Morning shopping

I love shopping here. Only problem is buying small enough amounts.

I started my shopping trip at Tony's Laudadio's butcher shop. I love the old fashioned ways here. They ask you how you want the meat cut or ground etc.

We talked more about relatives and found out he has a son and daughter. His son works with him at the butcher shop. He asked me for me to write out the relatives I know so he can try to find some things out.

I bought some nice hot Italian sausage and a piece of steak he cut very thin for me.

Next I saw one of those "shops" in the park selling olives and nuts. I tasted a few olives and wanted just a little, but a little is going to last me a while! One olive is a bit spicy and the other is almost sweet. The other is bag is nuts.

Next was a produce stand where I bought a couple of furry cucumbers. At least thats what I think they are, some necteriens and some peppers . I was trying to ask if the peppers are hot. One of the customers explained, by hand motions, that you cut and seed the peppers, and fry in some olive oil with some cherry tomatoes. I said "and you eat with pasta?" Oh no! You do not eat that with pasta!!! She was very clear!

Now walking down a little skinny street an old lady was outside her door with some grapes. She wanted to sell me a kilo and I've made this mistake too many times. So I gave her .50 and said "this much". That was a nice way to communicate and I ended up with a little bunch of grapes!

One last stop was a bakery! I got a croissant with custard filling to eat with my espresso I've been learning to make. I thought I was adding unsweetened almond milk to my coffee, but now that I translate with google, I find that it's really rice milk, with safflower oil and a little almond milk. Well, I need to learn Italian!!!

I bought a couple of rolls, and a 5 pieces of cookies. Most of the cookies here are not sweet at all. You can buy sweet looking ones, but it's easy to find cookies that are very plain, almost unsweetened. These have some sort of fruit in them. If you see the little cookies in the bag too , they are very plain and at first I thought I would have to sweeten them. But I've gotten used to them and love to eat them with a persimmon or with some tea. They have a slight anise flavor or almond flavor.

So I made my rounds to the stores just like all the locals in the morning! I feel like I could really get used to this lifestyle.