My Grocery Store – December Challenge post #2

My Grocery Store – December Challenge post #2

For today’s post, let’s take a walk through my grocery store.

It’s more rural where we live, but we are quite fortunate to live very close to a grocery store. It’s (to my knowledge) a local chain. It’s a very short walk, maybe around 5 minutes if you walk quickly.

Walking past the glass doors, you are greeted by the local produce section. The produce is grown by farmers in our region, and sometimes there are even pictures of the farmers themselves on display above their products.

If you look to the right, you’ll see a local goods section – it’s where I get my favorite pickled daikon radish as well as locally made tofu and miso which I will try someday.

Keep walking and there’s the section that includes my favorite kimchi – it’s from Korea and it’s delicious.

There’s the tofu section – soft tofu, firm tofu, fried tofu blocks, and fried tofu pouches. There’s even sesame tofu! Beside that is natto. Yoshi prefers the larger, whole natto. Me – I want to try all the different kinds! But we usually stick to the kind he likes. When I tried something different it… wasn’t so good. He’s usually got a good sense of the best ingredient to buy so I rely on his knowledge. But – sometimes it’s fun to try something new! So we’ll do that too.

Fish is up next – it depends on when you go what’s in stock. We usually go later in the evening, so the selection isn’t as great. Our store is also small so the stock can go quickly too. Yellowtail, salmon, tuna, hoke (I think that’s how it’s spelled)… sometimes shells and shrimp too.

The deli section is next – most of it changes every day. I often get things for Yoshi’s bento here, such as karaage (fried chicken) and katsu (fried cutlets. It makes packing bento in the morning easier!

Meat and poultry, then eggs and dairy… The dairy section is smaller here than in America. Not as much cheese and very rarely do I ever see sour cream. The butter from Hokkaido is expensive and sometimes it’s out of stock!

Finishing up the outside is bottled drinks, liquor and beer, and the section for bread and snacks. We usually get our bread and granola here, since our most typical breakfast is toast along with yogurt with fruit and granola.

In the middle are canned goods and packaged products and frozen foods. As well as a section for foreign foods – I’ve found crispy taco shells and dill pickles here!! I never thought I would be so happy to see those two things but – your perspective changes when you can’t get easy access to the things you grew up with and got used to.

The people who work at the grocery store are so kind and friendly too. Since I go in quite often (it’s easier to buy things as we need rather than stock up – we don’t waste as much food that way!) many of the staff recognize me. And I recognize them too, even with their masks on.

Such a simple thing – going to the grocery store. But for me, it’s a place to explore, to find new things (sometimes), or accept defeat when I can’t get something I want (Where are you butter???). I feel welcomed into the grocery store every time I go.

Heather

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