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Neighbourhood improvement
Dec. 21st, 2006 06:28 pmOn our shopping trip today we discovered that our neighbourhood has become even more multicultural. What was once a boring regular supermarket, is now NEO-MARKT. The little signs that have gone up on lamp-posts advertise it as selling international food, so I became a bit worried for our favourite Turkish supermarket, which as I discovered today is not actually Turkish. Only one of the two owners was from Turkey, but he has recently gone back home to spend his retirement there. The remaining owner is a Palestinian, something I found out today when he was chatting with one of his German regulars. But he needn't worry about the new intruder (the other Turkish supermarket up the street is competition enough as it is), because this one is a lot less international than our Turan, which isn't its official name anymore, but we stick to it anyway.
The little bear on the signs should have given it away, but I needed to see the large jars of pickled vegetables with kyrillic writing on it to realize that a little piece of Russia can now be found aroumd the corner. There were a couple of other curious Germans who had wandered in, totally perplexed by the strange 'hieroglyphics' on the merchandise and wanting to know where the fresh fish had come from. "From Russia, too?" - "From the water." was all the answer they got.
We walked around, pointing out especially interesting labels and items - the Pinocchio lemonade, unfamiliar beers and vodkas and garishly-coloured sweets that made my teeth ache just by looking at them. There is even a little lending library with books and dvds and a jewellery display.
The best find, however, was something totally unexpected - PG Tips pyramid-shaped teabags!
So, now I'm sipping English tea bought in a Russian supermarket and tonight we will eat our own multicultural version of bangers and mash with red halal sausages seasoned with garlic and lots of paprika.
The little bear on the signs should have given it away, but I needed to see the large jars of pickled vegetables with kyrillic writing on it to realize that a little piece of Russia can now be found aroumd the corner. There were a couple of other curious Germans who had wandered in, totally perplexed by the strange 'hieroglyphics' on the merchandise and wanting to know where the fresh fish had come from. "From Russia, too?" - "From the water." was all the answer they got.
We walked around, pointing out especially interesting labels and items - the Pinocchio lemonade, unfamiliar beers and vodkas and garishly-coloured sweets that made my teeth ache just by looking at them. There is even a little lending library with books and dvds and a jewellery display.
The best find, however, was something totally unexpected - PG Tips pyramid-shaped teabags!
So, now I'm sipping English tea bought in a Russian supermarket and tonight we will eat our own multicultural version of bangers and mash with red halal sausages seasoned with garlic and lots of paprika.
