This post could well have been titled "Shopping at the hypermarket in the ME". I happened to have my camera at Carrefour yesterday as I was on a mission to gather pix for my British group and trying to kill 2 birds with 1 stone: It's almost Thanksgiving and we need/want a turkey ;-) The places recommended by the chicken supplier at Carrefour are 3 grocery stores I shop at near my house. Naturally, in my own backyard.

Eggs are sold in trays of 24, I think. Again I only see the Arabs buying these, with the rest of us
buying the six-pack carton.

Anyone know why this stuff occupies so many cubic meters? It is white processed cheese.


Bulk area. I like this.


Someone in my British group asked me to explain what seems to be a staple among Brits; Digestives:


Self-explanatory and odd to see the word Christmas everywhere:


The flat escalator makes it easy to grocery shop at the malls where a hypermarket is the typical anchor:


Headed back to the suburbs of Manama. My exit is the second to last on the way to Saudi Arabia from the island~country of Bahrain; right after the blue kiosk. Autobahn style driving is the norm but I keep up with the speed demons. To not do so is dangerous actually.

Loved that, OPK. Wow. And it is funny, your market pictures, both in the open market and in the supermarket, if it weren't for the Arabic, could have been taken here in Mexico.

I always have to remind myself, even after eleven years here, that 1 kilo is about 2 pounds. So when I ask for half a kilo, I am getting a pound of stuff. And if you want half of a half, you slice the air horizontally in front of you with your hand to indicate 'half' of a half of a kilo.

In the mercado or with the street merchants and their scales, you have to whine a bit when they weigh out a kilo, because of course, all their scales are not accurate, and NOT in the customer's favor either. So if you whine, they add more produce and give it to you for the price of a kilo, which might even bring it up to almost a full kilo. LOL Oh, yeah, we have a Department of Weights & Measures which is supposed to check the scales. yeah, yeah, yeah. Suuuuurrrrre they do.

All the little mom & pop stores here carry the staples, and you can buy one egg, if you wish, and tiny quantities of this and that.

Great pictures! You can almost smell the spices in the 4th pictures! It reminds me of all the fragrances in the "suks" in Turkey or North Africa. When living abroad, I think food can sometimes be the most frustrating (not finding what you need, missing your prefered foods) as well as the more interesting (exploring, finding new things, etc.) part of the experience.

All the scenes were indoor ones, Marti, even tho I agree they look outdoor and yes
Sylvie I agree with your point. Every time I do big grocery shopping I make it a point
to buy something I have never tried. It's the only way to know since my tastes are different
than others'. Shopping is another adventure for me. Actually I didn't have to move out of
the states to find adventure. For some reason things just happen ;-)
Thanks for the comments, btw. I will post more for those interested. (diff subjects) opk

I live in Malaysia and I can totally relate to your shopping for food situation. I just go ahead and buy the flat of eggs (24ct.) because they are usually the freshest. They store well in the fridge and then I don't have to buy them again for two weeks. Unfortunately, some of those " smells " Sylvie mentions actually stink over here cause they are those little dried fish with bones they put in everything they eat here. I much prefer the spicy smells of the middle east souks and the pazars of Turkiye.

The mention of jackfruit in this post reminded me of our days in SE Asia and the fascination with durian, another exotic fruit, foul smelling but delicious to eat if you can imagine that. It smells like rotten oily sulphur gas but tastes great. You have to do it to understand.

While in the Philippines in the beginning, my wife used to go alone to the "wet market" for our fruits and veggies so she could select what she thought was the best stuff. But we quickly learned that some of the vendors charged foreigners more, so my wife sent our housegirl to buy the fruits and veggies.

There were plenty of western style supermarkets in the metro Manila area. Excellent local pork and chicken, beef a tad dicey.

Great photos. I shop at the Carrefour here in Colombia and it looks very similar in many aspects except nothing is written in English here. Also here I could never get a photo without people in it, the stores are always packed beyond belief.

Thanks! So you have Carrefours there? I had no idea it was so far-flung and had never heard of the mega store chain until last year in Saudi. I was shopping mid afternoon right before the mad Arab rush and that's why it looked empty. Plus I waited until I was alone to snap the pix.

They're about to celebrate Big Eid and then during (recent) Ramadan it was crazy. Lots of commotion with people grabbing crates of fruit, sweets and dates acting like the world was ending. Then driving like idiots to get home in time for Iftar feast at sunset. It's so ridiculous that Saudi Aramco has commercials imploring people to not over-eat after Ramadan fasting. They recommend eating a few dates first to ward off the binges at sunset and beyond really. Our next door neighbors were up till past 3 every night in their dining room.

Gorilla, what is Jackfruit anyway? Here it's already cut and packaged in trays.

Jackfruit is a tropical fruit, grows on trees, is rather large, maybe the size of a football with a spiny outer skin. I doubt if its cousin, durian, is ever cut into sections, put on trays and packaged.

If you wanr a really good description, Google SE Asia fruits, "mangosteen, jackfruit and durian".