Grocery Shopping

Grocery shopping in other countries can be a challenge.  The closest grocery store to where I lived was a small store with only the essentials.  It was about 15 minutes down the mountain.  To complete our shopping for the week, we had to go down into the city, about 45 minutes away, where there were two larger stores.  We usually had to go to both of the larger stores to get everything we needed.  Driving so far away for groceries meant we had to take a cooler with us and had to move quickly through the second store.

Groceries are also packaged and sold differently.  Until very recently milk was only available in plastic bags or waxed cardboard boxes.  If you purchased it in a bag, you had to carefully cut off the corner and pour it into a pitcher.  Milk in plastic containers tastes more like American milk, but is still different because the cows are fed differently.

Eggs are seldom stored refrigerated.  It is important to crack each egg into a small bowl and then pour the contents of that bowl into the recipe.  I have ruined entire batches of cookies by cracking a rotten egg directly into the batter.

Even cereal may not be packaged the same way as it is in the States.  Many American cereals exist, but the mascots are different.  This is true of a few other boxed foods as well.