President's Choice

While shopping here in Montreal, I've noticed President's Choice brand products in just about every grocery store.

For no particular reason, I have included a photo of some President's Choice olive oil next to a bottle of piri-piri hot sauce that I picked up at a Portuguese grocery down the street.

President's Choice seems to be sort of a store brand/no-name line of food products (although they have also expanded into financial products and phone cards). Mmmm.....financial products. According to the PC website, President's Choice is one of "Canada's best known trademarks." Huh.

For a while I was racking my brain to recall where I had heard of this brand. Then I remembered that a good friend from college had written about the loss of her favorite brand of fish sticks: President's Choice English-Style Fish and Chips. It's worth reading her blog entry for the whole story, but the upshot is that PC is no longer exporting this delicacy because of new FDA rules. So much for free trade.

Anyway, I feel that I now have a bit of additional purpose in my life: tracking down the lost fish here in Quebec and perhaps bringing some back to the US for my friend.

(Note to US Customs authorities, I am a great believer in regulations, so the cross-border transfer will not occur until I can establish whether there is some sort of frozen fish duty free exemption for returning US citizens.)

Check this space for updates.