I was grumbling on Facebook that I had run out of Bovril and there wasn’t any stock in town. Eventually, friends started telling me that they managed to buy it at the supermarket here and it is also available in the one in the kampung area but I had been avoiding both since they appeared quite regularly in the daily list of places visited by COVID-19 positive cases and one was so nice as to PM me saying that he saw people unloading the newly-arrived stock at a shop here and that one was never in the list. Unfortunately, that shop is in a high risk area that I have been avoiding for a long time. Why, I was even thinking of purchasing it online!
Well, one day led to another and with Hari Raya coming up, I had no choice but to venture to the supermarket that stocks up on all the nice imported stuff last Saturday morning to buy some gifts for my cousin and his family who will be celebrating this auspicious occasion and I decided to get down to buying a bottle of Bovril while I was there.
I managed to grab, not one but TWO bottles…
…of what I had been waiting to lay my hands on all this time.
This is the real beef variety…
…unlike the regular ones so of course, it did not come cheap…
It looks like it will not be due for expiry till the end of May, 2022…
…and not the 22nd of May. I guess it will not last that long especially when they are rather small, those two bottles and there was only one size at the supermarket that day.
Gosh!!! It was so crowded that morning! Yes, they insisted that everyone followed the SOPs when entering and when paying at the cashiers’ counters, but inside, it was a free-for-all. The place was not big and they placed all those boxes of stuff for sale along the narrow alleys leaving enough space for one person to walk through on either side of the boxes…but there were some shoppers taking their sweet time looking at everything on the shelves, taking them down to have a closer look one by one and worse, some just stood there and talked and talked and talked, so inconsiderate.
I wasted no time at all in simply grabbing a few things I thought my cousin and his family might like – dates, the ones still on the stalks and those with honey, Kjeldsens’ butter cookies, Ferrero Rocher – the white ones…and ran out of the place as soon as I could.
Some people did tell me that I should not go there on weekends, best to go in the middle of some very hot weekday afternoon when many are working and the rest would not venture out in the heat.
TA KIONG EMPORIUM (2.2933,111.82713,783) is located at No. 42-46, Jalan Tuanku Osman.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
I am not into this Brovil or Marmite but when I see how you use it to toss your mee sua, it looks quite good. I think nice also with plain porridge.
Personally, if with plain porridge, I prefer Marmite but I’m the only one in the house who likes it so I never buy it. Marmite is not nice with noodles, Bovril is the best. I think the taste is catching on here, a lot of people cooking noodles with Bovril and sharing the photos on Facebook – that is why always sold out, out of stock.
On the other hand, Marmite is used more widely for cooking – Marmite crabs, for example but I think I saw them selling Marmite sauce in packets at the shops. Dunno if it is anything like the real thing or not.
Rarely buy because no one likes it, including me. Lol. Not cheap some more, so ended up I have to toss away expired bottle that only used once or twice.
Yes, I remember I cooked once for you and you did not seem impressed. Your boy loved it though – asked for a second helping! Kids – they all love noodles, don’t they?
https://suituapui.wordpress.com/2014/02/08/nobodys-home/
Hahaha Yeah of course inside it will be free for all right as it will be difficult for people follow whatever SOPs.
That is because people are so ill-disciplined and that is why the numbers keep going up, not coming down. I dunno what is wrong with all of them!!
Oh yes, some shoppers are so very inconsiderate. I really hate those types that take forever to select their purchases. They are so oblivious to the urgency to quickly move along so that others can pick up their groceries too. One of the worst is those that stand right at the aisle and start talking on their phone. Grrrr….
Yes, I cannot understand why they must look at everything top till bottom as if they have never seen them before. Worst is when they buy vegetables – EVERYTHING THEY MUST PRESS and squeeze. My regular vegetable seller says he hates such people!!! Brainless!!!
We have moved to more online purchases in hope to avoid the supermarket crowds.
I’d just stick to the grocery stores in my neighbourhood. May be more expensive but not many people, safer!