Grocery Shopping

I have always enjoyed exploring grocery stores in foreign countries. Actually, even in different US States, you never know what you will find. Japanese grocery stores tend to have a rather strong fish smell. The bonus to this is you know it is because that mornings’ catch is in the meat aisle waiting, just in case you want to make your own sushi for dinner. Austrian grocery stores were often rather cramped, and it took me awhile to find my way around, due to my lack of German language skills. My first venture to a grocery store resulted in an almost failed attempt to buy laundry soap. My new roommate and I, who had just moved into our lovely apartment, and were both lamenting not doing more language study before coming, spent quite some time wandering around lost. One of the ladies working there took pity on us and asked if we needed help. Unfortunately, she did not speak English. So the three of us are there trying to use sign language to communicate. Probably looked absurd, but in the end we communicated that we thought we smelled and wanted to change that!

New Zealand supermarkets thankfully have readable labels J But there are also some interesting things that would not be found in America. I learned the other day you can buy a two liter jug of lime flavored milk. It was mint colored, so did not really look appealing to me. But I have been told it is delicious.

The international section of the store is also amusing to me. The “American” shelf has marshmallow fluff, Reese’s peanut butter cups, and on a good day, Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce. I have not yet broken down and paid the astronomical price, hopefully I will be able to put off cravings until I make trips home!

One thing I appreciate about shopping here is the butcher shops. Before moving here it was not anything I gave thought to, but I have my favorite places, depending on who has the better sale, and it has proven to be well worth it for the quality of meat. I miss the bakeries found in Europe, but the produce shops here almost make up for it. Everything is very fresh if you know where to go, and it is much easier to find locally grown things (possibly because New Zealand is a small enough country almost anywhere can feel ‘local’).

For non-produce or butcher shop items, there are generally three options. New World is the “posh” supermarket. You can collect air points there, and have a wider selection of specialty items and dietary things. Countdown is the mid-range store, with the aforementioned American food selection, as well as some Japanese items. Pak’n Save is my preferred option, simply because it has the cheapest prices on most things. It resembles a warehouse so apparently it’s the not-classy store, but my budget doesn’t mind J

Well now I have made myself hungry, should have known better than to write this just before lunch!

Hope a great day!