Food and provisioning

June 22, 2014

food/provisions

One of my favorite things to do when I am in a foreign country, or even in a new part of the States, is to shop.  Not necessarily for the sake of getting more stuff but to see what people use in their homes.  The stores provide a window into the lives of the people who live there.  In Mexico the stores are filled with tortillas, rice, beans, oatmeal, masa, salsas, tostadas.  Many items come in small cans or plastic pouches or even small cardboard cartons.  All wonderful for the larder of 2 cruisers with no refrigeration.  Beer is cheap and plentiful, as is tequila.  Wine is less common and more expensive but still not bad.  Boxes of nice California red or white can be had for about $8.  Lots of Mexican cheeses, chicken, fish, shrimp, squid and other seafood but not so much meat.  While we do not like their pastries or cookies, it is possible to buy processed sandwich bread, Orowheat 7 grain for example, that lasts for weeks as long as it is not opened.  There is a lot of fresh fruit, although much of it is so ripe it needs to be eaten the same day.  Limes are sold by the bag and used with everything but you almost never see lemons.  Small stores everywhere sell household items for just a few dollars.  While I have never found a thrift shop there are often street vendors selling what are obviously used American clothes. 

Arriving in the Marqueses after 37 days, obviously our provisions are low and we are ready for fresh fruit and vegetables..  There is an abundance of fresh fruit, although not so many vegetables.  Pamplemouse is an oversized grapefruit without the bitterness, hard to peal but very sweet.  Bananas are everywhere, several different varieties.  Often restaurants will have bunches of bananas hanging on the front porch for people to help themselves.  The stores feature mostly canned food and frozen meat with a strong French influence.  There is cassoulet, couscous, ratatouille, potted meat, dozens of varieties of pate, pickles and olives and sauerkraut and the ubiquitous baguette.  Baguette sandwiches are popular, filled with barbecue or chicken, french fries are put into the sandwich.  There is even a chou mien sandwich.   Even the smallest islands have freezer cases of meat from New Zealand.

Carrefour is the main supermarket chain, similar to Walmart, selling everything from batteries to milk, huge and brightly lit.  Freezer cases are full of whole legs of lam and what looks like the entire lamb or veal.  Not only pate de foie gras but 1 pound bags of the actually liver to make your own.  New Zealand mussels and clams.  Frozen chicken and duck.  Case after case of fresh beef, pork, veal, mutton and chicken but noticeably less fruit and vegetables.  Most of it imported and quite expensive.  There are lots and lots of canned meals, and fewer dried beans, rice, etc.  There is plenty of granola but oatmeal is almost impossible to find, especially the old fashioned kind.  Coffee is either instant or the pods that fit into fancy machines.  What ground coffee there is, is very find grind, not really suitable for our french press coffee maker.  I eventually get out our stove top expresso pot and enjoy a very strong cup with the  morning baguette.  Very French.  There is, of course, plenty of French wine, most priced at $20 and up for a bottle.  We have been spoiled by “2 buck Chuck” at home.  At these prices on a cruisers budget we no longer polish off an entire bottle with dinner but ration it over several meals.  On the other hand, it is very good wine.   There are 2 brands of beer made in Tahiti and it is possible to get Guinness and Heinekins but if is all about $15 per six pack. 

There are also slabs of fresh red tuna and it is possible to buy quite good sushi in the grocery stores.  On the other hand, there in not a lot of variety of other kinds of seafood.  The piles of clams, squid, shrimp, octopus and smaller fish that were everywhere in Mexico are missing.