Great Grocery Finds at Cash & Carry Supermarket

Cash & Carry Mall at Makati City

As the 'chefs' of our home kitchens, we would like to cook with only the best quality ingredients. Most of the time, quality also means pricey. The common belief is that we can only cook with premium ingredients if we are willing to pay a hefty price to get them. I'm here to say that it's not always the case, and you can find good quality ingredients at an affordable price if you know where to look.



Of course, Metro Manila has multiple supermarket chains that cater to the city's 25 million inhabitants. We have supermarkets such as SM Supermarket, S&R, Puregold, Landmark, Market Market, and Cash & Carry. All of these chains usually cater to a specific audience, with SM targeting the growing low to middle income class, Puregold selling to resellers and shoppers who want to get the lowest price possible, and S&R who caters to a more affluent market. If you include local wet markets, you would need to visit a lot of these supermarkets before you find what you're looking for and that would be pretty inconvenient. I'm here to share with you a diamond in the rough for Metro Manila cooks - Cash & Carry supermarket.

Cash & Carry began its operations in 1974 as a stand-alone supermarket, before expanding to become a full-scale shopping mall by 2007. It's located in Makati City just along the South Luzon Expressway (Pres. Sergio Osmeña Sr. Highway), which is a very convenient location for the residents of Makati, Manila, Pasig, and even Paranaque. Let me highlight some of the great ingredients that you can find in Cash & Carry.

Pork and Steaks

Cash & Carry has a great selection of local and important meat sold at a very affordable price, just make sure to buy the 'brandless' Cash & Carry products. In the photo above, the pork chops only cost around 220 per kg which is a lot cheaper than what you'd find elsewhere.

Imported Steaks

Local Steaks

The supermarket also sells a variety of local and imported steaks that are just bursting with flavor - packaged at the standard 1 inch thick. These steaks are also very affordable, with a slab of local steaks that cost less than 100 pesos and imported steaks only around 20-30 percent more expensive. Just look at the marbling on the steaks above, you just know quality when you see it!

Cooking a delicious steak is really easy, and you can start learning by checking out my grilled steak recipe.

Vegetables

The supermarket also sells a lot of quality vegetables as shown in the picture above. A quick look at the prices show that they are a lot cheaper than what you'd get in either Rustans or SM Hypermarket. I'm thinking about making a post to compare the prices of all three supermarket chains pretty soon so that I'm backed with actual numbers and evidence.

Basil and Mint Herbs

The supermarket also sells Mint and Basil herbs at a cheaper price compared to Rustans - also of the same or better quality. In contrast to that, SM Hypermarket occasionally sells basil and mint herbs that aren't up to par in terms of quality but at a more expensive price.

I'm thinking about creating a new pesto pasta recipe with just Basil, Parmesan cheese, and Olive oil in a short while using herbs from Cash & Carry (I usually get herbs from Rustans), as an alternative to the three-herb pesto pasta by Erwan Heussaff.

A variety of fresh mushrooms

They also sell a couple of quality mushrooms that I would be very happy to work with. I have definitely tagged this supermarket as my source of quality mushrooms for the recipes I'll feature later on.

Fish and Seafood

Salmon, Tuna, and other fish steaks

You can also find a great selection of salmon and tuna steaks in the freezer which is sold at smaller portions than what you'd normally get from S&R. Again, I can't comment on the price until I've surveyed all of them, but I'm thinking that it's probably around the same or cheaper.

They also sell portions of Giant Squid if you are interested in cooking with that.

Other Ingredients

Yeast and Blueberry Pie Filling

Different Colors of Baking Chocolates

BBQ and Sour Cream Flavoring

A couple of other ingredients that I found quite interesting are shown above, with some pie filling, yeast, and baking chocolates that you might want to cook or bake with. I have been looking for some fries and popcorn flavoring for quite some time (SM doesn't have them and S&R sells them at bulk), so imagine my delight upon seeing these at Cash & Carry.

So, these are only some of the great ingredients that I've found when shopping at Cash & Carry Supermarket. If you have anything you'd like to add to the post, let me know through the comments and I'll gladly include them.

If you are trying to look for certain ingredients, you can also let me know below and I can check if Cash & Carry has them. I regularly shop here so I can check out for you.

Don't forget to share these suggestions with your friends! Happy cooking!

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Cheers,
Chef Jay