Food Far and Wide

I haven’t done a lot of overseas travel – certainly none in the last three years. But I’ve always enjoyed trips to various grocery stores. I know that probably makes me sound a little boring but I find it interesting to see the variety of choices. I’m not the most adventurous when it comes to eating stuff I’m not familiar with but I’m fine with things that are sort of familiar – like snacks from various places.

Just recently, an international grocery opened a location near us. The first time we went, it was a Saturday afternoon and the place was mobbed. I don’t like crowds and, after a bit, I kind of felt like I needed to get away so we weren’t able to appreciate all that the place had to offer. We went back on a Sunday morning before it got too crowded just to stroll the aisles and marvel at all the choices.

I have no idea how and where they get all this stuff but the produce area was better stocked than other stores. And the variety was off the charts. Things you’d never find anywhere else were here. We stayed away from the meat and seafood because I prefer to buy where I know the source.

Then, we just cruised through the aisles. Each aisle is like a short trip somewhere. There’s the aisle with Mexican things, one from Central America, one from India, one from SE Asia and so on. There’s a whole aisle filled with just noodles. One with drinks from all over the place. And don’t even get me started on the frozen section.

It was a bit overwhelming because so many things were duplicated in different parts of the store. Say you wanted plantain chips. Well you could buy the ones made in Mexico, or the ones made in Honduras, or the ones made in Columbia and so on. And each brand had multiple different flavors. How does one choose?

My wife kind of got lost in the tea section just because there were so many options. Again, how do you pick just one? Really an issue for those of us who are bad at making decisions.

I could easily see doing the bulk of our shopping there. There are better options for things like detergent and other non food items. Of course the problem would be that far too many snack items would end up falling into the cart so we’d spend far too much each week. Better to keep it as a once in awhile option.