Week 6 – Bread and Yogurt

Super (and hyper) markets here are more than well stocked. They remove any arguments most people have about “missing” anything from “home” by providing pretty much everything you would either find at “home” or really wish you could buy. I am actually amazed at the variety of organic and non-GMO products available, even eco detergents are everywhere. For the Brits amongst us it is easy to find PG Tips tea and even Brown Sauce, something that is not always easy to find closer to the UK.

It is with much sadness that I must report, however, that the US does not do bread, nor does it do yogurt. Bread falls into the UK’s “cardboard tastes better” category; yogurts are fat free and lack substance.

I will not write much about bread because it saddens me to think that with so many people from all over the world the generally available bread takes its influence from the UK.

You can, if you are lucky, find normal, ordinary, full fat Greek yogurts that are like an oasis in a desert of matterless pots of white, puss like liquid that claims to be “yogurt”. Why, of all things that are pure and naturally full of fat for a reason, do manufacturers insist in removing all the taste and “goodness” from a product that has fat in it for a reason – good, natural fats, not bad fats that are added to make the thing taste better than it is.

There is hope. There are a few places (not many) that do sell real bread and real yogurts, but you have to know where to look – essentially they are speciality shops. The bottom line is you need to shop at a special shop to get real products, how does this describe products found in “normal” shops.

Where I’ve been

Yes, I am a Facebook user. One of the applications I use is “Where I’ve been”; for who do not know, it maps where in the world you have been to, either visiting or living. One of those places I have been to is Austria where they sell T-shirts stating “There are no kangaroos in Austria” together with an Aussie road sign showing a kangaroo. It is with this in mind that I am amused to see the “Where I’ve been” application showing that in fact Austria does indeed have the Australian flag, whilst Australia has another flag that I can’t identify. At least they got Belgium right.