Not quite tourists...exactly
Monday, July 4, 2011 at 02:30PM Tourists come to new places and stay in comfy hotels, eat in upscale restaurants, and see the sights. They are observers, but do not deviate far from their own customs and routines. Locals, on the other hand, live their lives with routine and familiarity. We are somewhere in between those worlds.
Marinas are generally found on the outskirts of town, sometimes near industrial ports, and off the beaten path. Oh, god, how my feet hurt!! We walk to town each day, but eat at 'home' as much as we can. We are in constant search for wifi to help keep up with responsibilites of working, cooking, shopping for groceries and lifes necessities.
Grocery shopping/provisioning. It is a treat and a challenge, but also frustrating and baffleing. As I expected, beautiful fresh produce, meats and cheeses are in the 'mercado'. Everything else is in the SUPERmercado. Among all this freshness, milk comes in those perma-fresh unrefrigerated boxes (hello...I would like some fresh milk please!!) and there is a limited selection of spices (your basic oregano, basil, cumin). Fortunately, bread and pastries are ubiquitous...ah, sweet heaven!! I dont know if Europeans are into unprocessed foods. I will see a wheatberry or a box of Kashi before we return. The price and availability of cosmetics are high. Loreal and other drugstore brands are really expensive and appear to be high end. My beloved Clarins products even more expensive here than in Wheaton Mall. Aveda? No. Foods like Organic Tempeh? Fugettaboutit.
Yeah yeah yeah, it is a different culture. I am amazed at how I have become so dependent on the everyday guideposts of branding. I NEED WholeFoods to show me the way to organic soy sauce and local veggies. I trust branding to assure me I am eating pure, wholesome, healthy foods. At home, I wistfully yearned to buy our milk from the local creamery (but it is too fr-king expensive) but how nice it would be to provide my family with the most wholesome farm-fresh milk one can imagine. Here there are no such guideposts. Instead, one buys freshly filleted fish, chicken or beef at the market while-you-wait. Fresh baked barras (baguettes). Amazing fruit. But here, it is just ordinary food. It is all beautiful, but where does it fit in the US marketing backdrop? There's no one to show me the way, or to give me the validation I seem to desire. I dont know whether the fish was farm raised, local, or caught on a hook. It is just fish. I dont know if it is a mackeral or a cod. I dont know whether I feel better or worse about what is going in my body and what I am feeding my family. I feel upside down.
Oh well. Kids are still eating hot dogs. Hamburgers. PB & J. At least those are universal. FOr the most part, kids eat junk, be it natural, organic, locally grown or Oscar Meier.
Even if the majority of my groceries are from Safeway, I just take comfort in knowing that overpriced commerically organic foods are just a short drive away in my Volvo XC. I suppose I will have to either unwind from the marketing or educate the European masses. The former seems more likely than the latter.
Reader Comments (1)
Looks like a care package is in order