Sundries and Supplies

I know of five grocery stores and have been to four of them (I have yet to go to the Co-op, mostly because I hate hippies). There are also a variety of specialty food stores: butchers, bakers, and the like (though, as far as I can tell, no candle-stick makers). Though I have been to each of the grocery stores at least twice, and one I frequent about once a week, I still have not quite gotten the hang of grocery shopping in Aberystwyth.

It seems an odd thing to say: get the hang of shopping for groceries. The stores here are completely different than in America, and like anything else that is different, it takes some adjustment. By my mother's house there are four places a person can by groceries that are within a ten minute drive. Five, if you count the grocery section of Target. The Jewel and one of the two Meijers are actually across the street from each other. Two behemoths of food stuffs, spread across the width of a city block, with massive parking lots holding scores of cars. Inside, there are aisles and aisles of all sorts of household related items (even more home goods at the two Meijer stores and the Wal-Mart). The cereal aisle holds dozens of generic and name brand cereals of all sorts; whole bread aisles with a variety of bagels, breads, flat breads, English muffins and the like. Produce sections that require their own area code. If you need anything culinary, so long as it is not too exotic, you can get it at one of the four stores.

Here, the stores are tiny (with the exception of Morrisons, a mighty store at the far south end of town). Today I stopped by the middle sized stores looking for bread, milk and chips (I also got some bacon, which was on sale). The entire grocery store is four aisles wide. Most of the store (and this is true of all but one, and includes Morrisons) is comprised of freezer or refrigerated shelves. It seems that the Welsh really like their frozen, ready made meals. There were two whole freezer chests of take-away style Chinese food, and two other freezer chests of take-away style Indian food. A whole section of frozen pizza, frozen ready made meals, and frozen meal parts. It could be that the store is arranged this way because of the high population of students (and I do notice that my roommates tend to go for the easier to make food).

Nonetheless, I think it's odd that I can't find chicken stock, either boxed or canned. There doesn't seem to be a need to make one's own pan sauces or anything of that nature. The number of ready made sauces I can find is likewise limited. Unless, of course, I buy a frozen ready-made meal. Then, I can get a variety of gravies and sauces.

There has to be a place for a person who likes to cook to find things that he needs to cook. I might have to break down and go to the hippie markets. Sigh...organic, fair-trade goods crammed into a tiny place with constant reminders that my very existence is killing the planet. The things I do for good food.