I just took my first visit to a Vietnamese supermarket. Actually, it was my second, but I can't count the first because it was so crowded that it was difficult to meander the aisles. I always find it interesting to visit a supermarket of a new country for the first time. There are so many interesting foods to come upon and it can tell you a lot about the culture of the people.
In the local supermarket here (which I haven't seen many of), numerous brands are French. Even when you walk around the city, you're likely to find some businesses with French titles. This is the residual of the French occupation even though it ended 45 years ago. A few of the packagings are labeled in Vietnamese and Cambodian, a few in Vietnamese and other languages and some include English. English isn't all that common, however; most of it comes from the American owned corporations (Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, Kimberly-Clark).
It's interesting to see that, like Mexico and Turkey, the Vietnamese also eat those peanut candy bars. There's a small selection of cereal (and better than what I found in Turkey) though I can't imagine that any Vietnamese eats cereal for breakfast! (Ah, I can eat Zucaritas again!) But, like Turkey, there's almost no selection of fresh milk (this means it comes cold and ready, not in a box). And the large one liter bottles I've found are quite expensive ($1.50 a liter). Oh, and I didn't write about this though I wanted to, but since the beginning, I've been thrilled to have Oreos back in my life. Turkey lacked them, and Mexico's version was... well, not the Oreo. So I've been eating a lot to make up for lost time. The selection of oil olive is small and the prices are high as is butter/margarine. (That will kill me as I use a lot of butter.) Surprisingly, I also found a frozen food section in the market today. I was surprised to see that the cheap food I buy on the street can be bought frozen. I have a hard time believing the Vietnamese eat this stuff too.
While I was in one of the aisles of food, an old Vietnamese woman took my arm and in Vietnamese asked me to get her 3 cans of something. Well, that's what I imagine she was saying - I only understood "ba" which means 3. She pointed to the top shelf and I took 3 cans down. But then she wanted another. Wait a minute - I know she said 'ba'. Why is she screwing with my mind??? After I handed her the fourth (she was still talking in Vietnamese), she said to me, "Thank you," and went on her way. Such are the people here - very nice even if they only know one word in your language.
At the check-out line, there were few people. In the other supermarket, the lines were long. Maybe this one was an expensive market, although it's hard to tell since the food is cheap to begin with. When the cashier handed me my change, she did it carefully, with the bills on the bottom and a wrapped candy on top. I don't know if the candy is normal, but it makes for a nice introduction to Vietnamese supermarket shopping.
