Grocery shopping

After sharing with you about my rice dilemma, it occurred to me that even though I shop in a grocery store, you might not realize all the differences between here and there.  

This week, I only got a few pictures, but maybe I'll get some more in the future.

In my rice post, I can't believe that I forgot to show you the bins of rice that greet each person as he walks into the store.  

I guess they have become common-place.

And even though I've shown you pictures of all the spices in the bazaar, I thought I'd let you see that they are also available in the grocery store

Long rows of all types of nuts and seeds are available, too.

Vegetables have to be weighed, priced, and tagged with a bar code by a man in the vegetable department. 

Can you imagine how humiliating it might be, after you are done shopping, to arrive at the cash register and the checker has to stop his whole line so that you can run back to the vegetable section and get all of your veggies "tagged."

Yeah.  That would "never" happen to me...twice.


Cheese and yogurt are plentiful here.  I still feel so blessed to be able to walk down an actual "cheese" aisle.  In Africa, decent cheese was often hard to come by.

There are so many different kinds, and they all have foreign names.  I want to try them all, but I also hate to buy one that tastes awful that I'll never finish.

Then, at the deli, they have all of this.
 

I don't know if these are cheeses or kurds or a combination of both, but I also wish I could taste-test these as well.

In Africa, I made milk from powder so I would have some to cook with, but for the most part, we stayed away from drinking it. 

Our last year there, we did start buying boxed milk off the shelf, but I was never a fan of that either.

I like going to the refrigerator section of the grocery store in America, seeing Bordens or maybe HEB-brand milk, grabbing it cold, taking it home and enjoying a nice, tall glass of cold 2% milk.

Here, there is a "milk aisle," but it's in the middle of the store...not the refrigerated section.

I promise to get a picture for you.  There are boxes and boxes of all different brands.

I think I've seen at least 14 brands of milk, and then you have to fish through the whole, low fat, skim options of each of those brands.

I decided to take a picture of a recent milk purchase for you.

After I get it home, I tear open the top of the box to reveal the 12 milks that I have purchased.

Then, I take them all out and store them above my refrigerator...not in it!

Two by two, they go into the refrigerator to get cold so someone (not me) can enjoy a bowl of cereal or a glass of milk.

Milk is usually one of the first drinks I have (besides Dr. Pepper) when I land on American soil. 

Enjoy a cold glass of goodness for me today.