Grocery shopping....

I am extremely grateful that there is another Embassy wife here that has been very kind to take me grocery shopping regularly. She has found the Filipino version of Costco, and I got signed up there. (It's a lot cheaper for a yearly membership than in the U.S. Maybe $14 U.S.?)

Milk is a lot more expensive here, and most of it doesn't taste exactly the same. I can get it, but it's double the price we would pay in the U.S., so we're learning to drink a lot less. Cheese isn't a lot more expensive, but it's usually imported from California, and it's harder to find, unless you're at the Filipino Costco. You can get imported ground beef from Montana. It's really sad and tired looking, having had such a long journey, and you should freeze it right way. Poor cow. At least he's very appreciated here. :)

Now, chicken and pork are plentiful, but let's just say that our meat in America looks far less like the original animal it came from than it does here. I put Exhibit A above for your perusal. Seth went to the store with me this week, and he said, "Mommy, is that a pig's leg?" Why yes, it is, sweet son of mine.

This was the first week that I bought fresh meat other than the imported ground beef in plastic. I got pork chops and pork tenderloin and considered myself fully acclimated since I hadn't just bought rotisserie chicken in despair like usual. :)

There are so many different kinds of snacks, chips, and crackers here. We try different kinds every week. I also haven't even begun to dip into the vast well of exotic fruit choices. Maybe I'll get a dragonfruit next week and try to figure out how to cut into it.

Oddly enough, one of the few imported U.S. imported foods that is the same price as in the U.S. are chips. I can buy Frito Lay at U.S. prices, so we may have more chips for snack here than we have in the past.