Grocery shopping is something I use to take for granted. Walking down the aisles, knowing where everything was located, and not even needing to glance twice at the labels, those where the good days.
I am here to tell you future expats (and you current expats know what I am talking about!) that once you move abroad grocery shopping is a whole other ballgame. Every time I step into the store it feels like I am on a mini mission and I have to overcome the challenges to succeed, like a game show, just not as fun.
It took some time but I feel like I finally have gotten the hang of grocery shopping in Iceland. So to celebrate my accomplishment of mastering grocery shopping abroad (trust me this needs celebrating) lets take a look back at a few of my not so finest moments in the grocery store.
The Baker’s Yeast Mission
One morning, during the early days of my expat life, I finally had convinced myself to leave the house (aka my safety zone) and venture to the grocery store. I was feeling annoyed by the fact that I had to ask H for help with every last thing and I was determined to go to the store and find what I needed all on my own.
First thing on the list, baker’s yeast.
I headed down aisle after aisle until I discovered what looked like the baking section. There had to have been ten different types of packages that could have been yeast, awesome.
And to add to my difficulty they were labeled in not just Icelandic, but German, Danish, Swedish, basically all languages but English.
My solution to this problem was of course not asking someone who worked at the store, oh no, my solution was to buy three different kinds and test it out.
I went home and got to work on making my bread, proud of myself for my grocery store success. My plan of attack was to chose a package, add it to the dough and go from there.
Well, I ended up using all three types of “baker’s yeast” I had bought, and finally on my third attempt the dough rised.
I didn’t say anything to H at first about my three attempts at making dough with three different types of “baking yeast”. That is until we were eating my freshly baked bread and I started busting out laughing and had to admit what I had done, and show him the other things I had bought.
Since H is super fancy and speaks Swedish and a bit of German (and here I am trying to master one language!) he checked out what I had bought. Turns out my other two attempts of making dough had been done with a powder for making juice and some type of gelatin, no wonder my dough wasn’t rising.
The Soy Milk Mission
This was one of my first Icelandic bloopers and I am reminded of it every time I buy soy milk.
One morning I went to make my coffee when I realized I had used the last of my almond milk. This was a requirement for my coffee so I told H I was going to walk quickly to the store to get some. I shooed away his offer to come along, I could figure it out myself, how hard can it be.
Hard.
I headed towards the dairy aisle and easily found almond milk thanks to the clear packaging that didn’t require much translation. But when I saw the price I almost dropped the carton on the ground. So I made a new mission, find a cheaper option.
The first thing that came to my mind was soy milk. I started looking around the aisle and saw a carton that said súrmjólk, which to me looked pretty close to soy milk. So in my cart it went and I gave myself a little pat on the back.
When I got home I proudly held up my súrmjólk to show H how successful I was on my own. H fought a laugh as best he could while he informed me that my first attempt to purchase something on my own had resulted in me buying sour milk, a sour yogurt type product, which was very much not soy milk. I got an A for effort at least.
The Canned Tomatoes Mission
This happened just a few weeks ago, so I guess I don’t have grocery shopping completely mastered.
I had just returned from the store with all the ingredients I needed to make chili. These were all items I had purchased before so it so was an easy shopping trip where I actually knew where everything was.
As I was making the chili I opened the first can of diced tomatoes, one that was a brand I had used before. No problem. Then I opened the second can, which was a new to me brand of diced tomatoes since the store was out of the kind I usually buy, and poured it in.
Wait, was that a chunk in there… What just came out of that can?!
With further investigation I realized that whole tomatoes where in the new brand of diced tomatoes I had purchased, umm I didn’t even know this was a thing!
I did let out a sigh of relief though when I realized it was still a tomato. I mean when some large chunk falls out of your canned goods it is a bit worrisome. I will be sticking with my normal brand of diced tomatoes from now on.
The Baking Soda Mission
Last Christmas I had been in Iceland about a month and wanted to make some cookies. Having just moved in with H, who had a pantry lacking any baking ingredients, a trip to the grocery store was necessary.
Our grocery store trip was going just fine and I easily was able to find all the items on my list. That is until we came to baking soda.
Me to H: Okay the last thing I need is baking soda, what is that called in Icelandic?
H: Baking soda, what is that?
K: You know, it is the white powder you put into things when you are baking.
H: Oh like powdered sugar
K: No, it isn’t sweet, it is something that makes baked goods rise.
H: So like flour?
K: We are never going to find it are we
I mean have you ever tried to describe baking soda to someone? Let me just say it is really difficult!
Long story short, this conversation continued for some time, we wandered up and down the baking aisle for far to long, I finally made H call his mom to describe it to her, and one minute after that we found matarsódi (baking soda) and finally ended our baking soda mission!
Oh expat life, you are one big blooper reel. If you couldn’t tell already by my first Icelandic blooper reel post, Icelandic totally frazzles me, even when I am shopping!
Question of the Day?
Have you ever gone shopping in a foreign country? What products have you accidentally bought?
