Grocery Shopping

Before I take a much needed nap, I wanted to tell everyone about my shopping experience. The proprietor of the B&B I am staying at told me to go to Woolworth's. For those who have never heard of it, think Whole Foods, but the size of Trader Joes and without the selection of either. I was able to pick up some Granny Smith apples, rice cakes, bread, biltong, and peanut butter, but not much else. The Woolworth's is in a shopping center just down the road from where I am staying and in the same center is a Pick N Pay. This is what most of us would consider the traditional supermarket and it had the rest of what I needed - some jelly, Diet Coke (although they call it "Coca-Cola Light" here and it tastes nothing like Diet Coke in the US), apple juice, and some lemon poppyseed muffins.

EDIT: 10:30 SAST

I woke up from my "nap" a little while ago. What I had planned on being a 2 hour nap turned into just over 4 hours. I was apparently more exhausted than I thought I would be. For dinner tonight I am having some biltong, a rice cake, and an apple with peanut butter. You've all probably had all of those except for the biltong. Biltong may be one of the best things I have ever had. How do I describe it?

Imagine the best piece of steak that you've ever had (but not filet mignon). Recall how tender it was; how it made your mouth water and how it melted in your mouth. That's what biltong is. It's small, bite sized pieces of top cut, traditionally made from beef (although I did see some ostrich biltong in Woolworth's) that are air dried. My biltong came in a small 50g sealed bag, similar to what you would find Jack Links in, only without the ability to reseal the bag. There are some shops around here that sell biltong and I'll work on getting pictures of what it looks like there - these shops have the biltong air drying on strings hanging from the ceiling, similar to how a butcher might have meat hanging in his store. This allows a person to walk up to the counter and tell the butcher (for lack of knowing what to call a biltong shop owner) and say exactly what cut of biltong they want and how much. He then cuts it up and packages it for you. I wish I could bring some home for everyone to try - I'll look into customs rules and see if that's possible.