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

nymag.com

31–40 of 94 posts

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

#31
post #9

As a kid the differences between Canadian and American grocery stores was amazing. Especially chocolate bars. Not so different anymore, aside from the prevalence of corn based sweeteners.

You still can’t get Mr. Big in American grocery stores.

Or Kinder Surprise eggs [0]. No problems going to Walmart to pick up a firearm though...

[0] https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/feat...

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

#32
post #16

Yes! Walking into a grocery store is one of the best things about traveling. It is one of the few genuine everyday activities that are easily available to a tourist, but is going to be quite different to what you’re used to from home, sometimes in surprising ways. Hopefully this will not disappear entirely as brands and chains become more and more homogenized across the world. One of the saddest examples of this is h…

A more pragmatic take when looking for a place to move to: checking out the local grocery store will tell you everything you need to know about that area.

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

#33
post #16

Yes! Walking into a grocery store is one of the best things about traveling. It is one of the few genuine everyday activities that are easily available to a tourist, but is going to be quite different to what you’re used to from home, sometimes in surprising ways. Hopefully this will not disappear entirely as brands and chains become more and more homogenized across the world. One of the saddest examples of this is h…

Candy and pastry still seem to be mostly unique in every country.

Always a joy - or at least a surprise :) - to try the local snack in a new place!

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

#34

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.

>Ironically I also love going to foreign McDonalds.

I make a point of getting a McDonalds cheeseburger in every country I visit. Austria has the best meat (Germany the worst). Poland tasted like Australia (my home) and the UK burger was the most plastic like. Italy, UAE, and Hong Kong all deviate quite a bit from the "regular" menu but I visited the latter two at the airport so maybe they are outliers.

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

#35
If you are interested in more genuine experiences in the countries you visit I recommend learning at least 100 words in the local language. It's a pretty low bar, but it will take you a long way! Some of my most memorable holiday moments have been over some fumbled german or trying to build a sentence out of my very limited Japanese vocab.

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

#36
post #14

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.

It's also weird to see lots of "vices" (beer, cigarettes, condoms, etc) in vending machines on the street. Like, when I was in Italy I saw kids buying beer and cigarettes and no one seemed to care!

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

#37
post #6

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…

The book you're thinking of is probably Hungry Planet[1] [1] https://menzelphoto.photoshelter.com/gallery/Hungry-Planet-F...

Yes! This is it. Thank you!

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

#38
post #16

Yes! Walking into a grocery store is one of the best things about traveling. It is one of the few genuine everyday activities that are easily available to a tourist, but is going to be quite different to what you’re used to from home, sometimes in surprising ways. Hopefully this will not disappear entirely as brands and chains become more and more homogenized across the world. One of the saddest examples of this is h…

> [...] nearly every brand of ice cream in Europe became part of Unilever’s ugly “Heartbrand” in the late ‘90s. Now anywhere you go, you will just be offered the same Magnum, Solero, Cornetto

This is true, but a bit of an exaggeration.

In the UK and Scandinavia, many small dairies are producing nice ice creams which you can buy in regular supermarkets.

In fact, a favorite thing of mine is trying to find said ice creams without any gelling agents (carrageenan, gum, etc.) which are really harsh to gut biota. There are quite a few.

Obviously, Unilever's is not one of them.

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

#39

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.

I love doing this too as a fun diversion.

The McCroquettas and patatas bravas in Spain are my latest favorite.

And since McDonald's adapted their breakfast menu to the Middle East a few years ago I'm still astonished by how closely they managed to make their chicken-based ham taste like real pork ham.

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

#40
I'm glad I'm not alone in this! you can tell so much from a grocery store, and it's something I always do. People commented that It's odd, but nothing is better than local selection and too many people really value "experience" over price.

I don't care if you can get the same item from the company in it's fancy downtown store, or a few blocks away at the grocery store. It don't really matter and becomes a tourist trap.

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