The bewilderment of grocery shopping while living abroad.

The first few times I went grocery shopping in London I spent a lot of time staring blankly at the shelves not recognizing a single brand or label. By now I've made some progress and established some brand habits. Reading while grocery shopping takes too long.

Biscuits (i.e. cookies) were especially challenging to shop for because the British notion of biscuits is completely different than in the U.S. It seems that biscuits are mainly for tea. Consequently they're mostly hard and crunchy, just right for dipping. My favorite are McVities Ginger Nut. I found a weblog called NiceCupOfTeaAndASitDown.com that's sole function is to review biscuits around the world. They are British-based so review most of the major British brands and styles. A very useful resource for someone like me.

A book I'm reading describes the British tea and biscuit routine perfectly as, "austere biscuits dipped in successive cups of tea."

Today I did my grocery shopping on the set of a music video. I guess it was a bit low-budget (although it seemed quite professional), so they couldn't afford to rent out and close down the whole grocery store. The lead singer was wearing a pale blue sweater and walking a small dog down the pasta aisle singing a sample of a song over and over. It was a bewildering thing to stumble upon.

I needed sesame seeds, crushed red pepper flakes, and spaghetti sauce from that aisle.

Young, hip looking guys with walkie-talkies stood around and told us when we could and couldn't pass through. Despite the fact that it was the middle of a week day, the store was fairly full of people. Funny how the video will show a guy in a deserted grocery store when in reality it was full of ordinary people hidden away.

I suppose this is a statement about the entertainment industry in general, "Quick, hide the ordinary people!"

Update, August 1, 2004: the music video is called Dry Your Eyes and it's by The Streets. You can watch the video on the web and a few brief scenes even feature my grocery store.

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