Moving out on your own can be an interesting adventure if you are not accustomed to cooking all your meals all the time. Food is one of those essential things for life, oddly enough. And, believe it or not, the food in America is super convenient and reasonably priced– the stores, the packages, everything. When one moves to another country, things have a good chance of being different. Case and point: there are 2 grocery stores that similar to grocery stores in the States. (Unfortunately, as we don’t have a car, Julie and I beg rides from Pastor or couple the outing with other errands we are running around town.) Food is more expensive here; the more processed and packaged it is, the higher the price. Frozen pizza? Around $4. A dozen eggs? Around $3.50. Peanut butter? Don’t ask… We were told that eating Antiguan consisted of eating a lot of chicken, rice, and beans (the chicken and rice being a run-on joke I have had since high school, thank you Izzy). So, our first outing to the grocery store, we bought 10 lbs of frozen chicken breasts, two bags of frozen veggies, a bag of rice, a bag of black beans, some bananas, a few apples, some oatmeal, a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, and some cooking oil. That and some cleaning supplies brought our first grocery bill to 216 E.C. (Eastern Caribbean dollars), roughly $90 US. Mom generously bought 4 giant jars of PB before we left the States, and Pastor and Mrs. Johnston had some frosted flakes and bread waiting for us in our refrigerator.
Our first night of cooking, I cooked rice (without directions), boiled chicken breasts, and cooked some frozen veggies. We hadn’t really thought of seasonings or anything of that nature while we were shopping. The result was a healthy, yet bland, first meal. Lunches were (and still are) a peanut butter sandwich and a banana. Before Mom left, she had walked to a market not far from our house, purchased some onion, tomato, salt, pepper, and all-purpose seasoning. Yay for flavor!
Julie and I try to think of different things to do with chicken, rice, and beans. We cut up and fry different veggies to go with the chicken. Week 2 we purchased garlic powder (awesome stuff), green pepper, salsa, and some limes. A neighbor had given us a large (and I mean huge) avocado. Our next adventures included different ways of frying up the chicken to keep in more moist, fried bananas, banana pancakes, cooking black beans, scrambled eggs for dinner, French toast, homemade guacamole and homemade tortillas . Biggest success? Guacamole! The avocado was the best I have ever tasted, and the limes were perfectly tart and juicy. Biggest challenge? Black beans! Again, there were no directions at all as to how to cook the black beans. After a failed attempt, I asked Yvonne, our landlady, how she cooks them. Well, turns out after you have soaked them for a few hours, you need to cook the beans on a low heat for 45-60 mins. Long time! So we have taken to cooking large amounts of rice, beans, and chicken and having them on hand to reheat. Coming in a close second for a challenge was the tortillas. They were rather sticky through the mixing and kneading, and we lack certain kitchen utensils that would ease the process – simple things like measuring cups, measuring spoons, and a rolling pin. Our tortillas ended up a little thick… Hopefully we will soon find a rolling pin and try again.
Eating out: shawarma – a Syrian wrap consisting of shaved meat (usually chicken), cabbage, hot sauce, ketchup, some other stuff, all in pita. Good stuff. Subway! Normally their 6” subs start around $6, but after 5pm every day, they have a sub of the month you can get as a $5 footlong! We get a footlong each. eat half, and save the other half for lunch the next day. We tried a deli near the house – prices weren’t too bad and the food was good. There is also a Chinese restaurant (very tiny) near our house that is known for it’s fried chicken and French fries. Good stuff!
This week we purchased groceries in bulk so that we could maybe not make so many trips to the big grocery store. (We do make frequent trips to the market nearby for bread and bananas.) This time we got pasta and pasta sauce, more salsa, BBQ sauce, Cajun seasoning, cheese, ingredients for chicken salad and splurged on tortilla chips and off-brand Oreos. =) The possibilities, while not nearly endless, are expanding pleasantly.
The one other quirk involves the environment. Ants really, really like to get in. Any foodstuff left out and not vacuumed sealed is immediately converged upon. This includes rice, flour, unwashed dishes, cooking oil… I fought a hard battle with ants the first week, spraying wherever I found them entering. We do dishes every night (rinse whatever dishes we may have during the day). And… we keep everything in the fridge. The flour, the rice, the beans, the salt, pepper, and seasonings, the bread, the peanut butter, the sugar, everything. The only thing not in the fridge or freezer is the cooking oil (we scared the ants away!). Maybe by the time we leave, we will be able to keep the rice and flour out, too…
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