I love grocery shopping in foreign countries.
A. I like to grocery shop, and I was making dinner combining 2 of my favorite pastimes .
B. Alien packaging is always interesting to me (when I was about 5 we went to visit my uncle in Neenah and I saw that their milk came in completely different cartons than ours did, I was at once fascinated and somewhat anxious. Oddly packaging and anxiety became a way of life for me).
C. Since buying things with foreign currency is completely unfathomable (not that US money is all that fathomable to me) it seems like spending play money. It’s 500 zlotys? Who cares? They’re zlotys. Three hundred grozys? Yippee!! I’m on vacation. Whatever.
I swooned when I saw this packaging. It is really glorious. Tomato paste, I was making chili. I put it in my cart thinking seriously that I was going to save the can and then, for some reason, looked back at the shelf. The Eldorado brand tomato paste cost 5.50 krones (that’s 2.52 zlotys), the Mutti 16.50. Forget that. Sure I’m not that bright about money but, come on. Five vs sixteen, I may not be bright but I’m no doppio.
I saved a dollar. And I can live without another empty can. And I’d just be anxious about getting it home without denting it.
