Church Street in Inverness is flooded with stores. And while they offer a variety of different products and services, food and drink seems to be among the most common.
Miele’s Gelataria is there for all your gelato needs. You can grab mouth-watering pizzas paired with beers at Black Isle Bar & Rooms. A great meal is guaranteed at Rendezvous Café and Perk’s doughnuts will leave you in awe.
On the drinks front, there’s The Malt Room, Lauders, Jimmy Badgers and The Auctioneers to name a few.
I have had the pleasure of visiting all of the above – and I imagine the majority of local foodies will have done the same. But after stopping by the Highland capital recently, I can now add Victory Global Food Store to the list.
The supermarket, open from 9.30am to 6.30pm Monday to Saturday, is located at the bottom of the street and sells a range of African and Caribbean foods and sauces.
As soon as my boyfriend and I entered to collect a Too Good To Go bag, there was an inviting aroma of mixed spices.
The owner too was lovely, querying us what we liked and didn’t like as she prepared our bag in front of us. While I do get excited by the mystery element of unbagging a Too Good To Go, I thought this was great.
What I got my hands on…
We already knew the variety was there as we started to unpack the contents back at our hotel.
Two 320g bottles of UFC Tamis Anghang Banana Catsup (banana ketchup) were removed first. To say the pair of us were intrigued would be an understatement.
I know it wouldn’t commonly be eaten on its own, but we both grabbed a spoon and proceeded to place a few small dollops of the sauce on each.
It had a sweet and sour flavour, but more so sweet, and there was also a hint of chilli that lingered on the tongue afterwards. We agreed it would taste fantastic with chicken or fish-based dishes.
There were also two 100g tubs of Dunn’s River Caribbean Mild Curry Powder and a tin of tomatoes. These items, for obvious reasons, weren’t sampled, but you can’t go wrong with either. They are cupboard staples.
The final product from Victory Global Food Store was our favourite of the bunch, and I have been tempted to secure some packets online on several occasions since.
At first glance, we didn’t know what to make of our Chicharon Kiap Moo Pork Crunch. Was it popcorn? Perhaps it was miniature prawn crackers?
On further investigation, we discovered it was fried pork rinds.
I hadn’t sampled a food with a texture like them before. They were crispy, airy and had a chew to them yet melted in the mouth.
In terms of the flavour, it was great too. Salty with a hint of barbecue, it’s safe to say the packet was gone before we left Inverness the next morning.
The verdict
The contents of our £4.09 bag may not have been a mystery this time, but it went down a hit nevertheless.
Victory Global Food Store is a gem in the city centre and I would encourage anyone to stop by, whether you want to try something different or secure yourself some authentic African and Caribbean food.
The cost of each individual product could not be determined.
The contents of the bag from Victory Global Food Store. Image: Karla Sinclair/DC Thomson
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