I’m a herbalist, a homoeopath believer, a natural home remedy taker, I try clean and organic, fresh and clean, eating and medicating without having to take antibiotics.
The saying that new Olim are new “Cholim” (Which means newly sick) is true. In the short 2 months we’ve been here myself, Jason and the kids have all experienced a bout of illnesses. I got Laryngitis and lost my voice for about 10 days. *happy hubby ran around the apartment with gleeful smirks due to the silence*
I tried every known remedy to get my vocal cords to respond, I gargled with concoctions beyond the imagination, I finally used what we call “Cayenne Pepper” .
I decided to order said Cayenne pepper from the grocery store, I do a shop once a week either on-line through Shufersal On-line or I venture out and do a physical shop… In an earlier blog I started telling you about Shufersal… Shufersal is the supermarket I mainly shop at… It would be the equivalent to Pick n pay in SA. However Shufersal gets broken down into a number of its own chain stores, you get Shufersal Deal, Shufersal Sheli and Shufersal express… Each has similar or same products but the prices are outrageously different for said products, why? Who knows, certainly not me, the shops look almost identical and well they share the same name!
Its not the only place to shop for groceries here in Israel. There are a few power houses that monopolise the grocery store industry and they are found in every area.
So you get :
“Chatzi Chinum” which reminds me of “Checkers”
“Rami Levy” which is like “Spar”.
“Eden Teva market” which is probably the closest option to “Woollies”, Oh woollies how I miss you!
(FYI : Not included in my list are the markets with all the amazing fruits and vegetables, cheese and the fresh produce places, I’m now solely discussing the grocery chain stores…)
HOWEVER
All these shops are super sized, super super super sized; they are the size of Makro, yes, they are that size if not bigger! Tons and tons of products to choose from… Tons and tons… in bulk…
So when going to said shops its a whirlwind of emotions for me, you can’t simply walk in and purchase a milk, there are 12 different milk companies that are offering you percentage after percentage of a variety of milk, in a variety of packaging and a variety of volumes! My brain starts to frizzle then it short circuits and finally goes blank,my eyes gloss and I get a dead pan stare, intense stare at the fridges……………
After regaining consciousness I finally decide to follow the lady that just walk by and add whatever she is adding into her trolley. “I am not a stalker lady I just have difficulty choosing my own products due to the variety of choices and the fact that I read Hebrew like a Grade 1 child and that half the ingredients are in Arabic or Russian or the letters all blur and I no longer know what language I’m reading!!!!” PANIC ATTACK!!!! ALARM BELLS, ALL SENSES ARE ON LOCK DOWN, DO NOT CRY IN THE GROCERY STORE OVER MILK, DO NOT…
Breath… and count 1
Breath…. and count 2
Breath…. and count 3
So I ordered Cayenne pepper right, but Cayenne pepper never arrived, they delivered Paprika. Will this do the same thing? Is this the same thing? They are both red and hot? Right? WRONG! NO THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING. Luckily my parents had sent me some Cayenne Pepper that arrived with a family member the following day. Lucky me *happy dance*
At this point I realised that no matter where I do my shopping, on-line or at the actual store; both are going to take time getting used to. I need to breath…
And when all else fails, I’ll patiently wait for the next person to arrive from South Africa with Cayenne Pepper for me! By the way, gargling with Cayenne Pepper works like a charm and my voice came back louder than ever!
life with some spice 