'Foul' Chicken From a Bulgarian Supermarket

In view of Galia not being in the best of health it was a trip to the dreaded supermarket for some convenience food to make life a little easier for her this weekend with the meals we were to have.the last thing we wanted was for Galia to exhaust herself preparing for home cooked food which take up time and effort. So we were faced with a decision as to what we can buy that was cheap and easy to cook.

If I had my way I'd just forget the supermarket and just get some frozen meat that we had been using from last year's slaughtered lamb, goat and pig. We still had lots of stock of this meat, but the preparation took quite an effort. Galia just didn't feel it was right that I should be assigned kitchen duties this weekend. As she argued, "It was time for me to relax as well as her!" Well she did have a point, but only from her side of the fence. What she doesn't take on board is the fact that I don't find cooking a chore and it helps me relax whilst doing it. It's a bit of a turn around that Galia get stressed with me doing the cooking and I get stressed seeing her fingers being worked to the bone. Hence letting her just get on with choosing a meal from the supermarket.

The trouble right now with Bulgarians is that they believe everything they see and here in the advertising mediums. On the television, on the radio, in newspapers and on massive bill boards and posters, which is on the increase in Yambol. So, when is a supermarket the advertising ups another two gears it is a advertising and marketing tactical hybrid in action and the poor Bulgarian don't stand a chance in the face of such a monster. This particular supermarket called Kaufland. this is a German based company who excel in conning people into thinking the food there is good for you. Me, being a far wiser shopper from days gone by, knew better of it and certainly knew far better than 99% of shoppers there whose minds were being polluted before their guts were.

Galia had chosen a frozen chicken and a packet of dried chemical enhanced herbs and spices. This 'herb and spices' packet has a separate compartment where there was a plastic bag in which the chicken and chemicals, sorry herbs and spices, are introduced and whacked in an oven. Galia had seen this particular brand advertised on television, not once, but many times so it had been embedded subconscious mind and came to life when the product was recognised on the supermarket shelf. She at that point had just followed the planned advertising campaign as the fat cat advertisers sucked her into the world of false promises s we were to find out.

Now I knew that ever since first stepping onto Bulgarian soil and eating home produced chicken that anything else just wouldn't be the same afterwards. Was this going to be the case we with this supermarket factory produced frozen chicken and mainly artificial flavoured marinade. Galia was quite excited about it, she had seen the television advert and the picture on the packaging as a scrumptious occasion we should enjoy. What she didn't know is that the pictures of the chicken on the plate she had seen TV and on the package was probably painted with coloured lacquer and was of course totally inedible from the cosmetic make up that it had gone through to look like that. I didn't briefly try to explain, but the power of the advertising were too strong for my points raised. I decided to shut up and let her get on with it. I knew that the meal that we will end up, just wouldn't live up to Galia's expectations.

To cut a long story short, I knew that the frozen chicken might be 20% water as they inject the meat with water before freezing, I was right. When the chicken had completely defrosted the was such a puddle it overflowed on the plate it was defrosting in. We had paid good money, for this chicken, nearly 5 Lev a kilogram and 20% was now water not meat! Moving on, the meal was cooked exactly to the instructions laid out in 8 different languages and the plastic bag that was the cooking environment was opened once out of the oven. The chicken didn't look anything like the pictures on the package, then we tasted it.

Both Galia and I took one bite and just couldn't face any more. It was cooled and to be taken back to Yambol for Baba to do something with it, nothing wasted here of course. Galia had to agree with everything I had preached before, she was quite embarrassed about the whole episode. I had to remind here that we had been spoilt with the poultry we had eaten over the last few years. We realise that in the main, others who buy their frozen chickens from the supermarket on a regular basis, just don't know the difference, many if not most never having had the opportunity to taste home produced, free range chicken meat.

Will Galia ever buy frozen chickens from the supermarket again? Maybe as over time one forgets and the advertising may get back at her, but she is much more the wiser now. We both agreed on how lucky we are and are now talking about having chickens in the garage and yard in the Yambol house with eggs produced a added bonus!