Throwback Thursday from April 2016

Throwback Thursday – from Ireland

Grocery Shopping Can Be Fun

YOU CAN EVEN SURPRISE ME once in a while – and that’s not easy anymore. After being so long on this planet one sees most things and the variations on those things that crop up along the way.

While I make no claims to any superpowers. I barely have any skills at all other than an active imagination and decent powers of observation. I do notice things.

The other day we were shopping at the “Super Value” market in Ireland near our home for a week when, on the shelf next to 23 kinds of mustard I saw this –>

I grew up with Hellman’s Mayo, but O’Hellman’s? I laughed out loud. That doesn’t happen very often in the supermarket. Somebody in the UK advertising department for the Hellman’s people must have had a liquid lunch and then thought, “Blimey! I’ve got a good idea! I think I’ll have a few more martinis and then pitch this to the boss.”

Another interesting thing I’ve noticed on the supermarket shelves is the abundance of the “Old El Paso” brand of Mexican food items. Tex-Mex cuisine has been popular in Ireland for some time now. What I find unique about that stuff is that their local HQ is in Switzerland. Switzerland?

“Have some tacos and you too will be able to yodel.”

After a long shopping run we needed to stop for a cool drink – so, of course, we pulled into a parking space and walked into the local KFC.

As we sat there sipping away I wondered out loud to my wife, the lovely and internationally cuisinable, Dawn, “I wonder how one might explain The Colonel to the Irish?” It was a strictly rhetorical question – and was treated as such. That means that she looked at me, didn’t answer, and went back to her Coca-Cola.

Speaking of her drinking a Coca-Cola, I should tell you that Dawn is singlehandedly responsible for Dr. Pepper moving up into fourth place in popularity in the States. That’s not the case here in Ireland. Trying to find Dr. Pepper in Ireland is like trying to find a Japanese sushi restaurant in the Central African Republic. It’s possible, but you’ll have to do some legwork.

Before flying over I asked a FB friend who lives in Ireland about it. She went out of her way to do some research. It was invaluable.

When we arrived in country we verified her findings – You won’t find the Good Doctor in the major stores. Not even close. We were inside one supermarket and I saw the delivery guy from Coca-Cola admiring a huge display of Coke products. He was even taking pictures of it. I moseyed over and asked him why he didn’t have any Dr. Pepper in his ten foot high monument to carbonated beverages. He smiled and looked at me as if I was asking him in some obscure Bulgarian dialect. Maybe he didn’t talk to Yanks while working. Or maybe I have an American accent that is unintelligible to the Irish ear. Or maybe he just didn’t know the answer to my question.

Miracle of miracles though, we did locate Dr. Pepper, in cans, on sale at “Dealz” – the Irish version of a Dollar Store. We cleaned off the shelf and Dawn has her elixir of life.

All it takes is some persistence, some imagination, and some realization that, while you may be far from home, you can always find that little piece of comfort for your soul and palate – whether it be Dr. Pepper, KFC, or even O’Hellman’s Mayonnaise.

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