We had Mexican for dinner tonight- and of course, when I say Mexican, like most Americans, I mean Tex-Mex. :) A vital ingredient in any Tex-Mex for me is sour cream. But tonight we had our Tex-Mex- it was nachos- without sour cream. Why? Because there is none to be had! I don't mean just none in our fridge... I mean, there is none to buy. The last two times I have gone to the store(s), there has been no sour cream available, and therefore our fridge has none, and finally, we had to eat incomplete Tex-Mex.
The thing about the grocery stores here in Luanda is that for the most part, they look like normal grocery stores- what you would expect. They are set up in normal grocery store fashion. They have a produce section, a cereal aisle, a baking aisle, a drinks aisle, there's the pasta and canned goods aisles. It's fairly normal.
In the produce section you do have to weigh your goods there. This isn't normal for most American stores, as all that is handled by the cashier at check-out, but, it is standard throughout Europe, and possibly elsewhere. I had to do it in China too, if I remember correctly. The problem in Angola is that the scales are broken often, or jamming the little stickers with the price on them, or there are just so many people shopping and just one lone guy manning the weigh station. Usually when we go shopping Joel just gets right in line and I walk around gathering the produce.
Otherwise, mostly, you could be anywhere. The differences of course pop up in what is actually on the shelf available for you to buy.
There are several stores that we frequent regularly. One, the smallest, is a pricey imported goods store. They import a lot from Portugal, some from the States and I'm sure stuff from other places as well. This is the store where we buy meat, because it is owned by ex-pats and they make sure that their meat stays cool. It is also the place I buy sushi necessities- nori, ginger, rice. Recently it is also the store where I buy most of our fruits and vegetables because the selection they have is the best looking and widest. Until very recently, it used to be the only place where you could get any type of Mexican stuff- tortillas, taco shells, burrito kits, salsa. We pay for it though. That burrito kit will run you about $18 (yes, it's the same one you buy in the States, a well known yellow-boxed brand). The fruit- this week I paid $16 for 4 nectarines. That's $4 a nectarine. Shh, don't tell my husband. :) We used to never buy the fruit from this store, but, after 3 years of looking at it, and especially now that Beni also eats it, I just can't say no anymore. I gotta have it!
This store now runs its own risk though... it's an expensive place to shop, and everyone knows it (we have actually seen people checking out and paying over $1,000 for only one piled high cart worth of stuff). The other day, a woman was robbed at gun point just outside the store. This kind of thing doesn't happen everywhere all the time- don't anyone start worrying about our safety- but it does happen, and expats (especially those with white skin) are definitely a target.
The next store that we go to is a South African store, and therefore gets all of its items from South Africa. It is set up as a supermart, so you can buy toys, car parts, gardening supplies, dishes, etc plus all your food in one place. Mostly this store isn't bad, except that it has cheaper prices and is therefore ALWAYS full. The lines are always long, and they play really loud inappropriate music (think rap with explicit lyrics, etc) so it can be an overwhelming experience. But we get basics there- some veggies, napkins and toilet paper, rice and pasta, flour and sugar when they have it. My husband buys his ever important supply of Coke from there. One other downside to this place is that is does not keep up cleanliness standards that we might hope for. It's not unusual to see roaches there. If the flour supply lasts on the shelf for too long, it is bound to have bugs in it when you bring it home. We've also seen mice. The worst thing for me is the blood on the floor. I don't know what it is they do, or don't do, when they package their meat, but, it is all too common for there to be trails of blood all along the floor- obviously drip, drip, dripped throughout the store from someone's cart. I'm not usually very squeamish about meat or blood- but, the blood on the floor is dirty, it stinks after a while, and it's just plain gross. Bleh.
The last store that we have just recently started going to only recently opened. It is also a supermart, and it is, right now, very nice. It is clean, airy, spacious, bright and not too full of people. They also have some stuff that you can't get elsewhere- for instance, they have a whole section of yellow-box brand Mexican stuff from the States. They have much more of a variety of items though which has been awesome. They carry tortilla chips of the variety that I am used to and also salsa. The salsa costs $10 a jar, but, last time I bought 3. Recently they also had brown sugar, which I snapped up instantly, even though I had some in my cupboard back home.
You may wonder why I buy these things in bulk, or when I already have them... that is the kicker about shopping here in Angola. Things appear on the shelves, and they last for a while, maybe, but they disappear and stay gone for much longer than they were there in the first place. I imagine it is simply the fact that everything is imported, and comes from fairly far away, and has to sit in customs for months... you just can't count on anything still being there when you want it to be.
One example that pained me was tinned artichoke hearts. At the beginning of this school year (so in August) the import grocery store had tins of artichoke hearts for the first time that I had ever seen. I bought several at a time for weeks- I stockpiled a few but also used them because I loooove artichoke hearts! By the time October rolled around the artichokes were all bought out. I ended up bringing a few tins back with me in my luggage after our October holiday in Cape Town, South Africa. Alas, those all got used up months ago, and I've had no artichoke hearts since I was in Australia at Christmas time.
Complaining about the lack of tinned artichoke hearts might make me seem a bit snobby and ridiculous, but I could also tell you about the time when we went about 2 months without eggs, or the time we went without flour for a whole semester, or the time when there was no sugar for about a month. It sucks when something you really like suddenly appears, and then disappears again...but, it is definitely worse when one of the most basic staples is gone. I remember that period without eggs... it was awful! I remember when one of the supermarts finally got eggs in- word spread like wildfire, and then there we all were buying up whole flats of them!
Coming back full circle to the sour cream now... when we moved to Angola we came from a land of dairy. Latvia loves its dairy products and the selection never leaves you wanting (well, except maybe in the ice cream dept...). So I was used to not just being able to get sour cream, but to have it coming out my ears, in several different varieties. That was nice for me, because sour cream might just be my favorite condiment. I love it with Mexican (I could have tortilla chips, salsa and sour cream AS dinner), I love a dollop in a brothy soup and on pancakes- especially potato pancakes. I love it on potatoes of any sort. I just like sour cream, ok. But when we first came here, I was sure I was going to have to find a new favorite condiment because I never saw any in the stores. A couple of months after we moved here, I remember finally saying something about it to a friend who had been here a year longer than us, and she said,"Sour cream? You can get it here!" But see, there hadn't been any on the shelf for months! It did eventually show up, and for as much as you can stockpile a food with an expiry date, I did. But alas, I did not stockpile enough the last time I saw it, for tonight we ate nachos with black beans, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, black olives, avocado, salsa and chicken for Joel... but no sour cream.
So that's our shopping experience... when it's good, it's good...when it's bad, it's out of stock, crawling with bugs or dripping blood. What about you? Do you enjoy grocery shopping? What are your highlights and lowlights of the shopping experience?
