Ford: Food may be a universal experience, but not so the actual foodstuffs around the world

Thanksgiving is so much a part of Canadian culture that it’s a shock to discover that only Norfolk Island celebrates the holiday in Australia.

Different culture; different country.

To experience the reality of how people outside the tourist industry live, go grocery shopping. The local unfiltered culture is found between the fruits and vegetables display and the frozen food freezers.

It’s always a surprise, and here in Australia it turns out there is more to try than Vegemite. There are foodstuffs from all corners of the globe, and even though towns are being Americanized with McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut, American influence is not overwhelming. Indeed, Starbucks closed about 70 per cent of its Australian outlets when its American model of “grab and go” failed.

Australia has its own coffee culture, and Bill Bryson said it best in his book, In A Sunburned Country, published in 2000: “The food is excellent. The beer is cold. The sun nearly always shines. There is coffee on every corner. Life doesn’t get much better than this.”

What makes the food aisles of the two major supermarkets — Woolworths and Coles — so interesting is the variety of foods one never sees at home. What Canada, and particularly Alberta, eats is heavily influenced by America. Australia is influenced by the rest of the world, particularly Asia and its unique processed and packaged foods.

It’s mind-boggling. Safeway and Save On provide choices, but the Australian grocery stores provide choices that illustrate the scene in The Hurt Locker — when Sgt. William James (played by actor Jeremy Renner), who isn’t phased by an Iraqi enemy bomb, is speechless in a grocery aisle when faced with choosing cereal.

He should try standing in front of an aisle of coffee, from instant to beans and every combination in between, all from various countries.

And spices? Name a combination, and you’ll find it in another aisle. Who knew there was something called Everything Egg?

Name two or three herbs, and there is a mixed package available. Bottled water comes in every flavour, as do packaged snacks, yogurt and milk.

Calgarians can buy New Zealand lamb in our grocery stores. But Australian? My only experience with that in my local Save On was a single package of two tiny lamb chops (together they might have covered my right palm). Curious, I picked it up to discover it came from Australia.

Then I came here and experienced what’s offered over the counter. A plethora of cuts that might be available at a specialty butcher in Calgary, but mostly unavailable elsewhere.

Then there are all the unique items particular to this nation. Vegemite, we know about. But Lamingtons, which are cubes of sponge cake dipped in chocolate and topped with coconut? (Curiously, but understandably, people with dandruff are so labelled.) Then there’s Tim Tams, two biscuits with a creamy filling coated in chocolate.

Australia isn’t the only country to make local culture available via grocery stores. Food shopping anywhere puts a spotlight on what’s really going on outside of the tourist industry.

Before the Soviet Union collapsed upon itself, a trip to Moscow’s GUM department store was a woeful experience, as were the lineups to buy a loaf of bread.

But just blocks away, a farmers market was groaning with foodstuffs and produce. It served the city’s elite who had the money to buy whatever they wanted. It was a stark example of a culture of “us versus them.”

Years later, on a winter trip to Barbados, shelves were packed with food from Canada and England. There was another revelation: being in a country that produces liquor, one should either drink locally or hit the duty-free store before arriving.

It was an expensive lesson learned while buying a bottle of ordinary scotch.

Such experiences are the lessons learned from travel.

Catherine Ford is a regular columnist.