Crews Letter #2004 09 To Market, To Market, to Buy ? ? ?

Return to the Crews Page

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen:

One of the interesting challenges of cruising is provisioning in language and culture you don’t understand. For starters, you don’t find much pork in Turkish markets: 90% Moslem, 5% Jewish. There are Supermarkets in the large cities that look and smell a lot like Krogers. But the similarities end. How things are organized in a market is a cultural statement. What goes with what and how many varieties of something says a lot about where it comes from and how it is used. At the marina supermarket at Yat Marine, Marmaris, Turkey, there is a whole row of olive oils. Over forty varieties depending on type of olive, region and squeezing, in no less than five different sizes. Turkish chefs must know as much about olives as a French sommelier knows about grapes. It is the same in most Turkish and Greek markets. Here, in Croatia, three types in two sizes. What else could you want?

Where do you look for corn starch? Argo means corn starch in the US. If you’re an American and you know what corn starch is, you know the Argo box. It isn’t here. What about baking powder? Nope, Calumet isn’t here either. Canned tomatoes come in boxes. So does milk, cream, tomato sauce, orange juice and most other breakfast juices. The Kellogg’s cereal box is printed in 16 different languages. Old El Paso Taco Shells are made in Belgium and not available everywhere. Taco Shells and pancake syrup are on the international counter if they are there at all.

Diet Coke is not available in Europe. Look for Coca Cola Light. And as you might suspect Pepsi is here and the cola wars rage.

Pictures on packages really are a good idea for the language impaired. It is almost impossible to distinguish between olive oil and vinegar unless there is an olive on bottle. Numbers are good. 33% on a container of white stuff in the dairy case is probably full fat yogurt. A strawberry on the yogurt container probably means there is fruit with the white stuff. Pasta, bread, pickled beets, mayonnaise, and most preserves are easy. A clear cellophane package or glass jar does wonders for knowing what you are getting. Beware; there are ways to pickle small cucumbers that make them totally inappropriate for a hamburger. Best of luck, there is a McDonald’s here in Pula. The names are not quite the same, but there must be only one picture in the world for a Big Mac. Did you ever get a Big Mac that looked like the picture? Ketchup and mustard can be a bit tricky. There are some spices that can put ketchup and Tabasco in the same class. There are mustards that are medicinal.

Not every butcher behind the counter speaks English. Well, duh, this isn’t England and groceries aren’t exactly a tourists industry. In Greece, Fred resorted to “oink, oink” to be sure we were getting pork and not lamb or beef. He also did a “cluck, cluck” for chicken. At first the butcher was a bit put off. But when he saw the humor of the moment, silly American, he had a laugh and then shouted across the market to the cashier, “oink, oink, cluck, cluck” and some Greek that we didn’t understand. As we checked out the cashier did an “oink” here and “cluck” there.

The easiest and often most pleasant place to shop is the produce market. What you see is what you get. And at mid summer, the variety, the quality and the prices are superb. We just got back from such a market in Pula. Beside the open air area for fruits, vegetables and flowers was a large arcade for fish, meat, poultry and dairy products. As we unloaded and put away corn, nuts, lettuce, tomatoes, bananas, mushrooms, onions, kiwi, nectarines, carrots, lemons, strawberries, beef, pork and chicken cutlets, Phyl asked, “Do you think we got too much?” It’s possible. Fortunately, Perception has a good freezer and we have a good appetite.

There is too much food in the galley. Let’s go to McDonalds for lunch.

Ease the sheet, please,

Phyl & Fred

<<Previous ^Crews Page^ Next>>