Let's talk about food. This is probably going to be a recurring subject, just so you know. Amman thankfully has a lot of options for food shopping when you are sick of eating pita bread and scooping up various mezze (hummus, tabouleh, tomatoes, lebneh--like cream cheese). One of them is Safeway! As far as I know, it's the same chain that we have in the US.
I went to Safeway for the first time this summer and I can tell it will be awesome to have while I'm here for a year. They have a lot of harder to find American brands because sometimes you just need some chips and queso! My favorite part of the shopping excursion was using my reusable bags because I knew it'd be a heavy load and dragging 20 small plastic bags into a cab would be harder than it needed to be. The checkout clerk had no idea what they were and kept looking for a price tag. I finally explained by saying, "These bags ares stronger than the plastic ones." She thought I was funny (which I guess I was) but was really nice about it and that's all I ask for!
The place where I do most of my bulk shopping is at the giant Carrefour in City Mall. It is gi-normous (think Super Walmart size) and has pretty much everything I could ever want. I had a fun time going down every aisle to remember what they do and don't have for the future. I think it's interesting to see what kinds of foods they offer as an indication of some of the immigrant or expat communities in Amman. There was a large Asian food section (a majority of domestic workers here are from Southeast Asia) as well as a huge pasta and pizza section for the miscellaneous expats and (surprisingly) a large Mexican food section for us Americans (so I like to think).
It is also interesting to see the blend of European, Western, and Turkish brands on the shelves and to see what products make it from each place (a lot of American junk food, French coffee and cookies, and Turkish crackers and pretzels). I even found some fun prepared Tunafish "styles": Thousand Island, Indian Curry, and Mediterranean (I was too scared to buy the "American" flavor).
4 comments:
I can't believe you didn't try the "American" flavor! I think it would be a learning experience to discover what the rest of the world thinks "American" tastes like. :)
Hahaha I've actually been having shopper's remorse! Next time I go to this store, I'll grab a tin and try it. My guess is it will be tunafish mixed with ketchup but time will tell!
Hey Lindsey!! Its Karina! can you see about sneaking one of those Indian Curry tuna fish cans back to the states! those look mighty good..hehehe :) Hope you are having a great time!!
Hahahaha, I will look for one next time I go to Carrefour :)
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