Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

The quality of meat and other food was a recent topic in the Catalkoy local newspaper, the local municipality were doing spot checks on food sell by dates as there have been a few issues lately.

I have unfortunately bought some chicken from Lemar's near Catalkoy which was off, and I mean well off not just a bit "over". This happened to me on two separate occasions. The chicken had to go straight in the bin which is a total waste of money, it even started stinking my house out so had to be double bagged and put outside. Such a shame.

I must admit I'm also not impressed by their new veg area, all the veg looked tired and there was not a lot of choice.

I do hope my experience is a one off and things improve soon as I quite like Lemars.

Does anyone have any recommendations on better supermarkets/veg stalls?

Chris

To be honest here in the summer the veg is usually pretty dire, it is just a seasonal thing. All there is is cabbage, carrots aubergines and courgettes, they seem to be the only thing that stands the heat.

CC, same happened to me once and was not worth driving all the way back to get a refund. It is annoying and I hope these "Spot Checks" become a regular thing and done not only in major supermarkets but in small village stores too, throughout the TRNC.

For chicken I would recommend the Kirni chicken shops at Karakum in the plaza that contains Bestseller bookshop and the one at Catalkoy in the same block as Creditwest Bank near Lemar. Just check the dates on the packets but both shops get daily deliveries plus they both take 10% off. We've been buying chicken there for a few years and never had a problem.

Two places I never buy meat is Lemar or Supreme, neither shop seem to have any fresh looking meat, always use Tempo, Kirni or Kibel, got some mince in Lemar once and it was not good (passed sell by date) never again. Never had a problem in Tempo always looks fresh. No experience on the West side though

Never had a problem with meat from Supreme. Have had bad chicken from Tempo and it was taken straight back and refunded.

I like to buy my meat from either Tempo, Supreme or even Kibek near Cassini's in Girne.

I wonder why we cannot get veg like swede, parsnips and other root veg when you can get them southside....just asking.

Probably because their not part of the staple diet here, my neighbor grows swede in his garden and gives me one occasionally, but my wife is not keen

I stopped buying fresh meat and chicken from supermarkets here a while back after a couple of bad experiences.
It wasn't just that the sell by dates ,but I thought that some of the chiller cabinets that fresh food is displayed in did not seem cold enough in hot weather.
As previous posters have said,I now buy my meat from Kibets in karakum(not the cheapest I admit) and my chicken from the Chicken shop across the road.
My reasoning is that if they are only selling one thing(i.e. meat or chicken)they are more likely to get it right!

Halfful , I don't think my wife would be to keen either if my neigbour gave me one occasionally .

be careful if freezers in Erdener. Noticed pork loin big cut in price, but its only just in date. Trouble is it looks like its been frozen and defrosted, and some other pork product, not sure what it was, was well freezer burnt and only just in date. Would think this has been brought in from another shop, never seen it there before. As much as we like the family we are constantly pulling the staff up about prices. Things stood behind wrong labels ,old labels on shelves, and told its gone up etc.

I have just had my lunch of chicken (from Kirni shop) with fabulous roasted vegetables (aubergines, courgettes, carrots, onions, peppers, mushrooms), fresh carrots and green beans done in the Cypriot way with lemon juice and olive oil. I buy my veg in Ya Beles (West side) and find the quality to be really good. Have also had a lovely white nectarine today which was delicious and juicy. I have given up buying red meat and just have it when I eat out now.

Good meat from Kibet just past Sultans restaurant in Catalkoy it doesnt look like a butchers shop but it is.

The chicken here is all factory farmed - never mind the picture of the chicken standing in green grass on the side of the Kırnı Chicken Shop in Karakum - none of them will have even seen the blue sky in their lives... It always looks grey and certainly not appetising.
Meanwhile, I don't buy red meat here any more. I do enjoy eating meat but the people in the supermarkets here don't know how to butcher it properly, so it is nearly always chewy and also it's tasteless. They cut across the grain of the meat and leave in the gristle... I've seen them "re mince" the minced beef in Erdener supermarket in the morning to make it look "fresh" again... There is a law here apparently that meat has to be minced in front of the customer so that they know exactly what they are getting...

I bought sliced ham in Tempo last week, got home and it went straight in the bin, the smell was awful.
This was after I asked the girl serving behind the counter to replace the first lot of ham she tried to fob
me off with. Such a shame also an embarrassment for Tempo Catalkoy.

There is an article in this week's Cyprus Star on page 12 about food safety concerns.

Yes Philoz, I'm sometimes suspicious of the chillers/freezers