I have no great pearls of wisdom like the
fine author of this site, merely some experience of going supermarket cold
turkey. From having absolutely
everything on my doorstep and passing 1 supermarket, 3 mini supermarket and a
garage owned by a supermarket in my 5 minute journey home from work, I now find
that the closest thing to a supermarket is 500km west of my current abode. As you can see, my commitment to avoiding
supermarkets has been rather more down to circumstance than choice.
However, what I lack in ample, brightly lit
aisles, festooned with whatever your heart desires I have more than made up for
in a broadening repertoire of home cooked goods and a mild sense of smugness
that I am making healthier food choices on a daily basis, and whilst my
waistline is yet to see the benefits I’m sure that is soon to follow!
In place of veg aisles I have a daily
market at the bottom of my road. The
colours and sounds of the women selling their freshly picked vegetables and
haggling over prices is a much welcomed change (once you’ve got used to it!) to
the bland concrete setting back home, the whining children and wonky trollies. At first I was going to say it takes a lot
more thinking about but that is not so.
You can’t think too much about what you are going to buy because
there is no guarantee what will be there.
Instead, I head down with an open mind and an empty bag and hope to
return with it full to the brim.
Yesterday I managed to get some of the most magnificent chillies,
onions, carrot, enormous sweet potatoes, large potatoes, garlic, tomatoes,
oranges, freshly baked bread and quite excitingly cabbage! I never knew I would be quite so excited
about cabbage either! (Some of the
tomatoes turned out to be a little grotty but I should have checked them a
little more carefully.)
So for tea, a delicious thai-style coconut
broth. Hadn’t seen that on the cards
when I went to the market that evening!
Most things seem to be bought at least by
the kilo. Being used to my little jars
of herbs and spices conveniently packaged I am reluctant to go for a full kilo
of ginger! On one of our shopping trips
we asked the lady if we could buy one root and she looked at us as though we
were crazy. Handed it to us and then
waved us, and our money, away. Clearly,
we were not worth her time or effort with such small amounts! Nevertheless, should anyone wish to buy in
bulk, I would recommend her quality produce!
For more cupboard staples, it generally
involves a trip to Harar or Dire Dawa where you can get pretty much everything
but is at least 40mins on a busy line taxi.
When it comes to shopping here very little is convenient, even quick food such as rice, pasta and lentils need to be picked through before cooking - for fear of breaking a tooth on a rogue stone or the added roughage of a bug. The ease at which I formerly went into the supermarket and picked up a ready meal, pizza or pasta and sauce had forced me into a little food rut. Now I’m being shoved out of this rut and into a growing range of vegetarian dishes. I myself am not a vegetarian. This is possibly one of the major drawbacks to life without supermarkets. I miss the wide variety of meat and the ease at which you can select it. I’m gradually building up my confidence to head to the meat shack and get them to hack off a slab for me but I am not there yet.
I am forgetting of course all the other
bits and pieces offered in supermarkets that are not food related. There
are many options for this and part of the enjoyment is finding these items in
the most unlikely of places. Toiletries
can be bought from a little girl who has a shop in a wall, artificial apple
trees can be bought from the local market, sunglasses and curtain ties are sold
side by side from street vendors. The
supermarket on campus – which I don’t really think counts as it’s more like a
corner shop and certainly doesn’t carry the name of any of the trading giants
you will be used to - seems to go into party goods in a big way! I’m very much looking forward to the next
occasion where I can buy a glittery top hat or birthday visor. Alternatively, decorate a cake with giant
candles and sparklers in every shade and hue.
Most of all I’m looking forward to buying their supply of snow spray and
decorating every available surface for Christmas. It’s amazing the things you can find that you
didn’t even know you needed until they were offered to you! Maybe it is more like a regular supermarket
than I thought!
Helen has her own website about her life in Ethiopia.
http://heleninharamaya.wordpress.com/
