Grocery Shopping

Some people have asked what it's like to go grocery shopping around here, so I've been documenting the different places we go to buy food, and I think we have a good representation of the different places. The nice thing about this city is that there is a wide variety of grocery stores, so you can go as upscale, or as low tech (farmer's market) as you want.

Exito! 

 Exito is so far in our experience the Publix and Super Walmart of Medellin. Exito has different sized stores from Exito Express, Exito supermarket which is only a grocery store, and then there are the big Exito's that have everything! These pictures are taken at a big Exito in the Poblado area.

 There is a nice food court, always kept very clean.

As you can see, it's a very big store...2 floors

You can find virtually anything here, from clothes...

...to electronics....

... to more clothes/toiletries...and giant food section somewhere around here, but I didn't get a picture of it. This is only place in the city that we could find ricotta cheese and some other imported thing.

Sorry no pictures of the food or liquor sections. You'll just have to come and visit to see for yourself!


Consumo

This place is an average grocery store. They have a nice selection of most everything you would need, and the prices are reasonable. 

  They come prepared for Gringos.

There's a small cafe inside this one. It's one of our go to places for a service break if we're close by.

Typical food aisle. Clean...and similar to what you'd expect to see at home.

Mercado Madrid

Mercado Madrid is the grocery store we go to the most as it's only a block or two away from our apartment, so it has the convenience of being close, and they carry almost everything that we need.

Frozen foods and dairy section. 

Toiletries and household supplies. Anything imported to Colombia that you would normally buy in the states is 2-3 times more expensive here (sometimes it's worth it though).

And here are the stairs leading up to another part of the store. 

Upstairs section has a small pharmacy, housewares, and hardware store.

This place also comes well stocked, at slightly inflated prices.

As in many store in the states, they aren't too happy about people taking pictures. One of the workers approached me and told me to put my camera away after I took this one. 

La Vaquita

La Vaquita [The Little Cow]. This is a little grocery store a couple blocks away from our apartment that we pass by on the way home. This place is a little cheaper than the others with a lot less elbow room. 

As always, a nice little produce section. You weigh your produce at a separate register where they give you a receipt with the price before you go to check out.

Aaaand the meat section. Not as appealing as some of the frozen stuff. 

There are also household, dairy, cereal, bread, and liquor sections in this store too.

Minorista

Ahhhh....The Minorista. This is where the deals are, and where a lot of grocery stores come to buy their food.  This place is like a flea market and farmer's market combined, and it can be a little stressful at first unless you know exactly what you're coming in for. There are a LOT of vendors mostly trying to sell you the same vegetables, fruits, herbs, whatever. Your job is to find the best deals, or negotiate your way down to a good price.  This place carries some of the most obscure things that are hard to find in grocery stores (like chocolate chips  & cupcake papers). One thing we learned our first time coming here is to translate your shopping list into Spanish BEFORE you arrive. 

This is the view when you first walk in. Not to mention there is a downstairs area that is just as big. Where do I begin?!

 

Eggs galore!

Household goods are also available upon request, but they are generally cheaper at other places. 

Fruits and vegetables....

...and more fruits and vegetables. We did buy a pound of strawberries for 1000 pesos/lb (~$0.55)

There are plenty of meat and dairy vendors here too.

Lots of vendors sell bulk herbs and oils.

It's a little overwhelming at times and you wonder if you are getting ripped off, but the trick is to find a good vendor, and build a reputation with them so they'll give you better prices. This is probably my favorite place to shop for food because it's always an adventure and we always find something new! 

Publix may offer to walk your groceries out to the car, but here, they will send someone to deliver your stuff right to your house. I don't know if this a common thing in big cities, but a small tip is totally worth it when you're buying a lot of stuff. There are quite a few other little independent shops and grocery stores you can buy food at, but this is just a list of the ones that we go to the most.

Preaching (Early Morning)

Last week we got a group together to meet at 6:00 a.m., and we had our first experience doing public witnessing around the Estadio area. There are a lot of people around there in the morning, but it's not so packed that it's hard to hold a conversation, so it's ideal for finding people to talk to. Some people are on their way to work, going for a morning workout around the stadium, or just sitting around reading the news and drinking their coffee.

Most people stayed around the Metro station where people are coming and going

Mateo has a return visit with a man on this bench. 

Gotta be discrete when taking pictures. By the way, our sisters are standing on a giant checker board. Apparently, they break out the big Chess pieces to play every once in a while.

Aaaand, there's the occasional down time.

One brother and I went inside the Stadium complex and saw this awesomeness. You bet we talked to these guys too.

The English group is growing! There are approximately 4 or 5 studies being conducted so far, and the meeting attendance this Sunday was 54.

Colombian Fruit Series: Guanábana

This installment of the Colombian Fruit Series is the Guanábana, or Soursop. I have been waiting ever since we got here to pick one of these things up. The first time I had one, it was a very different experience for me!  It's packed with vitamins, and research shows that it may have cancer fighting properties (statement not approved by FDA). It's very hard to describe how this fruit tastes, but the taste is as unique as it looks. 

Average size Guanábana (Hand inserted for size comparison). Some look cooler than others with bigger spikes on the outside.

Wikipedia gives an excellent description of the taste: "a combination of strawberry and pineapple, with sour citrus flavor notes contrasting with an underlying creamy flavor reminiscent of coconut or banana." It really is all of those flavors put together. I think I found a bag of Guanábana juice at Publix in Florida one time in the frozen ethnic section (Goya packages it). I highly recommend going to pick some up and making some juice, or a cocktail out of it ;-). We bought this from the Minorista today (more on that place to follow), and it cost us about $6,500 Colombian Pesos, or about $3.50 USD.

 Here's what to expect when you crack one of these bad boys open....

Brace yourself for action! They're actually pretty easy to cut open. The outside skin is sort of leathery. 

Aaaand here's the first look at the inside. Braaaaaains! It looks almost alien on the inside. The seeds are pretty organized throughout the inside. I wonder how the Golden Ratio ties in to this fruit.

Sometimes you can just buy the fruit from a store like this pre-cut in to quarters, or in a bag already juiced.

In this case, we are going to juice it, so we cut off the outside skin. 

On the inside, there are individual pods that are pretty easily separated. 

If you're looking to just eat the stuff animal style, you can simply pick these pods out and eat them!

Just another shot of the seed pods. You eat the outside and spit out the seed. Yes they are slimy, so you can use a spoon instead of your hands to eat them unless you  don't care if things get messy.

The pods separate quite easily from each other. Here's a lineup of some pods with one of the seeds.

This is how you will feel when you try this delicious fruit! 

The Guanábana that we bought was about average sized, and there is a LOT of fruit to go around.