I am fascinated by grocery stores in other countries. Indeed, when I travel it's one of the first things I make a beeline to do. I think you can learn a lot about a culture through a careful analysis of its grocery stores. Poor Jim grew to hate our grocery shopping in New Zealand. I can turn a quick trip for two items into an hour (or more!) of fun and adventure. Or at least I think it's fun. Jim would heartily disagree.
Anyway, the cheapest grocery store, called Fresco, is only a short walk away from us. Oh! Dear Fresco, how I love to see what the sales are for the day! Sadly a couple of days ago I went in and realized I only had 800 yen (about 8 dollars), so I had the painful task of really picking and choosing (and totaling in my mind) what I bought. And, alas, two days later when I headed back, the prices seemed to have all changed! Well, not really, but some of the sale items (like potatoes) had changed in price—already! And it's not just prices that change. Much of the stock changes as well, perhaps because it is a small store? (Think of compact city shopping where the only options are hand-carried baskets.) A few days ago I bought funny cookies that were shaped like vegetables but had the taste and texture of waffles; but today they were not there. Another time I wanted to buy more mochi ice cream (little ice cream balls covered in chewy rice goodness—if you don't know them you need to find some!), but alas, there were none in stock. Instead I had to settle for coconut, green tea ice and red bean popsicles. (Fortunately, they are really good despite the seemingly odd combination.) I am learning that when grocery shopping I have to “get while the getting is good”. But, at least the main things remain the same: the milk/yogurt sections, the tofu section, the fish section, the rice snacks and cookies, the bread, the ready (and in-house) made delicacies (fried squid, gyoza dumplings, fried fish, sushi rolls, etc) . The latter make great impulse buys and interestingly they are placed right before the checkout counter. Mmmm.
Oh, here's an observation: the biggest grocery carts I have seen, even in the largest grocery store near us, are just large enough to set hand baskets inside. (They are basically frames for the hand baskets.) So, in general, people buy less at one time and go to the market more often than most Americans. This makes sense for two reasons: 1. people eat a lot of fresh fish, 2. the houses are very compact. The other day when I went to Fresco, I got a little carried away with the sales on veggies, etc, and I ended up filling my hand basket to the brim. Once I got home, I realized that I could hardly squeeze more into the fridge since our fridge is pretty tiny. (It's larger than a mini fridge for dorm rooms, but only by a little bit!) But, now, several meals later, the fridge is close to empty again! Time to go back to Fresco...
Other things I've found surprising in the grocery store:
The fish section is incredible, from salmon to octopus to tiny fish “sprouts”(really baby fish, maybe they're minnows?) Anyway, I read that fish from the sea and shellfish can be eaten raw but octopus is always cooked and fresh water fish must be cooked because of the harmful bacteria they contain. I do like sashimi (at least what I've had in the states, I haven't eaten it here), but I am a little nervous to cook raw fish myself. Er, I mean not cook fish. Anyway, we recently bought a variety pack of fish for adventure sake (and it was on sale) but I decided to cook it because I wasn't sure if it was okay to eat raw. I am adventurous, but I do have my limits...
Also, I never could have imagined so many different soy sauces! They all have different color labels and according to my friend, Mery, some are stronger than others. In larger stores there is a whole aisle dedicated just to soy sauce! Some of the bottles are over a liter in size and I, in awe, asked Mery what could possibly be done with that much soy sauce. She, being from Singapore, just looked surprised and said, “Well, for everything! Seasonings in soups, marinade for pork...I use it instead of salt. Much healthier...” So, I bought the soy sauce she recommended and that very night I used it to season our udon noodles. (She was right. It's really a good seasoning.)
Jim and I are already learning that when you go to the grocery store at the end of the day, the employees start putting stickers on the ready-made food, discounting it. What does that say about us that we can't really read kana and Kanji, but we can recognize the 30% off and ½ off stickers! We have had to experiment a little and sometimes it takes looking at the receipt at home later to learn—oh, that was a sale sticker, but that one wasn't. Nevertheless, we now know the difference between the “normal” stickers and the discount ones! ;)
Well, that's enough grocery store tales for now, but I promise that there will be more to come...
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