Why travellers are obsessed with foreign supermarkets

I don't travel abroad as much as I'd like, but I always enjoy bringing back some foreign candies for friends. Some things we can get locally in upscale shops, and much you can get from Amazon, but most folks don't bother. I recently came back from Iceland and brought probably $20 in little candies. Lots of licorice-based stuff - that's apparently a big thing there. Just little fun bits to pass out to friends when I come back.

But I've always enjoyed poking through grocery stores traveling abroad - China, UK, Russia all were interesting in their own way. Seeing what's similar and what's different. Yeah, cool - they have Pringles too - but... wow... such weird flavors. I do remember seeing canned horse in a couple of Russian stores. And in one upscale Moscow grocery, they had a huge fridge case for 'cheeses from around the world'. Germany, Italy, France, UK... kept going... got to the 'US' portion and ... tubs of 'Philadelphia cream cheese'. I thought I'd taken a pic of that but sadly can't find it any more. I really thought it was a joke.

Given that almost everything is a subsidiary of Unilever, the 'I wonder what they'll have' question has faded. But finding local flavors of things is still fun. Greece is likely my next bucket list trip. Any suggestions on foods to try or candies to look for - let me know! :)

I was surprised when I went for an extended visit to Colombia - outside of beef cuts (an entire rack of ribs, bit butcher cuts, not a single steak or a dozen hamburger patties) frozen foods are virtually non-existant. If you wander into any American supermarket or costco roughly 20% of the floor space is reserved for frozen foods. Something as ubiquitous as the bachelor frozen pizza just doesn't exist in their super markets, despite being the same size and ~roughly the same dry goods/shelf goods.

Yeah, local supermarkets and bookstores are always great places to try. Experiencing local prepackaged foods with different standards of bare minimums than yours and flipping magazines for topics you're familiar in unfamiliar language and formats is not an easy moment to replicate at home.

> It's 10:00 in a Tokyo 7-Eleven, ... , katsu curry buns, ...

nitpick: "katsu curry" means katsu plus curry. katsu means Japanese localized cutlet fries. curry means curry. there are katsu sandwitches and curry buns in 7-11 JP, but no katsu && curry bun in 7-11 JP. Calling curry buns katsu curry buns is same as referring to french fries as fish and chips with emphasis on FISH when there isn't in the bag; it would be a false advertisement if a restaurant had done it. The author need to make up their mind and call it Japanese curry, or if their style guide prohibits it, just curry without indicating what type of it is, or, Japanese curry is not supposed to be much different from the Royal Navy recipe anyway, so you could call it the Navy style, that's probably fine too.

As a Dutch citizen the most important thing is walking around looking at the prices and see how cheap everything is.

Well there are a few insane places like Switzerland or Aruba.

I thought I was alone in doing that and the writer felt the said. I love going to markets in places i travel to and seeing the different types of snacks they have. Often times I do walk in for toothpaste but then wander all around the store.

Three pictures from Getty Images and generic copy. Was this assembled by an AI?

An instagrammer visiting a konbini in Kyoto would be far more interesting.

(If you want that experience in coastal California, visit a Nijiya Market.)

The Russia example with canned fish is spot on. American supermarkets rarely have canned fish in tomato sauce but it's one of my favorite ways to eat it.