A couple days after arriving, I thought “why did I pack these useless CLOTHES? We need familiar FOOD!”<\/p>\n
Things will improve once we get a permanent location…because I won’t rent anywhere that doesn’t have a good-sized grocery nearby. For now, we’re in the City, in the middle of the banking district. The shops cater to business types zipping in and out to grab a bite; they carry few basic ingredients. It was comical trying to get the man (admittedly a non-native English speaker) to understand that we wanted cinnamon. You know, cinnamon? The powdery spice? For my kids to put on their porridge in the morning? Never mind.<\/p>\n
My\u00a0unconventional grocery shopping habits make my frustration worse. I like to do a huge ($300) shopping trip every few weeks, stocking up on items on steep discount, buying few items at full price. I kept a rather full pantry. When organic raisins went on sale, I bought not two boxes, but twelve. I gave away loads of food when we moved because 6 weeks was nowhere near enough time for us to eat our stockpile.<\/p>\n
Now I’m pining for simple things…salsa, refried beans, and tortillas. Peanut butter in large jars. Whole grain crackers. Parmesan cheese for pasta. Plain raisins, not a fancy gourmet mix. Bags of frozen vegetables I can add to dinner at the last minute.<\/p>\n
I’m buying convenience foods because they’re all I can get — not one huge tub of yogurt plus frozen berries to add, but individual disposable yogurt cups. Bagged salads, not heads. Single serving meat pies. My kids are confused — I never buy this!<\/p>\n
They also don’t appreciate the frequent trips. I fill a cloth bag or two\u00a0(thank goodness I had the presence of mind to pack those in my luggage) daily. Five people eat a lot of food, and I don’t have a large car to fill with two weeks worth of groceries. The kids are getting tired of the trips to the three different nearby markets. And I really have to go to them all on different days — each carries a slightly different selection, and the kitchen cupboards are empty.<\/p>\n
We never eat out this much, either. I just can’t come up with much dinner variety from these markets. But eating out is so EXPENSIVE. Makes me feel like a tourist.<\/p>\n
The only thing we really love about the local Marks & Spencer Simply Food is the 7:00 hour, when the staff goes through marking down everything that needs to be sold that day, especially baked goods. I came home with a big bag of bread and pastries last night — enough for dessert, breakfast, snack, and lunch today. And we still have a whole grain loaf to enjoy with our dinner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A couple days after arriving, I thought “why did I pack these useless CLOTHES? We need familiar FOOD!” Things will improve once we get a permanent location…because I won’t rent anywhere that doesn’t have a good-sized grocery nearby. For now, we’re in the City, in the middle of the banking district. The shops cater to … Continue reading “The Quest for Food that Pleases”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1500stitches.org\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1500stitches.org\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1500stitches.org\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1500stitches.org\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1500stitches.org\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/1500stitches.org\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16,"href":"https:\/\/1500stitches.org\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1500stitches.org\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1500stitches.org\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1500stitches.org\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}