Friday’s the new Saturday!

 I’m still getting used to this but Friday is like Saturday in the US. The weekend is Fri & Sat instead of Sat and Sunday. So today I went to church and did a bunch of grocery shopping with my aunt. We were shopping from about noon to 4PM. Why so much time shopping… well (1) next week is thanksgiving and we are hosting 18 people so we had certain ingredients to buy and locate in preparation (2) different grocery shops have different things and we went to 4 different places (3) Dhaka traffic is no joke and the rainstorm only added to the bottlenecks. 

Have a look at the grocery store snapshots below. Unimart (mostly ex-patriots go here for more of a western grocery store experience with a few other lifestyle extras like perfume etc). They also have a play area for children!

K-mart (which is a Korean market). Had to include the wall featuring BTS paraphernalia! 

Outdoor market with fresher produce

Finally Lavender, a small Bangladeshi grocery store with housewares, toys, and other things upstairs. 

By the time we got home we had tons of veggies and fruit to wash which took another hour because produce cannot be washed with tap water. Due to the risk of transmission of waterborne illness only filtered water is used for washing fruits and veggies and it takes a lot longer soaking in bowls of filtered water then drying with a salad spinner. 

I spent the rest of the day till about 8PM cooking. I made a meatpie with homemade crust (I think it was a little dry and probably could have sat in the fridge longer) and also made a salad. It was like being at home listening to music and cooking! Dinner was good and I’m looking forward to the leftovers later this week!