it was awful and intimidating.
My husband said to the cashier - wow how often does this happen? To which she replied EVERYDAY!
Joy.
Baldwins butchers is good too. Nigel Slater used to recommend it before he moved to Marylebone.
And I do like Morrisons - their fish counters are great.
@ Liz - how about organic veggie boxes - the Riverford ones are really good.
I forgot to mention in my earlier post that they make their own hummus. Delicious!
http://www.thelondonpaper.com/cs/Satellite/london/food/article/1157147149105?packedargs=suffix%3DSubSectionArticle
The Apple Pies are sited behind the women with the pony tail at the back of the photo. Usually have bought several Turkish Pizzas by the time I have got to the pie section.
The Olive bread is also great.
Also get some cheap tomatoes and make your own chutney – very easy to do and fantastic to eat !
There's a Russian shop across the street. It's called CMAK. They have a decent selection of food from the mother country, including Baltica beer, sold at a healthy 300% markup.
Very nice staff - one gave my son a complimentary gingerbread man on account its head had fallen off.
On the way back down green lanes I saw a shop with the best spelling mistake I've seen in a long time: tomatose.
katiejane - is that an how an unconscious tomato is?