Adventures in food shopping

The search for familiar foods has been interesting.  They actually have most of what I want.  You never know when you will see a familiar brand.  I saw Kroger's bbq sauce, Jolly Green Giant frozen corn on the cob, Kellogg's cereal.  But they are more expensive.  Also, you might see a product one time, but the next time you go back, it is not there.  So, the ladies have told me, if you see something that you want, get it, because it might not be there the next time.  That happened with refried beans.  We were invited to a party and I decided to make 7 layer Mexican dip.  I had seen refried beans at the grocery one day, but when I went to buy the ingredients for the dip, it was not there.  So, I had to make it from scratch with canned black beans. 

I would love to take pictures of the produce at the grocery store, but Chris tried to take produce pictures and the produce worker came up to him and asked him to delete the pictures.  Maybe, one day I will try. I did take a picture of the cake mix display.  I don't know why, but it amused me.

One day, Ken and I were walking down an aisle and I saw these packages called garlic crackers.  I thought that they were colorful, so I thought let's try them.  I assumed you just ate them like that.  But when I got home, I noticed that you had to fry them.  When I fried them, it was visually beautiful!  They opened like little flowers.  Next time I will take a video of them opening.  I love it!  Simple pleasures...
Here are two pictures:  one in the package and one of them fried.

 

 

 

Meat has been interesting.  There is not the variety and types of cuts of meat.  For ground meat, you pick a type of meat and ask the butcher to grind it, which actually my mother used to do.  And they don't have the variety of vegetables that we are used to.  There are a lot of vegetables that I don't know what they are.  I may eventually try them.  :)

 

I have only eaten at one restaurant here.  After grocery shopping, Chris, Ken and I stopped in the Shawarma shop.  It was very good.  Chicken from the spit tossed with potatoes and other things in a wrap.  Although it turns out, that maybe I wasn't supposed to be in that part of the restaurant.  The family section was upstairs.  That is where the women and children are supposed to eat.  I saw people staring at me, but I thought it was because I am a Western woman with no veil.  But maybe it was because I was in the wrong place.  It seems that women and children are curious about me.  The children stare openly.  Sometimes, I feel someone staring at me but when I look over, the women look away.