At one time or another I’m sure we have all had an occasion when what we wanted and what we got in terms of food did not exactly align! Sometimes this can be the result of misreading a menu in a restaurant, or actually being served something you didn’t order. Sometimes a dish can be described one way and actually appear on the plate completely different. Sometimes, it can be an entirely self-inflicted error on your own part. As a traveller ‘mystery meals’ can occasionally become a fairly common feature of my weekly diet. Whether this is due to not speaking enough of a language to understand a menu or because we have chosen to eat somewhere where there is in fact no choice at all, they serve...lunch! Most of the time I find this game a lot of fun, if not always satisfying or tasty.
Over the last 7 years I have been to a lot of countries and tried a lot of weird and wonderful (and sometimes not so wonderful) foods...puffin in Iceland and pacay in South America were two brilliant discoveries, while pickled whale blubber, also from Iceland and bull’s penis in Malaysia were two things I would certainly not go back for a second time! The mystery meals phenomenon can also extend to food purchased from a supermarket. As a long term traveller you learn that you cannot nor do you really want to eat out for every single meal. And every so often it’s nice to buy produce from a supermarket and have a better idea of exactly what is going into your meal...or so you would think! At this stage you are not doubt expecting some humorous anecdote about a time I was in some South East Asian country and bought a kilo of snake when I meant to buy chicken...or something along those lines. Alas that is not going to be the case. To date, after nearly 8 years of living away from my country of origin and spending a reasonable proportion of that in non-English speaking countries, my most notable and embarrassing supermarket based food mishap occurred in Australia! Let me paint a picture for you. It was 2010, I had been in Sydney for 3 days, I was on my own and I was due to be studying for the following six weeks while living in a self catering unit in a city suburb. For the three days prior to this I had been eating out and living on take-aways, but my bank balance and my waistline both knew this was not sustainable. On that basis I took myself off to the supermarket to acquire some household basics...bread, milk, cheese, veg etc etc. Arriving at the supermarket, acquiring all this seemed pretty simple, although I was slightly overwhelmed by the variety of milks on offer when I had come from a world of blue, green or red...suddenly I was faced with calcium enriched, A2, soy, rice, almond...it was all a bit much, but I did managed to find something that advertised itself as simply...milk! This plethora of option had exhausted me a little by the time I reached the canned food aisle where I intended to buy some tuna to go in sandwiches for school. Again, in the UK at the time they choices were pretty basic, tuna in sunflower oil, brine or spring water...that was pretty much it! Here, I was totally thrown...sweet chilli tuna, lemon and herb, Mediterranean style, Mexican style, Indian style...I just wanted tuna. I spent about 15mins wandering wearily up and down the canned food aisle trying to find just TUNA. I had almost given up and resigned myself to tuna sandwiches complete with a sombrero or with a side of onion bahjis when at the very end of the aisle I spotted a very plain looking can with a fish emblazoned on it that simply read ‘tuna’. “Finally!!” I thought, and quickly grabbed six cans, threw them into my trolley and almost hurtled myself to the check out to pay so I could finally end this unnecessarily stressful and complicated shopping experience. After arriving home feeling slightly exhausted but also reasonably satisfied with myself I unpacked and then decided to make myself a cup of tea (with MILK) and a well earned tuna sandwich (with TUNA). Kettle was boiling, tea bag was in mug, bread was out, cucumber was sliced, opened tuna to reveal...CAT FOOD! “What?! Huh?! How had this happened?!!!!” I checked the cab again and it did indeed have a fish on it and I confirmed it read in rather large letters ‘TUNA’. What had missed my attention in my over excitement at finding just tuna was the slightly smaller letter underneath it that read ‘Cat Food’. Since when does cat food not have a picture of some dopey and over excited looking cat on the side of it...or a very least a cat’s head?! Felix, Whiskers, Friskies...all cat foods...all with CATS on the tin! It’s the same with dog food, Pedigree Chum, Chow...all proudly sport pictures of happy and healthy looking DOGS! Now take yourself on a mental journey down a canned food aisle at think about what you see on the side of canned fish...yes, yes, you can see it can’t you, it’s a fish! Now I know that dog food doesn’t contain dog meat and cat food doesn’t contain cat meat, but this is a norm we have all become accustomed to in supermarkets. Why did the Aussies have to go ahead and flip that upside down?! And also, what was cat food doing in the canned food aisle...what happened to a pet food section?! At this stage I was faced with a bit of a dilemma, I had no tuna, 6 cans of cat food and no cat!! Did I simply leave the cat food at home and return to the supermarket and buy tuna, or did I take it back and explain that I was clearly painfully under-prepared for this ‘adulting’ madness and had accidentally purchased half a dozen cans of cat food when I didn’t in fact have a cat and wanted to exchange it for the more human friendly ACTUAL tuna alternative. (I just want to clarify for those of you who may be wondering, at no point did I consider consuming the cat food, I wasn’t that desperate!) After reasonably extensive consideration I chose to just take the five remaining cans back, explain my idiocy and see if they took pity on the clearly completely stupid little British newbie. Suffice it to say my return and explanation induced nearly paralytic levels of hilarity in the supermarket employee to whom I spoke but did eventually result in her happily arranging an exchange of goods. So there you have it 8 years away from my native land, 50 countries visited, multiple social, cultural and linguistic barriers and hurdles to negotiate and I made my greatest error at a supermarket about 20minutes outside of Sydney city centre in Australia! Well done Dani! Please tell me I’m not the only one out there who has made a stupid and embarrassing supermarket shopping error along the journey of life?! I can’t be the only one...can I?! Feel free to share with the world your tales of miscommuncatory error...sharing is caring people, sharing is caring!
1 Comment
13/10/2017 05:11:10 pm
Well I now know what not to shop for in Coles, I will stick to fresh Tuna 😀😀😀🚐
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Follow us on Instagram or send us a messageAbout Foodie FridaysWe love food, as most people do! And when we are on the road this doesn't change. We, like many people, believe that food is one of the best ways to really get to know a culture and it's people, as so much about the way people live their lives around the world is centred around food. This means that when we travel we actively seek out the local foods and delicacies. Sometimes that comes in the form of unusual and exotic produce from markets and sometimes from street food vendors serving an array of barbecued, fried, steamed or entirely indistinguishable goodies. Having tried and tested these goodies for some time now, on our adventures around Asia, Europe, North and South America we have discovered some pretty wonderful treats that we have decided should earn a bit of publicity. So, as the working week drifts away and the weekend winks at you like a naughty temptress we will share with you one of the delights that we have encountered from around the world! We hope you enjoy reading about these as much as we enjoyed eating them! Archives
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