Grocery

Today we decided to make a big trip to the grocery to obtain all the things that we've been without. Like flour and butter, some canned food and condiments. General pantry items so I can cook stuff. Things that we didn't (or couldn't) ship. (By the way, no word on our shipment. It'll be here when it gets here I guess.)

We live in a "suburb" of Hong Kong called Discovery Bay on Lantau Island. It's is an outlying island accessible by a high speed ferry from Central on Hong Kong Island or by subway and then bus from the north side. The community of Discovery Bay is about a mile from end to end and is narrow. It's a self contained community. There are many restaurants, a departments store, a few drug stores, bookstores, salon, etc.

There are two grocery stores in DB. The one closest to our house is older and has tons of stuff in not a very big space. The aisles are narrower and the store is always crowded. There is another store at the other end of the community that happens to be brand new. It's gorgeous! It's a whole brand new shopping complex and it's still kind of a ghost town because the grocery is the only store that's open so far. Today we chose the 15 minute bus ride over the 3 minutes walk so we could go to the new and uncrowded store. I wanted to be able to concentrate and be able to do the currency math and amble about at my leisure. It was a good choice.

Delivery. All over HK people get their purchases delivered. It's not like you leave the store and have the trunk of your car to fill up and drive home. Most everybody is on foot or public transport so you can only take what you can carry. And for big trips to the grocery, what you can carry is your perishables and freezer food. So they take your dry goods for delivery and you leave with your cold stuff and produce. So my fridge and freezer are now stocked up. The dry goods will be delivered tomorrow afternoon. Sweet deal.

The grocery stores are well stocked. They look like any grocery in the USA except for a few differences. There are many brands I'm not familiar with, mostly British and Australian brands. The food selection is much more international but it's not anything crazy. There's still a meat and deli counter, the booze section, all the normal stuff. And sometimes a huge fish tank with live fish adjacent to the seafood counter. So if you want really fresh fish you're in luck. There's all kind of produce that I have never eaten before. Very exciting to have new food available! It's easy to find things that I bought in the US. It may be outrageously priced since they had to fly it here but it's here at least!

Most things come in smaller packages than we are used to seeing in the US. Partly because, as I mentioned, people are carrying this stuff by hand all the way home. And partly because the kitchens are smaller and there's not as much storage space so a smaller package takes up less space. As in Europe people tend to shop for food every few days or even every day. It's not like in the US how most people go to Costco or Sam's Club to stock up and do big grocery trips once a week. It's a whole different way to shop. We have lived within close walking distance to a grocery store for the past 4 years so it's not really a stretch for us. So it was really funny to see gallon jugs of peanut and vegetable oil for frying. I am buying milk by the quart, butter by the stick, and ice cream by the pint but I can get a gallon of oil? How bizarre.

This new grocery is running a promotion where they give you a booklet you fill with little stickers. When you reach a certain amount of stickers you can redeem them for knives. We earned two knives today. B is very excited about this. And they are actually nice knives.

Oddly enough they have the O Organics brand that Safeway stores carry in Oregon. This is like store brand generic organics. I was shocked and elated to see that! And Bob's Redmill has a pretty full selection too. It's also nice because with the big selection of European and Australian food available I know it's an ok option since their rules for food production are stricter than the US. Not to sound like a freak--I don't want to make this blog about food (I could have a whole different blog entirely about food!)--but I am a conscious consumer. Once you read Omnivore's Dilemma it's a downhill slide. For those of you who are curious--I am confident that I will be able to continue to feed my family mostly the same way I did in the US. With the exception of produce. Organic produce is 3x more expensive and with the shipping time it never seems to look very fresh... This makes me sad! And they don't carry organic milk--but Australian milk is a good bet since they have never allowed hormones. And I need to learn more about meat... I think (grass fed) Australian beef is the best bet here. And we have been warned to stay away from Chinese produce and meats. I don't even want to know about the meat but I do know that the produce is grown on farms that are likely to have water contaminated by the pollution and excessive use of pesticides... I will stop with the organics talk here. But if anyone wants to know more about that aspect of the food here, let me know. I will post as I learn if I think you're interested. I still have a lot to learn...