The green and yellow is now at BF

PureGold, with a ‘jr’ in lower caps affixed to its name, cannot be missed with its attractive emerald green and sunshine yellow signature colors. It is on the corner of the main Aguirre Avenue and Kyoto Street in BF Homes Parañaque, located where an old supermarket – whose name escapes us now – used to be. The ‘jr’ concept is good, as it attracts people who make small, regular purchases. However, it also has everything a homemaker needs.

Though small indeed by any standard, we found the store sufficient to meet our needs that day. As usual there are food stalls offering ready-to-eat items, such as Jose’s Goto and Tin Hau siopao. One passes by the section of health care items and proceeding to the farther right end, there are all sorts of paper products.

The store has been identified as offering merchandise at lower cost and we were not disappointed. The following prices have been noted – pork at P179 a kilo, the same with pork chops; lechon kawali pork at P200; beef sirloin for P354; beef strips, P265; short ribs, P260; fresh bacon, P265. The house brand Equal chicken, which we found of good quality, is tagged at P120 compared to Magnolia at P134. We chose to get the Sinandomeng Premium rice for P37 a kilo. A bit more water needs to be added to this so it becomes softer when cooked. From the fresh harvest, cabbage is at P68 a kilo, sayote at P29 and carrots at P125. They have tikoy in preparation for the Chinese New Year, from P32 to P104 a piece. Unfortunately, we missed the 50 percent-off sale of queso de bola.

To maximize our time in the area, we moved to the ‘older’ (opened a year ago) Robinsons, in the commercial area, off the guard house at the main entrance to the village. Two things struck us – the Healthy You corner and a considerably extensive selection of regional sweets and specialties, both very welcoming. We always thought provincial products have to have permanent venues rather than sporadic presence in trade and food fairs. Here they offer products from Baguio to Puerto Princesa – Pinoy pica-pica, malunggay cookies, otap, squid flakes, sweetened tamarind, choco flakes, uraro, polvoron and many more.

As a positive response to today’s health conscious trend, Robinsons has added a corner called Healthy You and introduced a line providing the needs for much-desired wellness. This provides shoppers with products low in salt and fat, high in fiber and anti-oxidants. They are sugar-free as well. They are all tagged in green, a perfect statement for the current Green Revolution. They include organic brown and red rice, whole wheat sugar free bread, a variety of nuts (trail mix, supreme mix, mixed and spicy nuts of almonds,pistaschio, pecan, walnuts and macademia). Among the juices are prune, orange and apple. From various sources abroad including Italy, Belguim and the US, the store imports items like pitted prunes and juice and olive pomace.

It is important to note that these products have been evaluated by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology. This should make you feel safe.

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