Morfi: Slang for food, grub.
I dislike grocery shopping. That really has nothing to do with this entry but I wanted to get that out in the clear before continuing.
We just returned from Tienda Inglesa, one of the major grocery store chains (along with Devoto and the one-hit-wonder French-Wal-Mart-Clone-Biggest-Store-In-Uruguay Géant). Grocery shopping here is nothing special to be honest. That having been said it is a little different from shopping in the US. Here’s the bulleted list as they come to my mind:
- Friday night the grocery stores are packed. For some reason though we always find ourselves in a grocery store early Friday evening.
- In the macro sense, things look pretty normal… the aisles are quite a bit closer together and the parking is a lot tighter (everything in Uruguay is smaller and closer together).
- In the micro sense you’ll find there is generally a lot less variety. Here are a few staples, namely:
- Dulce de leche – Basically sweetened condensed milk. It’s in everything sweet. It’s not bad but I think it’s overdone and overrated.
- Ham. Lots of ham, no turkey. The ham is really good though so I’m not complaining.
- Muzarela cheese, not mozzarella but similar. I love it.
- Yerba Mate, expect at least a full aisle dedicated to it
- Crackers. There are a few types, maybe three, and a lot of different brands of those three types but not much beyond that.
- You won’t find peanut butter, non-sweet cereal (apart from Corn Flakes, I recommend the German brand, Hahne I think it is) or Soft Batch cookies.
- That’s about it. I could go on but it really is just not my favorite topic (sorry for sounding so grouchy
).
Leaving bulleted list mode I have to give some praise here to Jenny who is excellent at putting up with my non-shopping tendencies. Enough about groceries, it’s time to go put on some 80’s garb and go party.
