The supermagazin experience

It is funny to catch on to the cultural differences by a visit to the supermarket. As we were looking for the ingredients for the so much appreciated new years caipirinha, I step into a interesting new world of products that would make one wonder. The pears, for example are all giraffe one’s, showing a long neck and, as it would be clear, the so called tropical fruits are inexistent. Instead there is a huge diversity of dry fruits and sweets that are used in many ways in the Russian cosine. The way the products are exposed doesn’t differ much of what I know from Portuguese supermarkets though the prices are a bit higher. I’ve seen many canned and frozen food but there’s also a great selection of red fish. Guess what, some of the meat comes from Brasil, maybe because the local production of meat is not enough or maybe because is cheaper to bring it from so far away. This is also a surprise for the locals who don’t have an answer for his.

And I can’t forget to tell you about the вобла diverse selection. Вобла is a dry fish that you eat when having a drink. You can ask for it in most of the bars and probably you’ll see people in the park having a beer and taking it’s skin out while sitting on a bench after a day of work. There are many mini-markets right next to the metro stations, selling daily life products, fruit, dry fruits, sweets and booze. I’ll be leaving you with Клюква в сахаре, one cranberry inside a ball of sugar. It was a very popular sweet in the times of the USSR that vanished during some time to reappear again in the hands of children.