Friday, February 28, 2014

If Food Were Love, This Trip to the Grocery Store was Valentine's Day


My Stepdaughter, Jessica
Our family returned home from Australia last night, about 24 hours ago. After many hours of sleep I went to the grocery store. My stepson, a 27 year old guy, has been living in our home while we were out of the country so the refrigerator had a 24-pack of beer, many packages of leftovers, ingredients for some beverage he makes in the blender, and some mayo. I had to shop!

Food in Australia is SO So so so so so different. Almost every grocery trip that I ever made in Brisbane was followed by a long list of what everybody was missing that week. Sometimes it was American cereal, cheese, fruits, ice cream, candy, or just meats. Over the course of our eighteen months there we probably missed everything at least once.


Tonight, as I walked the aisles of the Dierbergs, I could not believe my eyes!

The produce department at Dierbergs is a freaking thing of beauty! 


The pieces of fruits are so huge and luscious...in the middle of winter! (please no comments on GMOs) The colors and choices...sigh. I brought home a gorgeous rainbow of foods! I bought some ginormous strawberries for a song...and they are delicious.

The cereal aisle? It is a full aisle long!  Every single possible sort of cereal and size is there in that aisle. The choices are many! I could have purchased about a hundred different cereals.  But I just bought some Frosted Mini Wheats. And there were Poptarts!  I got cinnamon Poptarts and some fudgy kind for the kids.

I felt like a princess as I walked up to the frozen section...John and I have been waiting eighteen long months for those biscuits in the break-open package in the refrigerated section. There, in the place where they were supposed to be:  ONE PACKAGE!!!!!!!!!
I guess we'll have to make due with one of the many other choices right there in the same refrigerated thingy. Next to the nummy orange rolls!

The kids are so happy that they haven't even noticed that I didn't bring home a single piece of candy. These kids are candy eaters, Man. It makes me crazy. But they haven't noticed yet. They are so happy with the other Delicious American Stuff. 

Did I mention the prices? I felt like I was stealing this stuff!

Yes, I'm all gaga over the grocery visit and the kids are happy and feeling loved. I think it requires leaving the country to really appreciate the kind of choices available here.


Me?  I'm eating myself some Cheez Its.

7 comments:

  1. Glad to hear you all made it home! Ha, whenever I would get back from an overseas trip one of the first places I'd visit would be the supermarkets. I would be delirious from it all. Actually, one of the first things I would do in any country was visit a supermarket. I remember my first American supermarket experience, I couldn't believe the amount of cereal but also the freezer space dedicated to waffles. I left there with things I considered very American (thanks to tv shows): hot dogs, buns, Cheerios, Hershey's kisses, orange cheese, Oreos, frozen waffles. One of my friends took me out to eat and I HAD to get a pepperoni pizza. On all American tv shows the families would eat pepperoni pizza. I never got to try a chilli dog but I had a hotdog at a baseball game in LA which was like living out a childhood dream :P (I never liked hotdogs, but on tv people eat them at baseball games, right?). Brisbane food prices are crazy compared to Melbourne, my parents were up there not that long ago and stuff like broccoli and cauliflower were four times as much as they were in Melbourne.

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    1. Too bad I didn't have a chance to shop in Melbourne!

      It cracks me up what foods are considered "American". I doubt that anyone in my entire family has ever eaten a chili dog. LOL
      Hershey's Kisses, yes! Chili dogs, NO!

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  2. Oh and you'll have to take pics of your supermarkets and general stuff, I'm fascinated with the every-stuff people do in other countries :P

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    1. LOL...I thought about that!!!!!!!!!!
      Just our breakfast cereal aisle would overwhelm your senses!
      Then there is the amazing ice cream/ice cream treats aisle! MMM MMM Mmmm!

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  3. This totally made me laugh...and think. We DO have amazing choices and we definitely eat like royality here. Welcome back to infinite possibilities I food!

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  4. I'm glad you all arrived home safe and sound, Karen! It was the same for me back in Germany. A lot of nostalgia purchases happened.. I hope the readjustment is going easy for all of you!

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  5. Welcome back! <3
    I love this perspective! It definitely gives those of us who've never lived abroad a sense of all the product choices we have.

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