do you have 100 forint?.....a trip to the grocery store

For those of you who know Amanda Preisler who did a grocery store post....this won't be that funny.  She wrote that post soon after coming to Hungary her first year and there is NOTHING like first year impressions in the hands of a funny skilled writer like her.  Fair warning.

I love grocery shopping here in Hungary.  It's fun. You never know what you will find.  You never know what you will NOT find either.  It creates opportunity for you to be creative with your menus.  I'm getting ahead of myself though....did you bring your 100 forint coin?  You know, the one you always keep in your wallet or car so that you can get a grocery cart?  Oh, you didn't.  Here you can borrow one from me, don't worry you'll get it back and can give it back if you don't forget and pocket it first.

Good, you got your grocery cart, fantastic.  If you brought a car to get the groceries home great, if not, how are you taking it all home?  Did you bring enough reusable bags for everything?  Are you buying laundry soap?  Should have brought your rolling cart.  Yes.  You at 28 years old have a grandma rolling cart to go to the grocery store.  You live fairly close to the grocery store but still, lugging laundry soap and milk gets heavy no matter how far you go.  Take the rolling cart for more that two bags, maybe three of groceries.

You've finally made it in the store, with your cart, you've exhibited self control and not bought coffee or a treat at the bakery in the grocery store, you're doing great so far.  Next, vegetables and fruit.  Unless they're prepackaged or sold individually, you have to bag, weigh and tag the food in the produce department.  If you don't and take it up to the cash register they will tell you to go all the way back out of line to weigh it and run all the way back up to the front of the store....in Hungarian.  Good Luck if you forget.  Don't forget.

Get the Interspar grocery store song stuck in your head...it's really one word that gets stuck but still, "Innnnnnteeeeeerrrrrrrrspaaaaaaaaarrrrrrr" for DAYS.

Here's what you need to remember:

-the word for ground or whole spices
-the names of the spices
-pray there are pictures of the spices on the packages just in case
-remember the word for liver, you don't want that again.  (in my defense it was a breaded liver -sandwich already made.  I do know what liver looks like)
-remember that cream cheese is not cheese cream, it's more like butter cream in this country....still confusing but go with it.  It tastes like cream cheese but the name 'sounds flipped' to your wrong American ears
-there are 10 eggs in a package...the container looks short, the eggs will be brown, there may be a feather on the eggs.  Rinse the eggs when you get home.  But they are fresh, tastier, yellow-orang-ier than in other places where a pale yellow egg passes for grade A.
-remember almonds for granola, you've been out of homemade granola for weeks, no more, you make great granola.

Can't find matches...this was a problem with A.P as well if you remember from her post.  Matches are more important than you think when you have to light the stove top and oven with matches every time. Truth is, just this month AUGUST 2013  I found matches at the Interspar!  I know right?  Where were they the whole time?  Probably next to the coffee filters that seem to disappear each time.  You must be loosing it to NOT find matches at a huge grocery store.  I usually get them at the mini-market or at the hardware store.  I end up buying in bulk and looking like a pyro because of it.  BUT I bought matches at the grocery store and they were right up by the front cash register.  You look shocked at this discovery, the clerk looks at you funny, but they do most of the time.  You are the palest person they've seen all summer, you and your blonde hair stick out.  It's obvious that you are not Hungarian.

Bag your groceries, pay the cashier, hope you can see the price numbers on the screen because even though you know your numbers, she said it SO FAST!!  Bag the rest of the groceries and start your walk home.  Eat the turo rudi that you bought for the walk home.  For you who don't know what a turo rudi is, I'm sorry.

Enjoy your groceries, fill the fridge, eat cereal or popcorn for dinner. Absolutely.