Do you love foreign supermarkets?

[SentToTheSynByn]

I never shop at home, just get a delivery. However I love browsing supermarkets abroad. I love the huge jars of chickpeas and lentils in France and Spain. I also love that you can buy remoulade in France. And picnic wine

I bought some lovely bottles of rose in holland with stopper, like a grolsch bottle. And the cheese . Everything in holland looks so effortlessly fresh and healthy.

I bought the most gorgeous oregano in Zante last year which is about to run out so thinking about booking a holiday only half joking and olive oil.

Can't think of anything else, so do you love a foreign supermarket, and what have been your best buys?

Ps I sometimes go to Lidl and pretend to be on holiday 😎

I love European supermarkets! As pp said upthread the smell mixed with the heat! The nobbly fruit and veg!

France had massive hyper markets way before us.

When I was little on French holidays I always used to be up first to go to the little codec supermarket to buy baguettes, speak French badly and try to spend my francs and centimes correctly.

Petrol stations were good too buying exciting flavoured Hollywood chewing gum

Never been as far as Asia

speak French badly

When I was a teenager I was once sent to buy a loaf of bread when on holiday in Greece. I didn't know the masculine word for 'one/a', so I came back with 4 loafs, 4 being the smallest number I could confidently pronounce. I'm sure they would have spoken English in the shop, or at least understood fingers being held up, but I wanted to try some Greek!

Im with Twunk on this one. Give me a good old British supermarket any day. Especially UK trolleys.
My highlight of this week's shop (been away a month) - we have new trolleys- they actually can turn corners without you having to physically grab the handle to lift and pivot....

I also love a foreign supermarket, and can happily rummage for hours. But now I live in Australia, I'd sell a kidney for an hour in M&S or Waitrose! Aussie supermarkets are like British ones were in the 80s I reckon. Thankfully we do have an Indian, Chinese and South African shops locally where I can go and look at the weird food.

I love a foreign supermarket! The supermarket local to my grandparents house in Spain sells the most delicious garlic potato salad and they have huge legs of ham hanging that people can ask to have slices carved from. Then you walk through the town and there are vendors on the streets selling bags of snails and live whitebait.

Walmart, Target and Publix were the last ones we visited in Florida and I was amazed at the size and selection.

In Corsica the Spar supermarket had live lobsters and crabs in a tank... I always laugh when I go in a Spar in the UK now, where are the live crustaceans??

Glad it's not just me

Not sure I would be brave enough to cook a live crustacean.

Lays paprika crisps - have not seen them in uk.

Our Tesco has them sometimes in the Polish section and Lidl does a massive 250 g bag of paprika crisps when they have XXL week, not Lays and not as good Funny Frisch ungarisch (which are better than Lays) but they will do for a paprika crisp cravings.

Yes! I thought it was just me and DH who geeked out over supermarkets. We just came back from Spain and had been going to the massive Al Campo every other day. I love the little plastic trollies, so cute. I get excited in the toiletries aisle and DH loves the Iberico Ham section. Also like Carre Four and Eroski.

When I'm in Aldi/Lidl I pretend I'm on holiday

Oh yes! We're going to South Africa soon and I'm really looking forward to tackling a supermarket there : )

I love a foreign supermarket! It doesn't even have to be completely foreign. We live in Germany and went on holiday within Germany in August and there was chocolate from Norway in the supermarket. I was deeply impressed and bought it despite the fact the it was hideously expensive.

I shop in foreign supermarkets all the bloody time, and love coming back to the UK for Waitrose and Sainsbury. I especially love the Waitrose dairy aisle with all that lovely lemon curd yoghurt, and the Collective Russian Fudge yoghurt - great cheese and Lurpak, which is sadly unavailable in Belgian supermarkets. Sour cream and clotted cream and non UHT cream as well in the UK. Difficult to find here.

i love the dried beans and large jars of chickpeas, beans and lentils, if we drive i always bring a few back, they are great value

This thread makes me so happy! I adore grocery shopping in foreign countries. I could spend an entire day in Italian or French grocery stores. The yogurt aisle in Carrefour was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen.

I've been in the UK for over a year and still get a kick out of all the cute little tea cakes and a bit weirded out by all the jarred hot dogs. I've never seen those in the US although they are deemed to be American by the labels. The vast amount of ready meals available and variety of pre made sandwiches also astound me. I've never seen anything like that in the US and I've lived in different regions.

She glad to join this thread!! Exciting!! Just returned from the USA & found a fantastic (French like IMO) supermarket called Martin's. Also shopped in Food Lion (love the name!!) which I grew to love simply due to the selection, but NOT A PATCH on Martin's which I loved from the off!! Stopped in a martin's on the way to the property & we bought some supplies - bread, wine, milk & ice cream. The bill was $90 (£73!!!). We'd driven for 8 hours at that point and didn't bat an eyelash as we were desperate to get to the house.
Also a bit shocked at food prices $5 (£4) for a loaf of bread ....
I also LOVE the fantastic pharmacies in US (CVS) and in Europe. I spent loads of money and time in a Spanish pharmacy on a particularly rubbish/boring holiday. I can honestly say the best bit was the pharmacy .....

"Lays paprika crisps - have not seen them in uk."

Here in Germany there's nothing but!

Oh for salt & vinegar/cheese & onion!

In Greece you can get Lays oregano crisps - lovely!

Lay's crisps probably deserve a thread of their own. We mainly holiday in Spain/Canaries/Balerics (agree with the posters who say that Mercadona is the best Spanish supermarket, but I also have a soft spot for the various Dinos, which I think are just in the Canaries) and DP always goes for green Lays, which are tomato/onion/garlic flavour according to the picture on the packet.

I like the cheap Spanish plain crisps that are just nicer than plain crisps here - not sure why. I think I like the association when you go to a bar for a beer and they bring you a small bowl of plain crisps and you know that they have a massive bag of them out back that they fill the bowl from.

"In Greece you can get Lays oregano crisps - lovely!"

Lidl here do rosemary ones that are rather moreish nice.

I love it - it's one of my favourite parts of being on holiday! France for the puy lentils, metal tins of cordial, artichokes and insanely cheap wine that is delicious. Spain for the minced tomato in pots, tins of bonito and jamon. America for the Tex mex ingredients and amazing fresh pizza dough. We always go self catering mainly so I can trawl round the local supermarket😆

Also our local Chinese supermarket is incredible - frozen spring roll wrappers, fresh mooli and fermented black beans 👍🏻

I moved to the UK two years ago and there are so many foods I miss!!! Apple butter, pumpernickel bread, grits, girl scout cookies (although not likely to be found in your grocery store unless it's February and there's a table of girl scouts outside), Adobo seasoning, biscuit mix, moon pies...

So called American stores never seem to carry anything I actually miss. Would love to open my own someday!

Oooh I'm in! I have passed on my love of a foreign supermarket to my children too. They're now grown up but still reminisce about the first day of our French Eurocamp holidays when we would go to the supermarket. Dd has just returned from a trip to Australia and brought back TimTams, Vegemite and caramel Koalas (like Freddo's) for a taste test comparison.

mugglemom, I am sure you can buy pumpernickel at least.
Have you checked out your local Polish shop?