Grocery tales

I was thinking about my dishwasher salt today (by the way, it was successful - my dishes are clean at last) and I thought of a few more quirky grocery things that are different from the 'States.

• Butter - comes in a big block about the size of two sticks. No helpful measuring lines to cut off just what you need. There are English and Irish varieties, haven't quite sussed out the difference.
• Milk - comes in very small pint containers - the biggest they sell are about half gallon size. Doesn't last very long - maybe 3 or 4 days according to the sell-by and use-by dates.
• Eggs - at the store, they are not refrigerated. Makes it difficult to find them as they are in just a regular aisle.
• Coffee - sucks. No beans to grind (hello, even Carson City has that) and pre-packaged stuff with nice names and labels but tastes like crap. I gave up sampling and now just stick to canned Italian coffees. Tea is where it is at I guess. There are plenty of Starbucks, Costa Coffees, and Cafe Neros though, so getting a cup around town is not a problem.
  
• Beer - sold by the bottle or in 4-packs. Very rarely do I see bigger packages - Stella seems to be the only one going for 12 packs - probably because it is the French answer to Bud.
• Vegetables - are often packaged, like at trader joe's - and don't last very long.
• Muffins - English muffins are just called Muffins. For some reason that always makes me laugh.

I shop generally at Waitrose, which is a kind of fancy, mostly organic store like a Whole Foods or a New Seasons. Occassionally I also got to Sainsbury's, but only if I am in the neighborhood. It seems like there are a lot of organic foods for sale in general, it must be a food craze like it is in Portland.

This last week I finally succumbed to ordering online from Waitrose's brother - Ocado, which I have to admit was a great experience. I found everything I wanted online, picked a time for the order to be delivered, and it showed up perfectly on time. The guy brought the bags all the way up to my flat, and they were neatly sorted in orange and purple bags telling me which needed to be frigerated. I had signed up for it a month or so ago and never ordered, and I got these great marketing things from them acting like a jilted lover, and begging me to come back. It was very cute, but it never worked until I had back spasms and didn't want to carry anything.

As with most big cities, you have to do your shopping once or twice a week - for a couple of reasons. First, you usually have to carry it home yourself, and second, things go bad fast. I have seen big supermarkets in the burbs, like Tesco, that look more like Wal-Mart type experiences, but I am in no hurry to go and check out that shopping lifestyle.