Hi everyone.
Free Samples!
It’s Stephanie here.
Ok you knew this was coming. A post about free food. A poor starving student can only go about paying for food for so long. Just kidding, but seriously, eating out is expensive. Now that school is out, I find I’m eating out almost every night. Well, enough about me ranting about how poor I am. I think you can tell how cheap I am already. I think this blog has come to a whole new level of ‘poor’. Yes … the ‘asianess’ in me is coming out.
1st sample: Vegetable 'fries'.
Before I get any further, I would like to say that I was inspired by Ben from Chowtimes (another Vancouver food blog) when he wrote about getting a free ‘meal’ at T&T AND Costco. You see, he visited Costco and T&T, ate their free food samples and posted about them. See Free All-You-Can-Eat: No Strings Attached (See? I am not the only posting about free food).
I was visiting T & T Supermarket at Metrotown this Saturday, when I noticed that there were of free samples being offered. Usually I’m not interested in getting the samples because I’m in a hurry or I just don’t feel like eating in a supermarket. However, I remembered Ben’s post, and I thought’ Hey, if he can post about samples at T&T on his food blog, I can too!
So many people crowding to get free samples ...
For those of you who don’t know, T & T one of the largest Asian supermarkets in Canada. They sell fresh produce, packaged food, DVD’s, even appliances and clothes. They don’t only sell Chinese products, but they sell products from Japan, Korea and The Philippians, and may other specialty Asian products that you may not find at Superstore or Safeway.
Well, on Saturday T&T was packed. I don’t go to T&T that often, but I wasn’t
This was really popular. I didn't get a chance to try this.
surprised because T&T is the only major Asian supermarket in Burnaby, and it’s in Metrotown.
On some of the food stations, I had trouble getting some of the samples because people were taking them as soon as the ladies behind the stations were putting them out on the counter. And on some stations, there was a massive horde of people surrounding the food. However, it was good in a way because I felt very suspicious taking pictures inside T&T. I don’t think any of the staff noticed (or cared).
Ok, now let’s take a look at the free samples!
As a poor starving student, I don’t think it’s wrong to go back to a station more than once. Some people might
2nd sample: Noodles with white creamy (fish?) sauce
disagree, but I’m sure the ladies behind the stations are used to people taking more than one. And also, it’s T&T. Everybody is Asian. As long as there is polite etiquette, I think it’s OK.
The only other place that I can think of that provides free samples is at Costco. Well, Kin’s Farm Market provides free samples of their products as well, but it’s just cut-up pieces of their fruit and vegetables. I find that T&T has more sample stations, but Costco portion sizes are much bigger. And at T&T, the stations get refilled more often, but there are more people at T&T taking samples than Costco.
PSST: If you want to go when there are the most samples being offered, go on Saturday afternoon. I went back to T&T on Sunday afternoon expecting the same amount of samples, but there were a lot less stations.
3rd sample: Xiao Long Bao
Now, of course I know that eating free samples at T & T is not a meal (even if you do two or even three rounds), but hey, I think it makes for a decent snack. It can satisfy your hunger for a bit, and if you’re shopping there already, why not?. And if you really want to eat a real meal at T & T, there is an in-house food court at T&T that serves dim sum, packaged sushi, bubble tea and yes, my favourite, Vietnamese subs. However, don’t get the Vietnamese subs, they taste really bad.
If you are a really really really really poor starving student, check out T & T.
6th sample: Dumplings
5th Sample: Sauteed Mushrooms
4th Sample: Beef Ball
9th sample: Ice cream Mochi Balls
8th sample: Yogurt
7th sample: Fried Pancake
poor starving students. =( 