Grocery shopping abroad is fun and exciting! We have previously written about grocery stores and food culture in France, Portugal, Spain and Italy. Shopping for food in the Balkans is also interesting ... but different!
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ShareYou sometimes shop in a completely different way, you find different products and many times it's a bit challenging to figure out what's in the packs and cans, because you don't understand the language.
Food shops in Albania
In Albania it was difficult to find a supermarket at all. You have to look for the meat shop, the fish shop and the vegetable market. Then you have to look for small mini-markets where you can buy some dry goods and sausages, eggs and feta cheese.
A large number of products that you are used to from other parts of Europe we did not find at all. We saw virtually no spices, no sauces, no powdered soups and no semi-finished products. The range of tinned and frozen vegetables was very limited. In other words, very different!
Hipermarket in Montenegro
In Montenegro there are large grocery stores and we have even shopped in a "hipermarket"! We walked around yesterday and botanised fascinated and said over and over again "Wow, so much to choose from!", haha.
There were most of the things you are used to from Western Europe, such as meat counters, many different cheeses, lots of powdered soups and preserves and so on. But the selection is also different! Here are a few things we noticed:
- The mayonnaise shelves are extremely long and you can buy mayonnaise by the bucket.
- There are so many different jars and varieties of ajvar (spicy paprika sauce)!
- Paprika seasoning sold in one-kilo bags
- There are lots of meat and sausages, but so far we haven't found a shop that sells fresh fish.
- There are lots of little jars of different pastes (like the one on the far left in the top picture).
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Anders och Birgitta says:
Fun with different types of shops, especially fun when you buy a jar and just guess what's in it and it's something completely different.
11 September 2015 - 10:53
Deciree says:
I can imagine that it is difficult to shop in that country. Not easy. Will probably be some guesses what is in the package:)
11 September 2015 - 11:57
Steve says:
I like this.
If shopping for food is so exciting, how exciting should eating it be?
11 September 2015 - 12:18
Rolle o Carina says:
How nice you have it, it's just fun to stroll around and shop like that!
Have fun and enjoy....Have a nice weekend....
11 September 2015 - 13:03
Gunilla Yourstone says:
For us, Montenegro became the "food country that God forgot". Based on the range of restaurants back then, we didn't cook our own food.
In the end, it was mostly just comical that everything tasted equally bad/mediocre everywhere.
Otherwise we really liked Montenegro I must add though. Beautiful and friendly people.
11 September 2015 - 15:22
Ama de casa says:
Isn't it exciting to shop in places where you don't really understand what you're buying?
There is also an incredible amount of mayonnaise here, and also in bauta packs...
11 September 2015 - 16:07
Bara brittiskt / Charlotta says:
Buckets of mayonnaise remind me of Belgium 😀.
Otherwise, the shopping picture at the top actually looks like Citygross in Rosengård but with a bottle of wine, haha. I love shopping for food abroad.
11 September 2015 - 16:38
Rolle o Carina says:
I forgot to say that I (Rolle) probably like that PEJA best 🙂 .
Take care.....Enjoy 🙂
11 September 2015 - 19:20
Ditte says:
What fun! Just seeing what you bring home can be a challenge and a surprise. I recognise this from China when we shopped a lot in the local shops and couldn't read the packaging. But when I learnt some words, it became a little easier to ask, then I would also understand the answers. A challenge, but a lot of fun.
Thank you for a nice feature!
11 September 2015 - 19:29
BP says:
See that you've at least found the most important thing - liquid food in the form of wine and beer;-)
I also always find it exciting to "take a chance" in foreign supermarkets/hypermarkets. Most of the time, everything you bought goes down. But understand that you miss fresh fish. You are close to the sea so there should be fishermen who pull up some good ones, I think.
11 September 2015 - 20:40
shefik veliu says:
Hi my friends how are you I am following you on the trip I saw that you have bought beer called peja it is from kosova not from serbia have a good time enjoy your trip
12 September 2015 - 1:59
znogge says:
Food is a big part of travelling and I love trying local specialities. So Mac Donald's doesn't get a visit from me! Vranac was a popular wine here when I was young but it's been a long time since I drank it...
