A Taste of Manila......The Grocery Store

Many have asked whether there are "different" things for sale in our grocery store. The area we live in certainly does cater to the western shopper and has specific shelving where you will find high priced reminders of homelands around the world such as the US, Canada, England, France, Japan, etc. Aside from that there are certainly many different items to choose from and different ways of approaching the sale of food. I thought this may provide a little bit of entertainment to your week.......

The Grocery Store and Pharmacy - Observations and Oddities

1. The general rule we live by is "if you see it and would like to have it at any time in the future it is best to buy it immediately as you will likely never see it again"
2. When you purchase fresh vegetables such as carrots, zucchini, beans, etc you must take your produce to a central area where a nice young girl weighs it and places it in a bag with a barcode attached. This adds a lot of time as there is only one girl and a line of people with armfuls of fruit and veggies patiently waiting.
3. The people of the Philippines love corned beef hash..... seriously.... an entire row is devoted to this.... 20 or more brands and types.
4. Ice cream is another favourite item and is consumed in large quantities (it is hot here). A somewhat related item is the amount of TV advertising devoted to ice cream. I think every second commercial but Linda reminds me that I do tend to exaggerate things. It just seems like every second one. One of the local favourites is Ube flavoured and is a bright purple colour. Ube is a purple yam... I have not yet tried it but will soon enough.
5. There is a large sign above the small hand carry baskets that asks that you "do not place your dog in the baskets". No kidding
6. There are normal shopping carts but all four of the wheels rotate in any direction as opposed to the rear two being fixed. This is brilliant and makes the shopping experience enormously more fun as the cart can be spun in a circle (albeit with Linda yelling "stop that".... still fun)
7. There are small shopping carts that are roughly a third of the size... I thought cute little carts for the kids. The adults use them! The first time I saw it in action I thought it was a joke as you really have to bend over just to get to the handle. It is quite common and still a little funny.
8. This week the cereal aisle had interesting selections. For some reason there was a real "chocolate theme". Cereal is not as popular as it is in Canada and is relatively expense. This week they had Chocolate Frosted Flakes, Chocolate Chex, Chocolate Corn Pops, Chocolate Pebbles, Chocolate Lucky Charms, Chocolate Koko Crunch and Chocolate Cheerios.
9. There are many flavours of potato chips that even Linda is not excited about. The three most popular Pringles flavours are Grilled Shrimp, Seaweed and Soft-Shell Crab
10. Most things are behind the counter in the Pharmacy..... simple things like Claritin that you would expect to choose from a shelf and be on your way.... not here... you must line up and request them from the nice young girl who will ask "how many would you like". The first time this happened I was unclear how to answer the question. It became clear as I composed myself and responded "Ummmm I don't know... ten?". She takes that information and returns with the number of pills in the tinfoil and plastic enclosures and hands them to you in a bag.... no packaging or instructions.