h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Wing Yip head office in Birmingham is much bigger, smarter and cleaner than the Staples corner depot. I might add that in my experience you were lucky to find fresh fish available, and would suggest that Billingsgate of a saturday morning, when they tolerate some general public, is the better bet, if you can fight your way through all the Chinese etc. buying there.

A couple of miles further up the road towards Edgeware is Oriental City (once the Yohan Plaza) with a more general public orientated approach, an availablility of Japanese, Korean, Philipine etc foods, and a good array of restaurants in a food plaza or go west on the North Circular and find the much smaller Hoo Hing.

The supermarkets in and around Chinatown will not usually be much more expensive than these Cash & Carry's, and you may not save the bus fare if you are spending less than 50. Having said all that Wing Yip are the biggest, and arguably the best, company and can be the cheapest, especially for fast moving items such as frozen King Prawns and Noodles.

We don't have a Wing Yip here in Oxford, which is a shame coz they sound fab. But we do have an Asian supermarket called Lung Wah Chong on Hythe Bridge Street and it has everything you could want to make a Chinese meal (especially if you're an amateur like me!) as well as items from Japan and India and pretty much everywhere Asian. We have to make a special trip to go there, but we think it's worth the effort.

You might like to know that Wing Yip do offer a nationwide delivery service out of Birmingham. It is aimed, of course, at all the restaurants and chinese communities up and down the country, but if your needs are great you may think it worthwhile contacting them.

A word of caution. If you are someone who cares what they eat, please look carefully at the ingredients list on any oriental product, and be aware that labelling laws may not be as strictly adhered to in the country of origin as they usually are here. Also, please pay some attention to hygiene practices in the store, especially if buying pork/duck etc.