A farce of stereotypes...

We all fall prey to the temptation to stereotype people. I know I do, although I try very hard not to, from time to time a thought will creep into my head before I squash it down.  We have all heard them, Americans are brash (actually very few of the Americans I know fall into this stereotype), Irish stupid (again I have not met that many), British are drunkards (there is truth in the fact that the British like to drink but I think few actually ever get drunk), Germans efficient and unfeeling (efficient yes, unfeeling, not that I have noticed), French elegant lotharios (most the French I know well are happily married and very straight laced, some are elegant but many are not), women can’t drive or read maps (really!) and so it goes on. 

behind one of these shops lurks an unfriendly smile...

While there can be a kernel of truth behind stereotypes that have lasted for many years it can be damaging to make assumptions on an individual and their character and competence based on an inaccurate and generalised point of view.  This is particularly so in an expat community where we have to work and get along with people from around the world, having a preconceived notion of what they will be like can potentially sour a professional or personal relationship before it ever gets off the ground.

Stereotypes persist, however, and I came across one the other day in the most bizarre of locations.  I wear a very particular brand of underwear.  I can get it easily in some department stores or online in the UK and some specialist stores in Kazakhstan stocked it.  Sadly neither Miri nor Ipoh have a lingerie shop that sells my preferred brand. Since it has been nearly 2 years since I was able to purchase some of these essentials I was contemplating placing a mail order when my husband saw a brand outlet in a mall in KL.  On our next trip down I made a beeline for the store expecting to be able to stock up to my heart’s content. 

I gave the shop assistant my measurements (both British and European) and, without even looking at me properly she said ‘you can't have that size, too small,' up until this point I thought she just had a very good eye and I had expanded a little, but she ruined the illusion by continuing 'you are European, Europeans are all larger than Malaysian women’.  I must admit to being rather shocked – store assistants are usually trained to flatter the purchasers not to insult them!  In any event while I may not be as slim as I was aged 18 I am the same size as I was at 28 and while I expect to put on a little weight as I move towards my 40s I don’t intend to buy clothes that don’t fit me now just in case!

I would not have minded, genuinely not have minded if the woman had asked to take measurements because she wanted to double check as I don’t want to spend money on something that I can’t use.  I don’t even mind being told that in general Asian women are more petite than Europeans because that is, generally true and I would be a fool to be offended by that. I was, however, rather shocked that a woman (who was, incidentally, larger than me – not that size should matter at all but I found it amusing given the point she was trying to make) refused to sell me something I had asked for based on my ethnicity.  I decided not to buy anything at all in the shop, I did consider writing to the brand’s regional manager but I don’t want to get the woman in trouble and she might have had a bad day or a particularly unpleasant customer just before me or she might even (and this is a stretch as she was very coherent) have had trouble expressing herself in English.  In any event I will give the store the benefit of the doubt and sort out a mail order or get my sister to post some stuff out to me. 

This stereotyping only concerned clothing, nothing of real import, but it still left me quite bemused and a little upset (until my husband and I decided it was just amusing), I can only imagine how terrible it must be for someone to have their professional, personal or moral credentials and abilities questioned on the basis of their origins.  I will be making extra effort to question it whenever I hear others make such statements.

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Children's Shoes - A Malaysian Shopping Mystery

I am spoiled for choice in Malaysia – every mall has dozens of shops where I can buy the most dazzling array of shoes.  These range from courts to evening wear and come in every height from flat to towering and a bewildering number of flipflops (although I dearly wish I could I have never been able to wear them).  The quality is rarely high but given the heat here I tend to wear open shoes and my walking boots, office shoes etc were all bought years ago and are still going strong.  The biggest challenge I have is remembering my foot size in at least 3 different systems (3-4 UK, 36-37 EU and 5-6 American) and trying to work out which system the shop follows before I end up trying to squeeze my foot, Cinderella style into an American 3 or flounder around in a gigantic UK 6.

Shoes for the discerning 6 year old!!!!

