Groceries

I am always modestly unprepared for some of the items I find at the grocery store. Especially now that the new, Safeway-like Riteway store has opened, a trip to the grocery store in the BVIs differs little from one in the US. Perhaps I am lulled into complacency by the wide aisles and abundant price tags, but sometimes, an unusual product grabs my attention and reminds me that I'm in the Caribbean.

Often, it is a familiar product, with a slight twist. We all know Campbell's Soup. How many of us have seen the "Pepper Pot" flavor before? I now note, looking at this picture, that "Pepper Pot" is a product of Canada -- I wonder how many Canadians eat it?

Sometimes, it is a different way of doing things. Although I don't have a picture of it, it is common to find a large package of small items (nuts; grated parmesan; chocolate chips) has been opened by the store, and repackaged into ziploc bags, each with a price on it. I suppose this is not so different from what every butcher's department does with meat, but it is somehow startling to see a Ziploc Sandwich bag with 2 ounces of chocolate chips for sale on the shelf next to the Nestle Toll House packages.

Of course, there are always the products that I just never dreamed existed.

This rather blurry photo is of a bag of dehydrated cane juice. It wouldn't have crossed my mind to conceive of such a notion. How would I employ these little granules? To what delicacies would they contribute most? Are they meant to take the place of sugar?

On my most recent trip to the store, it was an instance similar to the pepper pot that took my head out of the clouds and plopped it in the Caribbean. Sometimes, all it takes is a word:

"Jamaica Cock Soup Mix -- with Pumpkin"