So What's in the Fridge?

In order to facilitate the priority list posted last, we had to get some food. When we have traveled to other places in the past, I always tell John that I want to go “where the normal people go.” In other words, I want to hang out at the Bryan, Texas Walmart Supercenter for that area. Perhaps this sounds strange to you, but I bet you know what I mean—escape the tourist stuff and see what the place is really like.

In Doha, doing this is complex. How do you define “normal” when the vast majority of the population is immigrant from varied regions of the world? So to start, “normal” for us here would mean the western and European (i.e., generally more wealthy) expats. Many of these expats work for oil companies and are paid rather handsomely, and food prices reflect both the expense of importation and the market’s willingness to pay.

So our first stop was the French Walmart of Doha, a giant store called “Carrefour.” You can take comfort in how “western” it looks on the outside and inside.  It's located in a Villagio mall...yes, similar to the one in Las Vegas (with the same ceilings painted to look like the sky and storefronts constructed to look like a village).

Both the fun and challenge of Carrefour is that the products are what you would expect in a French superstore. They are generally marked in English, but that type/font is much smaller than the French and Arabic labeling. This makes shopping an adventure, which would actually be fascinating…if one were well rested and not dragging three exhausted children along.

So here’s what the fridge looks like now:

That is a box of Chardonnay on the left (thank you, John!), then milk, then jalapenos, then Laughing Cow brand cream cheese spread (holy schnikies it is good on crackers), and club soda (paging Dr. Collins!).  Carrefour also carries the most lusciously delicious yogurt and little yogurt-sized containers of custard that I have ever eaten.  The labels do contain English, but especially at Carrefour, it is much smaller than the Arabic and French labeling.  At the other stores, the labeling in primarily Arabic but with English, too.

One thing John learned--here, milk comes in three types: regular milk like you would expect, Labneh (a type of buttermilk that people drink...when I looked it up online, "Labneh" was strained yogurt, but this comes in milk cartons...I'll have to study that more), and Long-Life milk (pasteurized and packed in such a way that it can be unrefrigerated before opening).  So you have to pay attention to what you're getting.

The grocery stores also come in a wide variety.  The big places for Westerners are Carrefour, Family Food, Lulu, and Giant.  I hear Family Food is the best for a balance of selection and price, but we haven't gone there yet. We have gone to two small (Franklin sized) "local" groceries, and I really liked them.  At one of those, I got two loaves of locally-baked bread, a package of minced lamb, two packages of crackers, and six small containers of yogurt for a grand total of $10.  At Carrefour, that would have been more like double, I think.

What you cannot see in the above photo, but what is equally important, is the pot of Ramen noodles on one of the lower shelves...