I’ve gotten some questions about the food and grocery situation here, especial when it comes to the Gents. The curiosity is completely understandable. I’m always interested to see what products are in grocery stores in other countries. Figured I’d do a little run down for you on what it’s like to grocery shop in KSA!
Upon arrival it was really important that we get to a grocery store as soon as possible. Coming off of living in a hotel for two weeks, I was eager to start getting back into my food routine. I've eaten a fruit and veggie smoothie nearly every morning for the last two years. You can imagine how “off” I felt after two weeks of Baked and Wired savory biscuits...YUM, though! In the first two weeks in Riyadh, J and I made 6 different grocery runs. Each trip was a bit of a struggle given that these are new stores with entirely different products, while hunting for the items we needed, building up a pantry, making sure we have more than enough options for C&R, and have food for nearly every meal since we couldn't eat out for dinner during Ramadan. By the way, I’m writing this after finally doing a grocery run without J!
As I’ve mention before, call to prayer is a challenge. We always think about prayer times when planning anything outside of our home or Embassy. For instance, if we’re going out to dinner or to get groceries we want to get to the destination before prayer time because they won’t let anyone in once it starts. If you’re in between prayer times then it’s a race to get to where you need and get out before it starts. People have told us their experience of getting stuck at the grocery store or IKEA because the checkout people are expected to drop whatever they are doing at that moment, even if it’s mid-checkout. You can shop during prayer time, but you can’t leave the store. Prayer time lasts about 30 minutes, so it’s a good amount of time for grocery shopping. There are six throughout the day: Fajr (overnight), Sunrise, Dhuhr (noon-ish), Asr (mid-afternoon), Maghrib (sundown), Isha (evening). And the times vary based on which branch or school practiced, as well as sunrise and sundown. Of course there is an app that tracks all of this, which I downloaded so I'm top of it!
The grocery stores here are pretty good. There is Tamimi, which is actually Safeway and it’s fine to get basic stuff. Carrefour is the French chain and disappointing except for bread (I wish Monoprix was here!). Danube is a local chain and our favorite because they have a lot specialty items (almond milk, gluten free pasta, organic items), a limited but decent cheese section, good bread, and the nicest selection of produce. We also go out to the commissary at Eskan Air Force base to get the American stuff on the cheap.
For the most part the stores are just like back home, with a few noticeable differences – expensive Western items, lots of white cheeses and a ton of sweets. Most American and European products that aren’t produced in the region have a BIG markup. There are a TON of white Arabic cheeses that all look exactly the same to me except for their shape and there is one side of a dairy aisle full of cream cheese (??). I do hope to learn about all of the cheeses before we leave though! Biscuits/cookies have an entire aisle and chocolate has another aisle. Clearly sweets are a big deal here.
Aside from our Eskan American junk food staples of Cheetos, Pop Tarts and the like (in moderation of course), we do eat a LOT of produce. We've been doing well with eating pretty healthy since we've arrived. I’m back on smoothies in the mornings. Avocado toast and quinoa salads are my go-to lunches. Yes! We get good Mexico and California avocados, which are about $7/lb (if my kg to lb and SAR to USD calculations are correct), which isn’t bad. Now that we’re working out regularly in the evenings we’re trying to keep it light with some sort of protein and veg or big yummy salads. I’m not really into cooking during the summer anyway. Plus, I look forward to pizza and steak nights at the Embassy so I don't have to cook and can be social.
We’re getting into a new phase with the Gents. Thankfully I can find their usual foods. C will eat anything you put in front of him, whereas R is getting really picky. It’s showing, too. C is definitely getting taller and chubbier. Breakfast is the easiest meal of oatmeal and berry applesauce, yes, that I still make. I’m sneaking beetroot and dragon fruit in the applesauce to get R some variation of really healthy fruit and veg. Lunch is chicken, fish or shrimp with mixed veggies and some fruit. R will only eat chicken, tilapia and corn right now. God only knows what fruit he might eat. Grapes? Golden Kiwi? No, of course not the pedestrian green kiwi! I was shocked to learn of a recent update from our nanny that he’ll eat oranges, skin off of course. Dinner is usually pasta and fruit. R thankfully still loves his bananas. And I’ve been sneaking Greek yoghurt in because he needs the extra calories and protein.
All in all, not much has changed for us. We’ve made some variations to the regular items we’d buy, but it’s really not much different than how we’d eat or shop back home. As I’ve said before, there are so many more difficult posts we could be in the world and Riyadh isn’t so bad!
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If this post hasn’t bored you already, here are some experiences and lessons learned so far…
Produce isn’t always marked or identified properly. Buying greens can be a crapshoot. Some are easy to identify like lettuce, parsley, mint, basil, and then there are a bunch of others. One actually looks like thick blades of grass. I still don’t know what it is. I’ve taken my chances and have figured out which is spinach (it looks like a cross between spinach and arugula/rocket here) and that silk greens (which look similar to beetroot greens) work well in smoothies. I picked the wrong greens once and had very peppery smoothies.
C&R love fish and shrimp. We made the mistake of buying a nondescript “white fish” and shrimp our first time out at Tamimi. Both had the strangest consistencies. The fish took forever to “cook” and it still looked raw and rubbery. The shrimp was badly freezer burnt so they were mushy. Fortunately we can get good quality frozen tilapia and jumbo shrimp at Eksan.
Fage Greek yoghurt has a ridiculous 3-4x markup, and they don’t sell it as Eskan. So we buy the one Saudi brand. It’s fine, but Fage is soooooo much better!
You all know of my love of meats and cheese. Any American or European cheeses are usually the processed ones. We can get some decent European cheeses at Danube, but the selection is limited. We’ve augmented our collection with what’s also available at Eataly. It’s pricey, but it’s our one food splurge that we really enjoy. And obviously there is no cured pork. Sadly the only charcuterie meat available is bresola.
Detergent, cleaning products, Ziploc bags, good toilet paper and paper towels are so expensive at the local stores. Thankfully we have Eskan for all of this. It’s almost akin to doing a Costco run because we end up stocking on so much while we’re there.
And we are now relying on Amazon for some things because I have gotten a little lazy. I buy the fruit and veg pouches to take with us for the Gents when we go out for dinner. I used to be so good about making ALL of their food, but I discovered after the Paris trip that the pouches really are convenient. C&R also really like their Annie’s cheddar bunnies and grahams, which we have to get on Amazon.
Oh, and tampons. Not surprisingly, that they aren’t available in any local stores and the selection at Eksan is terrible. I really don’t know what I’d do without Amazon.
Speaking of, it takes about 2 weeks to get Prime shipments so I definitely have to plan ahead now. And I’m pleasantly surprised with the retailers that ship to APO addresses. Nespresso, J. Crew, Zappos, and Nike we’ve ordered from so far. And for those that don’t ship to APO, those packages can be sent to address in Dulles, VA and it gets pouched to us.
The shipping conveniences are afforded to us because of being associated with the US Embassy. Diplomats at other embassies or expats living at compounds do not have an APO. I was just reading a Facebook post by a mother, who lives on the DQ and is going to Canada, asking what she should buy while she’s there…ughhhhh, I’m so glad we don’t have to worry about that. We're really well taken care of!