What We Eat

Grocery shopping here is an adventure!  I feel like every week I get more things figured out and we find more things we want to eat.  We are slowly giving up our imported American groceries for more local items.  The trickiest part has been snacks- things like fruit snacks, fruit leathers, granola bars, and string cheese (staples for my kids at home) are nonexistent here or so expensive that they might as well be: a six pack of Nature Valley granola bars is almost $6.00 here.  Kate and Kiki were thrilled when we finally found graham crackers and microwave popcorn.  There were actual cheers.  We have converted to milk in a box.  I have no idea how a dairy product can be made shelf stable, but I just try not to think about it because it tastes fine and costs a lot less.  We have found good crackers- FITA crackers are the favorite- they are kind of like a Ritz only not greasy.  When we found Laughing Cow spreadable cheese it was a happy day, especially because it is cheaper than home.  It was the first grocery item I have purchased that was cheaper here.  It took me 6 weeks to find powdered sugar- I got a little obsessed because it's something I always have at home so even though I don't have anything in mind to make with it, I really felt I should own some.  There is no orange cheese here, unless you count Kraft Singles, which I don't.  I have found a mild white cheddar and a Colby that is good.  The cottage cheese is disgusting unless you spring for the imported brands.  Kiki, who ordinarily loves cottage cheese, has been burned so many times (it took weeks for me to find a decent kind) that she has given it up entirely.  We eat lots of eggs and pasta. Meat departments here are terrifying.  Some look like the meat counters at home, then you realize that there is no glass or refrigeration- the meat is displayed openly in trays and people can serve themselves.  I want no part of purchasing room temperature meat that has been touched by countless unknown hands.  I have found a few places to buy chicken and beef, but I always buy the more expensive cuts- ground sirloin instead of ground beef (too mysterious) and trimmed chicken breasts.  We've also found some acceptable ham, but the bacon is horrifying.  Cold cuts are a pipe dream.  We are trying lots of different fruits and vegetables.  Again, staples from home, like lettuce and apples, are ridiculously expensive (as in $4 for a head of iceberg lettuce) or completely unavailable.  But, we eat cabbage, snow peas, green beans, papayas, bananas, pineapple, pomelos (that's what is in the picture.  It's kind of like a grapefruit but bigger and with no bitterness at all), and mangoes.  I could go on and on about the mangoes.  I realize now I never once had a decent mango at home.  Here is a poem I wrote about mangoes.

There once was a girl who loved mangoes,

She thought they were better than Xango.

She ate one each day

Threw her Xanax away,

And now she just waltzes and tangos.

I really do eat one every day.  Lastly, I would like to write an epistle about Filipino butter.  I never in my life have eaten any butter as perfectly delightful as the Magnolia butter here.  I already know that I when I go home I will miss this butter.    It has amazing flavor, so in turn everything you cook with it has the same flavor.  I have made the best no bake cookies of my life here, thanks to Magnolia butter.

The tricky part is the actual cooking.  My oven is on par with either an EZ Bake or a DI cast-off.  I'm subjected to constant worry about whether or not things will turn out.  My record is about 50-50, and the stress is only increased by the expense of groceries here.  At home if I ruined something I would figure, "Well, that was only $1.50 worth of stuff, so no biggy."  Nothing here is a $1.50, so a ruined dinner is a considerable expense.  I've definitely had to rethink the grocery budget- I spend about double here what I would at home, but there is no way around it.  My new motto is, "If we didn't waste it, it wasn't a waste of money."