Grocery Shopping

I love going to the grocery store. What I love even more than going to the grocery store is going to the grocery store even more in Asia. Going to the grocery store in China required patience, agility and good loud “ai yaaaaah” (the “yaaah” being more drawn out and whiney than karate chop) to let other buyers know that they had just crashed their cart directly into you. Shopping in Korea in one of the larger hyper-marts requires the same skills but after a year and a half of doing it in China, I prefer the smaller ‘marts’ in my neighborhood.

K-mart is literally around the corner from my building. It has all of the basics and even a few western luxuries (you can buy cheap and fairly tasty camembert). I go there pretty much every other day and the days that I’m not there, I’m certain that Kelly is. In fact, I’ll often be grocery shopping and she’ll come wander down an aisle or I’ll be debating instant rice dishes and she’ll magically appear to suggest a good one.

After meeting in the rice aisle, we usually spend a good 20 minutes wandering up and down every other aisle in the mart. Keep in mind, we come here every other day and the entire store is smaller than any Superstore / Loblaws produce section. It’s not that we can’t find what we’re looking for or are confused by Korean labeling (although buying soy sauce and the fear of getting vinegar is often frightening); rather, every time we go, we always seem to find something new or something ridiculous. Take for example the green grapes in a can (Kelly whipped out her cell phone to photograph these) or the maxi pads that have a central core of herbs to avoid odors (what?!).

While wandering around on Thursday night (it was the second time I had been there that day) and looking for treats to bring to my winter camp students, the produce manager came marching up to Kelly and I, handed us both tangerines, smiled and said something loudly in Korean. We smiled, thanked him and went to check out. Both a little confused by this whole production, we both immediately peeled the tangerines and started munching away so as to show our satisfaction. This was complicated by the fact that I was paying for my groceries and trying to bag them at the same time. Meanwhile, the produce manager was beaming at us from across the store quite pleased with himself.

Just another day at the mart.