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The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

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Re: The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

#21

Post by escapecharacter »

mikeholler wrote: post #3

I've been telling friends and family this for years. It's by far my favorite thing to see in a new city in a region I've never been before. It's sort of like a modern anthropological exhibit in more ways than any other single city structure. There was a photography coffee table book I loved, where the artist took pictures of an entire family around their table, which had all of the food they ate for a week on it. I'v…

I’ve been saying the same! Also, when you go to corner stores, you can see what the locale considers “high priority items”

Re: The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

#22

Post by kurthr »

PascLeRasc wrote: post #18

Spanish grocery stores are incredible, you really get a feel for the tapas culture. Everyone stops by after work just to get their late afternoon meal/snack and breakfast for tomorrow. You can't go wrong with any of the I was in Kyoto a few months ago, and wandering through the Kyoto Co-op grocery was super fun. So many kinds of green tea I had never heard of, and again, there's a sense of the Japanese minimalist coo…

If you're in Tokyo (Taito City), go see Kappabashi Dogu-gai or Chef's Street. It has an amazing collection of cookware, dining sets, chairs, signs, place mats, cooking knives, and plastic food.

Re: The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

#26

Post by [deleted] »

davidw wrote: post #14
lanrh1836 wrote: post #13

I would say farmers market even more so than a grocery store, though I usually do both. Ironically I also love going to foreign McDonalds. Always fun to see what local items they have.

> foreign McDonalds. Always fun to see what local items they have. That's a good point. It's funny for Americans to see beer there, in, say, Europe.

[deleted]

Re: The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

#27

Post by jschwartzi »

diablerouge wrote: post #17

I'm not in a position to do much traveling right now, but I get my kicks visiting small foreign markets here in the United States. Some things you can't get anywhere else, and it's always fun to see what things are considered Staples for different cultures. For example, I have found that the Russian markets have the best pickles and bread, and the Vietnamese markets have an awesome deli and really good produce, and t…

I buy all my spices from regional markets. There's a Halal market west of my girlfriend's place which is where I buy my fenugreek and olive oil because his prices per gallon are very reasonable, and he actually stocks fenugreek unlike every single other store I've been to in the area. And if I need MSG I go to the asian market because I can buy it for $2.00/lb.

Re: The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

#28

Post by rcpt »

qychtkd wrote: post #8

Libraries are also a good way to tour a city. Get a transit card from a grocery store or a convenient store (also a lotto ticket because you never know). Start with the main branch, then on to the various neighborhood branches. It’s important to pick a section you are interested in beforehand. Fiction might be too overwhelming, so I’d go for the math or computer technology sections. Once you’ve done this in multiple…

Cemeteries to

Re: The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

#30

Post by forinti »

js2 wrote: post #24

It seemed like when I was in Italy I was the only American who knew not to look for eggs in the refrigerator. But that didn't help me when a cashier got impatient with me for not having weighed my produce in advance. Who knew?

In Colombia I found it (very!) strange that meat was not displayed in a refrigerator.

I've never seen eggs being sold from refrigerators though.

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