Because I can buy footwear with no problems I naively assumed that it would be the same for my children.  How wrong could I be; children’s shoes are impossible to find.  Firstly places that do sell shoes don’t seem to measure their feet so I have to guess (in three different systems) which size they need.  Each brand has a slightly different interpretation of a size so my daughter might be a 30 in one brand and a 32 in another, it is just a case of trial and error.  The shop assistants range from the fabulously helpful who will get out every shoe in every possible size variant in order to find one that will work, to those who make us feel like we are being thoroughly unreasonable for wanting to buy shoes in the first place.

A wide range of shoes, but none are any good.....

I have hardly ever had to buy the children shoes, I am blessed with something akin to gold dust – children whose feet just do not grow.  My daughter had one pair of shoes through two years of school in Kazakhstan, they fit her just as well at the end of the two years and had to be thrown out as the cobbler could no longer repair them.  This means that I have, in the past, just bought their shoes whenever we have been in the UK, relying on the trusty assistants with their measuring boards and the sensible but supportive options offered by Startrite and Clarks. 

Heels for little girls?

Imagine my horror then to have found that my children grew out of all of their shoes a few months ago.  I had to go on a search for trainers, school shoes and sandals (I have given up on walking boots for the moment).  Black school shoes are elusive, it took me 4 months to track down a suitable boy and girl pair.  So difficult was the quest that when the Velcro closure fell out of my daughter’s shoes I went to buy a hot glue gun and Velcro strips to effect a repair rather than run the gauntlet of shoe searching once more and I have built an excellent relationship with the cobbler.  I have asked local parents at the school where they shop and they have all come back with the single word response ‘KL’.  I could drive down, it is only 2 hours away, but it seems an excessive to make a 4 hour round trip just for shoes.  It is not just school shoes that cause difficulties, all the ‘girl’ trainers have Frozen or other Disney characters on them and I have the only little girl in the world who doesn't want Elsa on her feet, sadly she does not want Ben 10 either.  I could, of course, buy proper Nike or Addidas trainers but it would be just my luck that, having forked out on hugely expensive shoes to be worn no more than twice a week, her feet would grow just to spite me!  I was going to resort to sending her to sports lessons with plimsolls (it did me no harm after all) when a family member offered to bring some cheap, plain trainers out from the UK.

Offerings are pink, princessy or unsuitably styled

Having managed the impossible and replaced all the shoes with ones that I deemed sensible enough to provide at least some support to feet and were palatable to the wearers I thought we were doing pretty well.  Then last week, disaster struck.  Our daughter has been wearing a pair of crocs sandals (not the ugly clog style but the strappy versions) and on a holiday in Melaka, while walking around the streets, she got a split in the sole of one shoe.  We went to the main mall to search for a shoe shop but to no avail.  We went to a Bata shop which carries a variety of different girl’s shoes.  After trying what seemed like every shoe in the shop nothing fit.  Some ranges (for younger children) went up to size 30 but the 30 was too small.  Other ranges (for older children) started at size 30 but they were too big.  It seems her feet are exactly the wrong size.  We tried another shop which seemed to stock an array of shoes but came up against the same problem.  The one pair of shoes that did actually fit had heels (yes heeled shoes for 6 year olds!!) so we had to decline those.  Our daughter very gamely agreed to see if her shoes would hold up for the remainder of the day but we walked them to smithereens, as we left a lovely courtyard café the shoe broke in half and our daughter was left walking with her left foot on tippi toes.  We managed to find a clog shop selling overpriced ‘ethnic’ shoes to tourists and bought a pair of costly clogs one size too small so that she could, at least, walk back to the car. 

The shoes that are suitable don't fit - the shoes that do fit are unsuitable....

As soon as we arrived back in Ipoh my daughter and I hit the shops in the nearby mall – to no avail!  All we want is a simple sandal but we found literally nothing suitable, even the Crocs shop had nothing available in her size other than clogs or very wide fit sandals. Thank goodness we found a suitable pair, a Teva style shoe that is completely lacking in feminine elegance.  It actually comes from the boy's section but we convinced her they were 'ant-man' shoes for girls and she seems happy for the moment,  I will keep looking for some more elegant sandals but these will do for the moment.

It seems like such a minor expat problem, everyone wears shoes after all but just where are the little girl’s shoes hiding?  Of course every posting has something that is impossible to find, inevitably you spend your entire time in country searching for a suitable source only to locate it two weeks before you leave!  

