I went weekly shopping again :D

Man, I wish. It's funny. I grew up in California with the start of the health-and-alternative food craze, where reading labels became a thing and we know the name of the bit of lamb and so on. Now I've moved to France, and not Paris either. There's a farmer's market every day of the week accessible from my tiny town via public transportation, sometimes twice a day, and I love it... it is entirely things grown locally. More brown eggs than white. Seagrasses for sautee'ing. You can't find CELERY more than half the year, and the rest of the time the "exotic" food comes from islands I had never even heard of before. This is coooool as all get out.

But I did grow up in California where I was accustomed without even thinking about it to a fantastic range of asian staples. In not-Paris France your field of reference changes from "China, Japan, Pacific Rim" to "Vietnam and the tabac mafia and all the sushi is made of beef and cheese..." The only expat food websites I can find are ridiculously expensive, and they sell shit like Kraft and Bullshit Hersheys. There is a single foreign aisle at my local grocery store, and it has these terrifying Old El Paso kits that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.

That one dude who's in everything, the cool crease-faced mexican guy who was a vampire in From Dusk Til Dawn? He makes El Paso commercials over here. God, last summer in Bordeaux I ran into what may be the only human being from Mexico in this region and we waxed rhapsodic for minutes bonding over the shameful lack of a good hot ghetto burrito and a nice crisp beer.

Don't get me wrong, I would move to France all over again in a heartbeat just for the dairy section. They sell small-batch AOC cheese the way the states stock Velveeta and there are more kinds of yogurt here than Yoplait could dream in a month of nightmares. But damn, I do miss my wacko west coast international intersection.

/r/fuckeatingdisorders Thread Parent