Day 17

Taking stock of what we miss, after friends and family comes UK supermarkets. The range here is limited by comparison and of course it’s the little things that can make the big difference. You don’t really multi-buy in Kazakhstan and there isn’t the varying range of Tesco Value to Tesco Finest. Despite a lot of the foodstuffs being cheaper, it’s the psychological change of having to shop little and often and not being able to vary by going for something that little bit special. I guess we are limited by the language as I did see some great looking steak at the counter. I want to get Mexican spice, Oxo cubes, peppered salami, tiger loaf with salt and pepper crust, Paxo stuffing. I will not pine for these so I guess that coming back to the UK will make these items even more glorious. Adjusting taste buds is all part of the experience of travelling and living in other countries and I am sure that after a while there will be things we miss about Kazakhstan food that we cannot get elsewhere. Right now it is probably a drink called Bio-C, a yoghurt-Actimel blend.

A gripe is the often lack of pricing of their items in Kazakhstani supermarkets. Or today there were two prices, one which seemed to imply a discount and yet we ended up paying the higher one. The counterpoint was that we got free garlic and apples, even though she weighed them and hit various keys, they didn’t appear on the receipt when we searched it after coming home.

Had a great day out, back to Mega where Ali had found Astana’s best cheeseburger and chocolate milkshake. Does seem strange that we seem to spend a lot of time talking about food and trips out to find food. So Ali reminds me that we did play a family game of Crazy Chefs, so I guess the food theme continues! Then we watched Princess Diaries 2, which doesn’t have a lot of food in it, unless you swap a few letters and you get Crisps ‘en Dairies.

Ray