8. "Open All Hours!" (If we feel like it.)

Just a few lines on shopping here.

Anyone moving to a rural area of Greece is in for quite a shock when they first come to stock up the fridge and the food cupboards. I'm sure that Athens and other big (?) cities in Greece will be different, but out here "in the sticks" super/hypermarkets don't exist. What the Greeks call a supermarket is more akin to your local Spar or Tesco local, with not as much choice. This state of affairs is obviously due to the fact that there is not a density of population to support 40,000 sq. metres of shelving groaning under the weight of a myriad of product choices. The best that we have on offer is Lidl and Champion Marinopolous. Size wise these compare with the Lidl stores in the UK, but they are, of course, stocked with Greek goods. From our point of view, we are glad to have them; even if the nearest Champion is 15kms away and the nearest Lidl is a 45km drive. Not at all like popping round to Asda; so we shop once a month and, if we forget something, tough!

In the village we are blessed with 2 butchers, a greengrocers, a bakery and two "corner shop type" supermarkets, where the service is second to none. We are always greeted with smiles and extreme courtesy regardless of the amount we spend, and we are careful to spread our money around to avoid accusations of favouritism.

We have had to re learn the art of shopping seasonally (we are old enough to remember when fruit and veg were only available at certain times of the year) and adjust our meal planning accordingly. However, once having adapted to this change, we had to adapt to Greek opening times!! Just like TV schedules, these are completely arbitrary. A prime example is the baker (lovely bread) who announced towards the end of April that from the 1st. May (start of the tourist season) he would be open all day, every day. Having got used to buying bread as and when we needed it, Margaret went at about 2.30pm one day to find the shop closed. Trying again at about 7pm she discovered the baker playing cards at the Cafenion opposite and had to wait until he finished his hand, before he ambled across to the shop to serve her! A trip to the greengrocer is a joy. You select the best looking cucumber you can find and present it for payment. An incomprehensible response from the owner is followed by the selection of the BEST cucumber and you get your selection free!

Buying meat is even better. For some reason, as yet unexplained, different meats are not always available everyday. Go to buy a chicken (which tastes like chicken should) and you may be told "Avrio" (tomorrow); so once again, you alter your menu planning. And another thing, in a country famous for its' lamb dishes, how come we can't buy it over the counter here? Look at the grill section of the menu in any taverna within 50kms of here, and the first item is lamb chops. Try buying your own from the butcher, no chance!! Ask for minced beef and then stand and watch as he takes a side of STEAK from the fridge, cuts off 2 generous slices and then minces it for you. The same applies to cubed beef for stews etc. It is cut from the same side of meat. Pork is the same. Pork chops by the bag load, but belly pork, leg of pork? Sorry, but either our Greek is not good enough yet (very probable) or there is an awful lot of wasted meat in Hellas!!
There again, "you have to laugh", as they say. Every visit, to any shop, can be very entertaining.
Take today, for example. Sitting with a coffee, under the shade of a huge tree, in a local taverna we were deciding what was going to be on tonights menu. A simple steak and salad was the consensus and off trotted Margaret to the butchers next door. On entering the shop she discovered said butcher and his wife trying to cope with 3 other customers. Now, to them, this corresponds to Saturday afternoon at Sainsburys when all the tills have gone down! The greek way of coping is.................
Butchers wife starts feeding Margaret with fresh waffle(???) and saying "moskari (beef) avrio."
Meanwhile, the butcher, fully aware that Margaret wants steak, proceeds to cut and wrap 2 huge pork chops, charges her 3.60 euro, and moves back to another customer. Butchers wife (smiling broadly) then presents Margaret with more waffle, which went down nicely with my coffee!

Pork chop, egg and chips for dinner, darling?