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Supermarkets in Ipoh

Getting groceries is one of those everyday activities that should be so simple but can be radically different depending on the country you are in. It is one of my favourite things to do as I find that visiting supermarkets tells you so much about a country and the people that live there, they condense a lot of what is important for daily life in one place.  Everyone likes to visit the market when they get to their holiday destination as it gives a colourful insight into daily life.  I find the supermarket does the same, albeit in a rather less glamorous and photogenic way and I often stop off at one, even when I am on holiday just to browse.  I can also say that while I love to visit  and get produce from markets wherever possible life is busy and sometimes a supermarket can just be easier, particularly with three children in tow.

Wet Market Section

In 1990s Diyarbakir (Turkey) we went to a variety of stores that reminded me of the type of all purpose ‘feed store’ seen in western movies.  We would stand at the counter and hand over the grocery list.  In Nigeria we would visit 4 supermarkets each trip as what was not available in one was potentially abundant in another (and this information would inevitably be forwarded to all friends leading to a shortage!), the butcher and fishmonger would bring meat directly to us in a rather foul smelling van.  In Venezuela we basked in an abundance of American produce, in Norway there was a shortage of fruit but an abundance of hot dogs and whale meat and in Kazakhstan I could pick up cheap caviar with my bread but had to go to a separate bazaar for good quality if seasonal fruit and vegetables.  The Netherlands (Albert Heijn) and The UK (Waitrose and Lidl) are, in many cases the gold standard for me – produce from around the world, available fresh and at my convenience. 

Beautiful Fruit and Vegetables

Shopping in Sarawak was bizarre as I could buy Waitrose branded products in my local supermarket together with Australian, Pakistani and American imports but for good quality fresh produce we had to go elsewhere. Shopping here in the Peninsula is even easier.  Just about everything is available from the local supermarkets with the exception (as in Sarawak) of good quality meat.  I have explored the meat markets in Ipoh but most of the produce is simply not really tasty.  I have been spoiled in previous postings as meat in Kazakhstan was ok (if you knew where to go) and in the UK we got it direct from source as my Father in Law kept his own herd of cattle.  In Venezuela as well the meat was melt in the mouth beautiful.  I find that meat here is expensive for what you get, I buy the expensive cuts and stretch a small amount by bulking out with extras.

Fresh fish

Other than the meat, however, I can get literally everything under the one roof and the quality is good.  Ipoh is well served for fresh produce, being near the Cameron Highlands we get local temperate produce as well as the inevitable tropical offerings.  I have never seen so many different types of Mangos on offer and I can buy three different types of cucumber and a huge array of tropical greens.  A lot of the fruit is imported from a variety of destinations; China and the US seem to be the most common.  No matter what the origin I always wash and sterilise it before eating, just to make sure. 

Malaysia has a love affair with instant noodles

Rice and noodles are staples here, in fact one of the biggest problems I have is tracking down a 1kg bag (which will last us 2 months or so) as most people buy gigantic sacks.  The array is almost bewildering, Jasmine, Basmati, Thai, Long Grain, Short Grain, Glutinous, Boil in the Bag, Red Rice, Brown Rice…… the selection for noodles, instant or otherwise is equally extensive.  Being a mixed race country I can get Indian, Chinese and Malay ingredients very easily and pretty much everything that I need to cook western favourites.  Unlike Sarawak, however, there are fewer western convenience foods and mixes available in Ipoh. I suspect that KL, where there is a large expat community, will have more.  It is not, however, a big issue because there is such other variety.  

Rice in huge quantities, it is the main staple

Malaysia has taken to the packet mix like a duck to water.  No need to make your green curry or sambal from scratch, it is all available premade and ready to pop into the pot, just add meat and vegetables.  These are an excellent shortcut; they make tasty meals but cut out the time with the mortar and pestle.  For when I am feeling as though I want to make a bit more of an effort but not too much I have invested in jars of ready-made ginger, galangal, garlic and lemongrass paste.  I am still looking for some turmeric paste – it dyes everything yellow when I make it up myself. 

Ipoh has a large Chinese Community so pork is readily available.

