Continuing my deeply casual consumer inspections of new shops at the health centre end of Lower Clapton Road, I dropped into the Great Wall - can you "drop in" to a wall? - on Saturday morning. After a quick look round, I spoke to a woman on the till who was price gunning packets of noodles. She went and got another woman who spoke a little English and told me that she'd come from China, that she had relatives in the area and that the shop was doing well. She also told me which of the various dizzily-coloured packets I'd picked up were fish, fowl, vegetable, sweet potato and chestnut, the latter all the way from Hebei via Gants Hill. I left with the whole lot plus a box of frozen spring rolls (the woman laughed at that: typical Englishman?) and a free newspaper for the Chinese business community in Britain, which I have yet to read from cover to cover. I haven't eaten the food yet either, but I will and I've a feeling I'll be going back for more.
I'm addicted to the packaging and the melon-flavour milk chews. the sweet/salt plum things are a bit of an experience, perhaps a once in a lifetime experience, or maybe not?
Posted by: rosemarie | February 29, 2008 at 06:17 PM