Food

Those of you who know me know that I like food.  I like to cook it, and to eat it, and to look at it, and think about it and smell it and touch it...  So an important part of being in any new place is exploring the grocery store.  Morrison's, about a fifteen minute walk from the house, did not disappoint.

My wonderful boyfriend Matt teased me for weeks before I came about how all I'd be able to eat was rice and beans, especially since food would be so expensive.  And, while he's right that probably all I should eat is rice and beans, being a poor college student, I was pleasantly surprised to find that lots of the things I buy (like fish, cheese, and produce) aren't actually all that outrageous over here.

 These are all the things that cost £1 or less.  A whole box of peaches!  And berries!  And a Toblerone (it's a full-size one, too, not one of those puny ones)!  Not to mention McVitties, but I'll say more about them later.

I think it is absolutely hilarious that on the back of the salmon fillets (that's right, just plain old pieces of salmon, nothing else) it says "Allergy advice:  Contains fish."  Really?  If you can't figure that one out, we can chalk up your anaphylaxis to natural selection.  On a happier note, salmon is really cheap here.  About the same price as beef or chicken.

They also sell happy meat at the grocery store, and it's not terribly more expensive.  I'm still trying to figure out what all the labeling means... It seems like over here, "organic" meats aren't just organic, but also have certain humane farming practices required, unlike in the US, where it doesn't refer to animal welfare.  But there's also the Soil something certification, and also the RSPCA stamp on some of them, so I suppose more research is required.

In short, Morrison's gets a check plus for grocery shopping.  Except that it's so full of small friendly old people that it's really quite hard to move around in.  They all spend so much time picking out their groceries...