This month’s OFM treats, from corner shops to social supermarkets, classic seafood dishes to my own latest recipes
We didn’t have a corner shop where I grew up. Our groceries, the tea and instant coffee, bread and vegetables, came via a mobile shop, a grocery shop on wheels – a diesel-powered cavern of delights from which we did our twice-weekly shopping. I rather envied the kids in the surrounding villages who had corner shops to which you could pop for newspapers, biscuits and gossip.
Babita Sharma, whose family ran a corner shop in Reading, has written a delightful story of growing up “above the shop”. She tells of her early life spent stacking shelves and mopping floors while her parents tended to their regular customers. These small shops, the sort where the owner knows everything from what newspaper you take to which brand of tea you drink, supply a surprising one-fifth of the groceries in the country. A fact that comes as something of a shock to this shopper, who has to admit to using his local shop only for newspapers and crumpets.
Continue reading...
