Despite all the pics of restaurant food, we actually try to eat healthy and cook at home the majority of the time. This means a lot of grocery shopping. We try to do it when Ellie is at school so she doesn’t get bored and also so we can use the extra stroller space to carry groceries home (we don’t have a scooter or car). Here is a pic of us walking home, stroller full of our weekly groceries.
In general, the differences in grocery shopping here from back home all point to one thing: Asia seems geared towards fresher food and less overall consumption.
Naturally, my conclusion is mainly based on Oreos. When I buy a pack of Oreos in the states, they don’t make you wait to consume the entire box. Just peal back the opening and go to town.
Here, they are packaged individually with 3 in each bundle. This is such a pain when all I want to do is eat an entire box of Oreos after a long day. I mean, opening 9 packages is just too much work to eat 27 cookies. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still something I will do, but I’ll be angry about it as I do it.
Seriously though, no one here does bulk shopping (outside of a few big grocery stores such as Costco, Carrefour, or Dollars). There is little need as there are dozens of small grocery stores at each city corner.
In fact, we’ve never seen anyone stuff as much in these tiny carts as we have personally. We often wonder why no one is buying more than a few items….do they eat out every day? The best we can tell is that they just shop more often. This would make sense since they’re everywhere, and you’d get the freshest fruits and veggies (and fewer processed and frozen foods). Most foods come in smaller packaging/quantities such as milk, eggs, and chips.