We have managed pretty well covering our basic needs over here; shelter- check, clothing - check, and finally......food. Navigating our way through the grocery stores over here has definitely been interesting. Most of the products are packaged in Polish, of course, so we oftentimes aren't sure if we are buying sour cream or cottage cheese. In addition, the stores are organized a bit differently than they are in the states. And, finally the availability of grocery products here is quite different than at home.
We have found the availability of different items pretty random. In general it is rare to find the same quantity of processed, packaged, or pre-made food items in the grocery store. This has led to us expanding our culinary skills. For example, we LOVE hummus and eat it with veggies all the time. After an exhaustive search for hummus, we were out of luck. So, we got inventive and made our own from a recipe we found online. Our homemade hummus is better than any store bought version and we can customize it to make it extra garlicky. If you want the recipe, just let us know! We are looking forward to continuing to cook more at home.
The latest "food" to hit Poland is Oreos. They are being advertised everywhere around the city and we even saw them being sampled at a grocery store here over the weekend. Tom asked his colleagues what they thought about them and more than one commented that they were too sweet and disgusting. ; ) This reaction is not surprising considering most foods here have much less sugar than their U.S. counterpart....peanut butter, jelly, cookies, etc. are much less sweeter over here.
Meat, including chicken breasts and deli meat can only be purchase at the deli counter in some stores here. So, it has been very interesting looking at the various meats and picking the right one. Fortunately, we have figured out the Polish words for Chicken, Turkey and Ham. And, we have a standard phrase "pou kilo" which means half a kilo...which equals just over one pound. So, we point to what we want and tell the lady "pou kilo". Pork is a huge staple here in Poland so it is quite easy to find a variety of ham, bacon, pork chops, and pork tenderloin...which Tom loves. : ) Fish also seems to be more widely available over here.
Since a couple people have asked, yes, they do have large "traditional" U.S. type grocery stores over here. But, if you prefer, you can go to the market for your produce, the butcher for your meat and the bakery for your bread. It's nice to see the variety of options for food shopping and both types of stores are used pretty much equally.
The best thing about grocery shopping in Poland is the online grocery delivery service (their version of Peapod). Almost every grocery chain features this service and the greatest part is that their minimum order for free delivery is about $30 USD and they can deliver as soon as 3 hours after you place your order. To top it all off, the driver does not accept a tip and might not even take it if you try. Many thanks to my friend, Ildi, for showing me the basics on Polish grocery delivery!
