Nearly every time I go in to the Food Works to buy something I catch myself singing along to some soft rock tune. Today it was Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You”. Last time it was Kenny Rogers’ “Lucille” and “Islands in the Stream”. Before that it was the BeeGees’ “Mr. Jones”. Today it was “Jessica” by the Allman Brothers, which made me chuckle as it’s a running joke in a Mystery Science Theater Episode called The Thing That Wouldn’t Die. But occasionally I’ll hear something new. There was one song that sounded like a chamber music cover version of Bad Moon Rising by CCR, that I really liked and later looked up. It was performed by a band called “The Reels”, a 1980s indie-rock pop group from New South Wales. Very nice. The music playing through the speaker system was always just a local radio station so I also heard plenty of commercials as well as news and weather reports in between songs. Going into that store was honestly like crawling into an old jukebox.
There are two main grocers here in Monto: IGA and Foodworks, supplied by Miller’s Gourmet Meats and Monto Meats respectively. Because the Foodworks was a closer walk, they were my shop of choice, but it was nice to have the other as a fallback. There weren’t that many people in those places to begin with, but once Coronavirus hit and restrictions were put in place, there were even fewer at one time. Even so, it was the one public place I had to go to during self isolating and it always felt a bit like running the gauntlet.
Many of the foods in the stores here are either similar to those back home, the same but with different names, or new altogether. For example you can find Corn Flakes and Fruit Loops, but instead of Rice Krispies and Raisin Bran, you’ll find Rice Bubbles and Sultana Bran. You’ll also find Weetbix, Milo Cereal, and Apricot Almond Muesli (drool). There are also Coco Pops, which are somewhere between chocolate Rice Krispies and Cocoa Pebbles (Yaba Daba Droooooooooool). Panadol instead of Excedrin, Copha instead of Crisco, Staminade instead of Gatorade. You get the idea.
Of course one of the big differences that hits you immediately, has to do with the price tags. Though I’m used to it now, I had serious sticker shock at first. But once again the high price is generally mitigated by the conversion rate favoring the US dollar. Although having said this, it’s also been said that because the town is small, the shops minimal, and bigger stores over an hour away, price gouging is a common practice as there’s little choice if you need to buy something right away.
Food Works has two registers and plexiglass shields to stand behind when being rung out. These were installed due to virus worries, as were the floor stickers and spacing dots. This little store had everything I needed from batteries to baking goods to Glade candles, and I saw the people there so often that they began to feel very familiar. It was quaint and quite nice.
There is a small produce area with some uniquely different foods, the most unusual of these being lychees. From China, these are in the soapberry family. They have spiny pinkish casings and have to be peeled to get at the tasty fruit underneath. Though loved by many, I just can’t get past their appearance. (Shallow, I know) Although sweet and often used in deserts, they look a little too much like bot fly larva when peeled for me to want to put them in my mouth. This, I have just now decided, should probably go on my growing list of Herculean feats to accomplish. I also recently discovered prickly cucumbers in my yard, which I’m told can be eaten, so those will be next.
Also there is a small detail to do with bananas. While at the Craigs’ many months ago I spied a bunch of bananas with red tips. Fiona had explained that they were dipped in red wax and said something about the process making the bananas last longer, from what I recall. But it turns out that the red wax tips of these fruits are the patented trademark of a single company focused on natural farming. The tips are an ingenius way to give their product immediate recognisibility in stores. And they really are a superior product. Unlike so many foods that have been altered or treated chemically to be bigger and juicer (but ultimately less firm and tasty), these “eco bananas” are what bananas were always meant to be. Put another way, they’re the “Bruce Wayne” of bananas instead of the modified, “Steve Rogers” ones. For those who toss and turn at night thinking about bananas, I’ve included a link below.
http://www.eco-banana.com.au/ecobananas/
Another novelty for me was ginger beer. Ginger beer is no more alcoholic than ginger ale, but it is actually brewed and fermented unlike the the ale, which is just flavored carbonated water. Ginger beer is also thicker, stronger, and more spicy than its carbonated cousin. I suppose it’s a bit like the difference between apple cider and apple juice. Also, while Highballs are made with the ginger ale, Moscow mules are often made with ginger beer.
