Grocery shopping

We're quite lucky where we live, we have all the amenities close to hand, KFC virtually under the apartment, Baskin Robbins next to that, then BK, MacDonalds and in between them Al Sahada which does the nicest chicken shwarmas ever. We also have a choice of handy supermarkets, the 24hr Abu Dhabi Co-op is 3 minutes walk and nearby we have the much nicer Abela, and 3 minutes in the car is the even nicer Spinneys.

Spinneys and Abela are great, they have everything you need, from freshly baked bread, cheeses and fresh fruit and veg, to toiletries, household goods and a lot of Waitrose products. They do have two other sections that stand out, the first is the drinks section. No supermarket sells alcohol on it's main shop floor (Spinneys has an off license underneath), however they do have shelves of Budweiser, Holsten etc. These are all alcohol free and in a lot of cases, flavoured! The strangest I have seen yet is apple flavoured, alcohol free Budweiser. As a friend said last night, it is called Budweiser, but it doesn't taste of beer, has no alcohol and tastes of fruit juice, so why don't they just call it fruit juice? Fair point.

The second section is a lot more welcome. Clearly we are in a Muslim country and pork is not allowed, however, like the discreet off licenses, some supermarkets that cater more for the expat community, do have dedicated, discreet, non Muslim sections. The other day I was like a kid in a sweet shop, stocking up on Pepperami, pork sausages, black pudding (yes, we found black pudding in the desert), bacon, pate, bacon fries and the best of all, Mr Porky Pork Scratchings - all the way from Wednesbury in the West Midlands. I must admit I did feel a bit guilty going through the checkout with all this, but the bacon buttie I had the next morning soon made me forget the guilt!