Do you love exotic fruit but haven’t been able to find anywhere to buy it? Or hate the extortionate price attached to them… Well I have been on a hunt and have gone to some expensive shops and some I would steer clear of and some I would recommend.
When I first started my hunt for fruit it seemed there was no where that stocked the more exotic side of fruits – think less Papaya and more Feijoa. I began my hunt in the supermarkets – Sainsburys and the like but sadly they only really stock Papaya and maybe Physalis if your lucky.
So I decided to go for some of the more specialist shops I started at
Newington Green Fruits and Veg – N1 4QY
Now a couple of years ago I had bought a selection of fruit from here – I had mostly gone looking for Starfruit (My Favorite) I was shocked at the price – it was almost 4 pound for one fruit. So that sent me looking else where (I will come back to this)
I checked in Planet Organic – No joy just lots of over priced produce and a mark up for every time the word Organic was stamped on the food. There’s no tropical fruit mostly just veg.
Then I checked in The Grocery – N1
This was an instant NO! A simple Vegan Bacon – which is sold everywhere else for £1.96 was £5.90 here. There was also Sainsburys pasta (99p) that you could still see the label of with a Grocery sticker stuck on top that was being resold for £8.99. I dread to think what Starfruit would have been but as it isn’t a British fruit they don’t stock it.
Green Valley
This shop has become my instant go to shop – The staff are really nice, pleasant, helpful – to the point of being shocking (In a good way) They have a range of fruit smoothies that you can get to take away and some plants. The only flaw is that they don’t stock Starfruit.
Tian Tian Market 天天超市 – E14
This was a surprise, we had gone to see this shop as it was all over TikTok when it first opened. The first visit I found Starfruit! I found Mangosteens! I found Fruit! The price was really good too, there was a pack of 2 Starfruit for £2.00 not to mention all of the other items that we wanted to buy – theres an entire row of Ramyeon! The only issue is that you never know when anything is in stock and the staff speak very little English or any language we can speak – it seems to be mostly Tai or Cantonese.
During lockdown most Indie Fruit and Veg shops had shut and there was no where for me to get my supply but I ended stumbling into Lemon and Limes – who would deliver. I wasn’t really aware of where they were as I was ordering online. They have a large selection of fruits at pretty decent prices, the delivery was exceptionally fast – as in the next day. However the last time I tried to order I found out that they have changed delivery companies because of this they no longer delivered to my post code. So for that order we decided to go via bike – all the way across London for Bobs fruit (thank you Ash) It is a trek and probably not one we will be making often.
Now in doing this blog I have looked again and found that with the exception of Tian Tian – Stoke Newington is actually the cheapest option and the treks all around London is no longer needed.
So although we have to still deal with trendy people and self entitled parents and children throwing strops because they want a custard apple or to be carried via Babboe bike box around the streets of London it may be worth it to get my Fruit fix.
Have you found any where for the exotic fruits? Do you suffer like I do without your fix of sweet, sour yummyness?
Climbing Moss 