Grocery Shopping in Kaohsiung

Sunday, it seems, is my grocery day.  Overall I stop at the little local afternoon outdoor markets to get fruit, veggies, fish and meats but every other Sunday or so, I need to go out to get those things I can't get at that market.  It's grocery store time and honestly, this is not my favorite.  Why?  Because I have to do this all with my bicycle.  In the states, in general, we hop into our car, drive to the grocery store, buy what we want without a thought of how we will get it home and off we go.  Here, I can only bring home what I can carry in my little basket at the front of my bike and my backpack.  And when you have to get things like detergent or olive oil, you have to think carefully of what you can not only carry but what you can squeeze in without killing yourself.

Today we biked down to Jason's Market Place in the heart of Kaohsiung.  It takes about 30 minutes to ride there and it's not far from the Love River so you can bike down quite easily from my apartment. Here is their website: Jason's  It is below a department store so there is a lot of traffic in the area. Pretty much every big store is several stories above ground or several stories below ground.  For Jason's, you walk through the cosmetics and perfume part of the department store, isn't that always the case, and go down 3 floors to the grocery store. There were many international items there like Frank's hot sauce (one of my favorites), capers, olives and the like.  I found some produce I don't find everywhere so the majority of my basket was produce like radishes, celery, romaine lettuce and spinach.  The rest I had to think carefully.

 I walked past the shelves of ramen and local items.

 I declined the beautiful sushi....

and sashimi.  

This was the first place I found sparkling water that wasn't flavored.  I bought some sparking mineral water (and as soon as I got home I made myself a whiskey and soda).  Don't judge, I needed it after my ride back.  I had to buy olive oil and vinegar and I also found pickled jalapenos and kalamata olives.  Are you kidding me!?  Yay!  I found some capers and anchovies too so I'm going to make a Puttanesca sauce this week. Nomnom.

I really didn't buy that much but I filled my backpack and a bag that fit nicely in my basket - all for the sum of $60.  Like I've said before, things are crazy cheap here!  Here's where the story and my dislike of grocery shopping with a bicycle takes a turn.  I love my bicycle but one thing I have found is that if there is any weight in the basket, taking any sharp turn is difficult.  And with the weight on my back thrown in, it made my bike ride a bit of a battle.  That's okay, I've gotten used to that somewhat but this makes the return trip a little more of a struggle.

What I forgot is that as soon as the sun starts setting, everyone and their mother comes out for a stroll and a bike ride.  Not only was my bike ride home a challenge with about 50 pounds of groceries, but I was dodging dogs, bikes, kids and grammies left and right.  Go back to my bike ride blog and you'll see how treacherous this all is. I was in a complete sweat when I got home and decided that, from now on, I will do my 3 times a week stop at the little outdoor market and fruit/veggie stands but will leave the once or twice a month grocery shopping to a cab ride there and back.  For $10 round trip, it is not worth the bike trip back. I'm exhausted!