Kate’s Next Chapter

After “what’s your day like” the question I get asked the most is “what are the grocery stores like?” So, without further ado, let’s go shopping!

Stores

There are 3 main grocery chains here in Palau: Western Caroline Trading Center (WCTC), Surangel’s, and Globus.

WCTC is right in the heart of downtown, and is sort of considered a mall. There are 3 levels: the first floor has the grocery store, a small pharmacy, and a Foot Locker store. The second floor is clothes, kitchenware, party supplies, toys, etc. The third floor has a sporting goods store, a furniture store, and also houses the Republic of China (Taiwan) Embassy. WCTC also has several marts throughout the island. Small places to pick up ice, drinks, snacks. Sometimes some produce, meat. The thing that is unique to WCTC is that every time you shop, you get a sticker on your receipt; the more you spend, the more stickers you get. These stickers are actually lottery tickets. Every few weeks, they do a drawing. Last week the winner received $2,800! Nice incentive, huh?

Surangel’s is what I would consider the largest and “fanciest.” If WCTC is WalMart, Surangel’s is Target. Not to say I don’t love WCTC. But Surangel’s put themselves in another league with their supercenter in Airai. It’s got it all, and in one place. Hardware store, electronics, clothes, sports, print shop, beauty salon, groceries, rental cars, travel agents. They also have a location downtown, but I haven’t explored it as much. I need to. The Surangel and Sons name also boasts a construction company. Their incentive? A shopper’s card that give you a percentage off their purchases. For the big things, it’s pretty nice.

Globus is the other “big” store. It also has 3 levels. Clothes in the basement, groceries on the main level, electronics and appliances upstairs. So far, I have found their prices on clothes to be the best. The grocery part is the smallest of the 3, though. They also have some marts around the island.

Then you have small, local shops, some roadside stands, and local farmers selling their wares. Whereas the 3 above are shipping in produce, the locals are farming. And you all know me, I support my local farmers!

THE FOOD

Being on an island, the food is almost all imported, especially the canned goods, cereal, etc. From where, you ask? Well… everywhere. Seriously. The main influence tends to be Asian – from Japanese to Taiwanese to Korean, but I have also seen Kirkland brand products straight from Costco here!

Ok, enough reading – you all want to see for yourselves, right?

First up, the aisles!

Now, meat, seafood, and frozen section. Because it’s shipped in, all the meat comes frozen. You can get fresh seafood from many of the markets locally. I just need to learn how to clean it.

Produce is up

But for produce I made a great connection early on. Check out this haul from a local farmer!

Writing about all this food is making me hungry! While you all are mostly sleeping now, it’s lunchtime for me, so I’m off to make something. If anything you’ve seen here makes you think of a dish you love, leave a comment with the recipe! I’m all for trying new things. And I’m taking a Japanese Cooking Class at Palau Community College coming up, so I will share my knowledge.

Happy eating!