Oh! And they had treacle!! This was exciting because the only frame of reference I had for this substance was the section from Alice in Wonderland where the dormouse mentions it. It’s so absolutely non-North American that I immediately fell in love with the word long ago. (Kind of like “mugwump”, although that is of American invention, and that actually only happened yesterday). Now I suppose I’ll have to find a treacle recipe and buy some. There’s an old fisherman’s celebratory drink which calls for two parts gin and one part treacle, so maybe I’ll see if I can find a giant top hat to wear while drinking it.
One other small, but special moment for me was looking for honey one day and, after finding the right section, seeing a squeeze bottle with a sloped, rubber top. It was one of those Ratatouille moments where I was immediately sent back to the first grade and sitting in art class surrounded by kids who all had white Elmer’s glue. In front of me was something entirely different. As I stared at this honey bottle, I racked my brain to remember what the stuff was called. It wasn’t until doing an image search later that I finally found it. It was called “Mucilage” and it had the color and consistency of maple syrup. It had a sort of lopsided nipple at the top that you sort of had to smear onto an area and therefore lacked the pinpoint accuracy needed for art projects where hole punched dots of colored construction paper needed to be affixed to small precisely beaded droplets of glue. It was probably my earliest instance of feeling and acting like a snobby, tortured artist as I threw up my hands, informed my mother that I couldn’t work with such cheap material, and warned that if a bottle of Elmer’s wasn’t in my art box by Monday she was fired. (Or at least something like that must’ve happened because my relationship with Mucilage was extremely short lived.) However seeing a reminder of the stuff after so long made me nostalgic nonetheless.
The expiry dates are listed differently here. Whereas one might say ‘October the third’ in the US, here it would be ‘Fourth October’. This is reflected in the way the date is written. This caused some trouble for me at the bank in Sydney as I went to open an account, because I kept telling them my birth date was 4/5/1974, which of course means May 5th here and so it took a few tries and a sudden flash of realization to get things sorted. I would see ‘use by’ dates that said 14/6/2020 and spend a moment wondering when extra months got added to the calendar.
One final note is that bags are never offered. You are encouraged to bring your own, and I soon had a collection of reusable plastic bags I made frequent use of. But for those who would rather not be bothered with carrying around bags, this store offered a rather sensible alternative. After the weekly shipment came in and the products were removed, the emptied boxes went onto a shelf at the store entrance. These could be used for shopping in addition to the trolleys outside. This was a great idea as it made carrying my groceries back home much easier. I can still remember carrying groceries home a half mile when I was in college and having the heavy plastic bags cutting off the circulation in my fingers! The added bonus of boxes was that I always had plenty of cardboard to cut up or burn as needed. Unfortunately, like so many things here, it’s an idea that I could never see being utilized back home despite it’s usefulness, if for no other reason because people would complain that it looked messy or made the store look cheap. Sigh.
It’s a strange thing to step outside of your own nationality and reexamine it, not to mention having the opportunity to re evaluate one’s own habits and values in the light of a new perspective.
Mentioning stores back home reminds me of places such as Giant Eagle and Target. In Monto there is nothing approaching shops of that scale, but they can be found in larger cities; or at least odd facsimilies of them can be. Fast food. Shopping centers. Restaurants. The works. So if Monday is good for you, we’ll take a trip to Bundaberg and get some proper shopping done.
A day destined to be remembered as ‘Bundy Mundy’.
Enjoyed the kookaburra. Are there any in US? Food does look a bit different and so do the prices. Enjoy.
Hi Kathy. Nice to hear from you. Kookaburras need eucalypt forest, so they’re only here. The kingfisher is in the same family though. Take care!
Hi Kathy. Kookaburras are in the Kingfisher family. The Kookaburra is the largest in the Kingfisher genus.