As you may recall, one of things we like to do right away in a new place is to go grocery shopping. This is, of course, a necessity: we have to eat. But it’s more than that, at least for John, who is fascinated by grocery stores. (He worked in his uncle’s grocery store from the time he was 8 until his late teens.) So it’s not just an opportunity to find food. It’s another way to get to know a place.
As it happens, our new neighbourhood, in addition to all its other wonderful qualities, has two good grocery stores nearby. Only a stone’s throw from us is the ‘Alpha-Sigma’ grocery store chain, so called from the name of its owner, A. Sophocles. (As classicists, we feel this was a sign from heaven.)
It was a little unprepossessing when we first saw it. What we didn’t realise, however, was that there was an entire level underground, which was about five times the size of the ground-level floor.
On the first floor are fruits and vegetables, water and soft drinks, cookies and crackers, and a very impressive array of alcohol, including much gin. (We assume this is the British influence.) On the level below, you find the bakery, the butcher, a long wall of frozen foods of all sorts, canned goods, and milk, butter, and (many kinds of) yogurt. But perhaps the most noteworthy thing is the very very large celery we bought. It did not fit into the refrigerator uncut…
Alpha-Sigma has is a section of Russian foods and, more to our taste, a large supply of Waitrose and Iceland products – again, the British influence. But something we didn’t have even in Oxford because the Waitrose was too far away! In general, Mr Sophocles has pretty much everything we want, and we feel fortunate that it is so close.
For our more adventurous days, there is a Lidl about half a mile away. These stores resemble Aldi stores (though they’re not related) in the U.K. or Trader Joe’s in the U.S. They have many varieties of what they sell and generally lower prices if you buy in bulk. The Lidl here in Limassol has a superb cheese and dried meats section, some yummy baked goods, and about 20 varieties of olive oil. The wide aisles give it something of an industrial look, especially when compared with our small local store. But it’s pretty clear we’ll be using both for our cooking and eating needs. We’ve also discovered a large green market, Fruitopia, with an enormous selection of gorgeous-looking vegetables and fruits.
So it looks as if we won’t starve here in Limassol either. And it also looks as if we won’t have those beach bodies we’d been planning on, despite running and walking every day. Oh well, sometimes you just have to make sacrifices.