12 September 2015 - 10:09
Margareta Jonilson says:
Exciting! And sometimes it can be like when we were in Slovenia and it was getting close to midsummer. Bobo came home from the shop with smetana for the herring.
Would have worked perfectly if it hadn't been vanilla flavoured batter... 😉.
12 September 2015 - 10:22
admin says:
Anders and Birgitta, isn't it? Sometimes you are positively surprised, and sometimes it's the other way round... but it's a bit exciting after all. Among other things, milk products are difficult, we think.
Deciree, sometimes you can guess, but sometimes it is difficult. Dairy products are difficult, for example, but also jars of pasties, for example.
Steve, this is exciting! This morning we tried the paste and it was good! 🙂
Rolle and Carina, it's fun to shop abroad. And Peja is really good, very flavourful, we might add!
Gunilla Yourstone, haha, interesting. We haven't actually eaten in a restaurant yet. The prices we saw in restaurants in Kotor yesterday were too high for us to choose to eat out - maybe just as well then 😉.
Ama de casa, you wonder what they use all the mayonnaise for?
Only British, interesting that it reminds me of shopping in Rosengård, haha. Isn't it fun to shop abroad?
Ditte, it must be even more difficult in China! I understand that it can be a real challenge many times!
BP, yep, beer and wine are usually easy to find, and that's a good thing 😉 Fresh fish is probably available somewhere, but not in either of the two big supermarkets we visited.
Shefik, thank you!!! We have changed now! 🙂 I googled the beer and then it said Serbia, but now I see that Peja is in Kosovo! Hope everything is good in Malmö! 🙂
Znogge, agree! We have visited McDonalds twice in these 9 months I think. The first time was on the way down, when we stayed at a rest stop in Germany and had breakfast at McDonalds. And then once more. We also rarely choose McDonalds.
Margareta, haha, that's exactly how it can be! Smetana with vanilla flavour does not sound great with herring... 😉 We have also bought the wrong thing sometimes. We thought we were buying a ready-made soup, for example, but it was broth. And dairy products are often a bit off, it's hard to know if it's cooking yoghurt, sweet yoghurt or maybe some kind of cheese... 😉.
12 September 2015 - 10:57
Helena says:
I love walking around grocery stores when I'm abroad. It's so much fun to see what's on the shelves. And it's even more fun when you find something different to buy.
Interesting with mayonnaise in a bucket! 🙂
13 September 2015 - 1:00
Discovering The Planet says:
Entering a local supermarket when travelling has become more the rule than the exception? Just like you, we LOVE to browse the local shelves and often we don't know what we have brought home, especially from Asian countries ?. But that's half the fun ?. We liked the food in Montenegro, but as always, find the locals and eat outside the centre.
?
13 September 2015 - 1:16
admin says:
Helena, we go to the supermarket all the time, and often it's something a little different that comes home with us 😉.
Discovering the Planet, you're probably right! Tourist spots tend to be very boring all over the world, and unfortunately it's easy to end up there as a tourist. But most countries also have good and genuine food, if you find the right one. There will probably not be many restaurants here for us, but we have found some interesting things in the shops instead. The paste in the small jar was e.g. very good! 🙂
13 September 2015 - 9:23
Shefik veliu says:
Hi Helena it wasn't to correct you but I wanted you to know that the beer is from kosova have a good time.
13 September 2015 - 11:52
admin says:
Shefik, I prefer to change when it gets wrong! 🙂 Would prefer to write correctly on the blog, but every now and then errors creep in of course 😉 And it was fun to know that the beer is from Kosovo - we think it's good! 🙂
14 September 2015 - 8:57
Maria says:
I guess it was this post I tried to comment on the other day 🙂 I don't really remember what I wrote then, but something along the lines that I also think it's exciting to explore different countries' grocery store systems and offerings, even though it sometimes has many similarities to our home 🙂 But often you can be positively surprised by low prices or exciting products that are not available at home 🙂 .
14 September 2015 - 9:42
admin says:
Maria, your comment has now arrived and I have approved it! Hopefully you can comment without problems in the future! 🙂 Of course, there are often many similarities in the grocery stores, but there are always small things that differ, and it can be other things that are cheap or expensive!
15 September 2015 - 7:41