We were long overdue a relaxing holiday as Mr Jen and I figured out that we’ve never actually managed to take a holiday together that didn’t end up involving visiting friends/family and a hectic schedule. I wanted to head east so that the time difference would work in our favour in terms of the Monkey’s wake up time. I did my dissertation at uni on the French Pacific so I’d always been interested in visiting New Caledonia. I had heard that it was pretty expensive but when I realised I could get the flights on frequent flyers I couldn't resist.
New Caledonia is a “territorial collective with special status” of France – I won’t go into details but I suppose its kind of like a colony. As confirmed Francophiles, Mr Jen and I were excited about it being a little piece of France without a 24 hour flight! The native people in New Caledonia are Melanesian plus there has been a significant influence from Polynesian, Indonesian, Vietnamese and of course French migrants which have all got to lead to some exciting food options.
I must start by admitting that I have what can only be described as a fetish for foreign supermarkets so the prospect of French supermarkets was potentially one of the things I was most looking forward to on this holiday. Eating out is expensive here (although but no means as expensive as I had been expecting), but this gave me the excuse to head straight to the supermarket on the morning after we arrived to stock up our apartment.
I was pleased to find that most prices were either the same or slightly more that my local supermarket in Sydney. The best thing was to stick to local produce and French imports – if you wanted Australian imports you’d be paying a significant premium but that certainly wasn’t what I was here for. We stocked up on a variety of cheese, saucisson sec (salami type thing), salad veggies and some kitchen staples - including French butter of course which I would eat by the spoonful if I could! Despite all the fabulous French imports, Mr Jen was most excited by the big jars of Dry Roasted Peanuts which he can never get hold of in Australia.....
I don’t know what it is about French supermarkets in particular, the quality of the in store butchers and cheese counter is always great but I’m also a sucker for a bit of exotic packaging – I think I’ll be bringing the table salt back to Sydney purely for that!
We’ll no doubt be making another supermarket trip and I can’t wait – is it wrong to look forward to that more than the beach?
New Caledonia is a “territorial collective with special status” of France – I won’t go into details but I suppose its kind of like a colony. As confirmed Francophiles, Mr Jen and I were excited about it being a little piece of France without a 24 hour flight! The native people in New Caledonia are Melanesian plus there has been a significant influence from Polynesian, Indonesian, Vietnamese and of course French migrants which have all got to lead to some exciting food options.
I must start by admitting that I have what can only be described as a fetish for foreign supermarkets so the prospect of French supermarkets was potentially one of the things I was most looking forward to on this holiday. Eating out is expensive here (although but no means as expensive as I had been expecting), but this gave me the excuse to head straight to the supermarket on the morning after we arrived to stock up our apartment.
I was pleased to find that most prices were either the same or slightly more that my local supermarket in Sydney. The best thing was to stick to local produce and French imports – if you wanted Australian imports you’d be paying a significant premium but that certainly wasn’t what I was here for. We stocked up on a variety of cheese, saucisson sec (salami type thing), salad veggies and some kitchen staples - including French butter of course which I would eat by the spoonful if I could! Despite all the fabulous French imports, Mr Jen was most excited by the big jars of Dry Roasted Peanuts which he can never get hold of in Australia.....
I don’t know what it is about French supermarkets in particular, the quality of the in store butchers and cheese counter is always great but I’m also a sucker for a bit of exotic packaging – I think I’ll be bringing the table salt back to Sydney purely for that!
We’ll no doubt be making another supermarket trip and I can’t wait – is it wrong to look forward to that more than the beach?
I agree about French supermarkets. It's the little things that I go crazu for and before I know it, I've got a suitcase full of supermarket goodies!
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