Grocery Shopping

Happily, grocery shopping is much the same, with a few interesting differences.

We found a couple of really nice stores that are major chains here, Sainsbury and Morrison. A lot of similarities, both brightly lit and very clean with good selection.

They sell beer, wine and hard liquor in the store.
Eggs are not refrigerated and they are separated by "free range" and "barn", they are all brown, and the packages are mixed in size. No 'extra large' or 'small' like the states.

Cheese seems much more popular here, there is very little of what we call 'packaged' cheese (Eg. pre-sliced) but entire aisles of cheeses, many I've never heard of and I used to work in a cheese shop. It's really fresh and good too, Shirleen put some in a salad the other day and it was fantastic.

Fish is also big and the variety is amazing. An entire aisle of just fresh fish.

We are always encountering things we've never heard of. Tonight's candidate is "rumbledethumps" which (according to the package) is a Scottish dish containing potato, cabbage and cheese. It looks like sort of a casarole. (nope, didn't buy it)

Lots of lamb on the meat aisle, obviously the English raise sheep.

Indian food is very popular. Indian restaurants are very common, also referred to as 'Curry houses.' You see a bunch of packaged Indian food in the grocery store. But you also see Mexican, Italian, and Oriental, just like in the US.

The cashiers all have chairs, they do not stand. And you bag the groceries yourself. I'm still not used to that, it starts to pile up and then I realize, "oh yeah, I'm the bag boy!"