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| 5/9 Groceries |
I went mainly to buy my favorite brand of tea and in the strength I prefer. I've learned to stock up on it, because, at times, the shipments delay and the store runs out of it. Each box contains 100 tea bags and costs $5.49. I also wanted a jar of the spicy onion sambol we call seeni sambol ($4.99). It is something I can make at home, but having a jar of it in the fridge is convenient. Once there, of course, I couldn't resist a couple of packets of my favorite cookies or biscuits as we call them ($1.99@), a packet of a spicy snack mix ($2.99), and a can of golden syrup ($4.49)!
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| Snack Mix: murukku, cashews, peanuts, and lentils |
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| Receipt |
My May grocery budget is $75 + $6.40 carried over from April = $81.40
Spent to date: $15.72 + $1.50 + $32.92 = $50.14
Balance left in the budget = $81.40 - $50.14 = $31.26
Another reason for going to the Sri Lankan store was to give the car a run. It took me about 30 minutes to drive to the store and about 40 minutes to drive home, again, as there was more traffic by then. I had asked cousin P if she wanted to go to the store with me or if she wanted me to pick up anything for her, but she said not this time.
After I came home, I had a late lunch of some of the onion sambol and a slice of bread, followed by a cup of tea.
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| Seeni Sambol: spicy onion sambol |
Later in the evening, I cooked the beef steak (had some of it for dinner), the chicken drumsticks, and browned the ground beef I had bought on Tuesday. I also ran the dishwasher (and handwashed a few items).
On Thursday, I was grateful for:
- Having a Sri Lankan store where I can buy these specialties
- Being able to splurge at this one store
- The car started without any problem and got a bit of a run
- Chatting on the phone with my cousin and friend R
- Dishwashers
Do you have a favorite ethnic grocery store where you like to shop?
We have a big Polish community in my home town and over recent years there have been quite a lot of Polish food stores opening up. I have tried a few things but have found them to be too salty for my taste. What we really need is an Indian food store!
ReplyDeleteI can't say I've eaten a lot of Polish food. When I attended University in Wisconsin, there were many people of Polish descent in the community and I've tried kielbasa sausages and pierogi. Until you get an Indian food store in your town, is there one in a nearby town that you can go to, if needed?
DeleteNot really. The nearest ethnic stores are about 30 miles away.
DeleteOh, that's inconvenient. :(
DeleteI love to buy interesting products like those online, cos thwre isn't any shop like this near me, gave a lovely weekend ☺
ReplyDeleteIsn't it wonderful how one can order just about anything these days? Thank you, Natalia; hope you, too, have a lovely weekend. :)
DeleteAll of your food looks interesting but those lemon biscuits look really good. What are they like?
ReplyDeleteThey are a type of sandwich cookie - the cookies themselves are not overly sweet, but the filling is sweet and lemony. There is a fine dusting of sugar on the tops of the cookies, too. Sometimes, I find a slightly different variety of them (also called Lemon Puffs) in the Chinese grocery stores, which have a more puff pastry like cookie, which are also very good.
DeleteI am glad to see you will splurge on some favorite foods to eat.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few ethnic stores near me and I do go to them all, but not weekly. One is an Asian market about a half mile from here, there is a bodega near me too, but if I travel about 5 miles south there is a gigantic Latin superstore. A really good Indian store is within a couple of miles of my house and very near a couple of stores I frequent so I stop in there occasionally. Then there is a Mediterranean shop a couple of miles north of me. I guess this is pretty much all my ethnic shopping stops.
Ha, ha, yes, I splurge on all the wrong kinds of foods!
DeleteIt sounds like you've a good assortment of ethnic stores within reasonable distance of you. Your Indian store might carry Sri Lankan food, too, if you feel like trying some. :)
We have one ethnic store here, but my mother bought haloumi cheese for Christmas, not realizing it had been expired for a year. We don’t go there anymore. I like Whole Foods. They have everything. I especially like the bulk bin aisle there.
ReplyDeleteOh, that's too bad about the cheese being expired! I guess one really needs to check expiration dates in such places. I grew up in a time and place where there weren't any expiration dates on packages and containers, so I don't pay a lot of attention to them! I haven't been to Whole Foods in a long time. Maybe I should go and check it out again, one day.
DeleteI remember that feeling when I was in Europe. Some friends and I bought ingredients for tacos and had dinner at my place. It was very memorable. You do crave your favorite foods from home.
ReplyDeleteYes, the tastes of home! I wonder, if I were to go back to Sri Lanka for an extended visit now, if I'd start craving hamburgers?! :D
DeleteI shop mainly in a store called Tesco which has a sizeable "World foods" section. Lots of unusual (to us) items can be found there. We don't have much in the way of ethnic shops; there is an Indian grocery shop and a Polish store, but tha ts all. I think if I lived in another country I'd be very glad to find somewhere that I could buy tastes of home!
ReplyDeleteThere is at least one British store, not too far from me, that I know of, Eloise, although I haven't been inside. However, the Sri Lankan store also carries a few British products and there are one or two grocery stores that have some British food items.
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