You Can't Always Get What You Want

As a middle-class American, I'm used to being able to get whatever I want whenever I want. I think it's in the Constitution. In Kragujevac, the variety of products available is unexpectedly broad. I can get Gillette razors or Nike sneakers or McDonald's hamburgers (not that I necessarily would - I'm just saying I could). This general availability of things makes it even more surprising when I really can't find something. So I've been a little disconcerted by the trouble we're having at the supermarket.

When you walk into your local Shaws or Stop & Shop, the first thing you see is the incredible array of fruits and vegetables. Foods are shipped in from all over the world to cater to our desires. Want a mango? No problem. How about some bok choy? One aisle over.

We have a market, called the Maxi, that looks very much like an American supermarket. Except that the only vegetables you can get are the ones in season right now. Shocking, no? The upside is that everything is very fresh and super tasty. I'm just sad we missed the summer harvest - I've heard all about the amazing raspberries. So when I go to the Maxi, I have no idea what we're going to cook in the week ahead. It depends on what they have on their shelves. Today we were delighted by some fennel. Hopefully fall vegetables will start to show up soon. What will we do in the winter? Frozen veggies. Most locals I know pickle peppers and other summer produce to tide them over.

Here's another weird thing about the supermarket - from what we can tell, people here cook mainly Serbian foods. Because that's all we can find the ingredients for. No salsa, curry, or teriyaki. This is tough for us, because we make our meals (specifically, Dan makes our meals) out of ingredients from all over. We're also missing some classic American things. Despite the amazing number of chocolate products, many made by Nestle, I can't find toll house chocolate chips. Maple syrup? Nowhere to be found.

While we are missing some of our old standbys, we're also enjoying food shopping as a whole new experience. We really have to look at all the products available and evaluate - what can we do with this? How can we adapt our old recipes? There's a new challenge to shopping and cooking, and I think we'll end up with a more varied food repertoire because we can't run out to the supermarket to pick up exactly what we want.

At the Embassy in Belgrade, there is a commissary stocking US food items. It's $45 a year to join (available to American citizens only). We opted not to join since we're not going to be in Belgrade that often, and when we are, I don't expect to be food shopping. What I've heard is that it's perfect when you need a fix of something distinctly American. I wonder if they stock my teriyaki sauce?