Like meat bread is often inferior in the supermarkets but many have a bakery either in the same building or just next door so it is not a big issue.  Baking stuff is readily available, even self-raising flour although I tend to just add baking powder and keep only plain in the house.  Fresh milk is also more readily available here than it was in Sarawak, because we use very little, however, I tend to buy the long life, shelf stable, cartons.  Baby formula is, like in Sarawak, readily available in a number of brands.  Ready made weaning foods are also on the shelves but there is a limited variety of options.  This is not a big issue for me as I tend to make from fresh in any event or just feed family foods but I do (gasp!) keep some jars for when we are out an about.  The baby is fed up of the two options, a pumpkin based slop and a carrot based slop.  

The supermarkets are always busy, particularly at weekends

Malaysians have a sweet tooth so the chocolate, sweets, flavoured yogurt etc aisles are extensive.  Because of the range of different cultures here there is always some festival or event to celebrate and the shops will have promotions for the festivities.  The main ones are Christmas, Chinese New Year, Ramadan and Eid but even away from these times there is always something going on.

There is always some celebration....

I have a selection of supermarkets to choose from.  The Malay supermarket, Mydin, is round the corner from the children’s school.  I have an hour between collecting my daughter and my son so we often pop in there to collect formula (RM15 cheaper than elsewhere) and top up any extras I need, there are no non Halal products available there.  There is a Giant just round the corner from our home which I also use for the odd corner shop run.  Both have extensive homeware sections so are good places to pick up tea towels, charcoal, Tupperware etc, it has a non halal section but it is limited to alcohol only.

Alcohol is easily available for those who want it.

We have the option to shop at Tesco here, it is significantly more expensive than the other supermarkets and much like in the UK I find the quality of their product fairly inferior for the price paid, their fruit and vegetables often look tired and out of date and many of the dried products on the shelves are close to sell by and stale, I do pop in for English style biscuits (Jaffa Cakes, Ginger Nuts and Chocolate Digestives) from time to time.  My favourite place to shop is Aeon, the fruit and vegetables are always fresh, the seafood is very fresh and high quality and the meat is the best in town.  There is a good wet market in store and I can even buy cut flowers (surprisingly hard to find here).  The non halal section does a good range of pork meats and imported products and a good alcohol selection although the meat is more important to us as we drink alcohol only infrequently. As with all non halal sections we have to purchase the products in section and there will be a non Muslim cashier available to facilitate that. There is also what appears at a glance (I have never really bothered with it in any posting) a good organic section and they have the best cheese selection in Ipoh, I can even buy hummus, easy enough but time consuming to make fresh so I prefer to cheat.

Even fresh flowers are available

All in all, outside of Europe, possibly the least challenging posting I have lived in for stocking up the larder.  


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The Khan Shatyr - Astana's Giant Tent

The very cold winter temperatures mean that large indoor spaces are a vitally important part of life here in Astana and as such we have a number of very large shopping centers. 

We have 5 large malls within walking distance of our house.  Each of them come complete with a supermarket, a food court, café’s, a cinema and a range of clothes, shoe and toy shops.  Most also have indoor play areas for children and one even has a climbing wall.

Khan Shatyr

The Khan Shatyr is the most recently built of all the malls and possibly the most iconic.  It is at the western end of Nurzhol boulevard.  Designed by Norman Foster, it opened in 2010.  A large tent, designed as a modern interpretation of a yurt, it stands at 150m high and covers a ground area of 100,000 sq meters. Various websites boast that it is the largest tensile structure in the world.  I am not quite sure as I thought that honour went to the London Milennium Dome.  In any even the Khan Shatyr is huge, impressive and much more beautiful than the London counterpart.

Khan Shatyr - future model

The Khan Shatyr is the center of what will be a large complex including office space and residential buildings.  The first thing you see when you enter the building is a large model showing the mall and its surrounding buildings.  Only two of the towers have been completed so far and they are connected to the shopping center by a covered walkway.  We did look into whether or not to rent a flat in one of these buildings, thinking that it would be very convenient to be able to walk, undercover, to the supermarket in the winter.  The flats looked spectacular but were rather small and expensive for the space. I am not too keen on the supermarket in the Khan Shatyr in any event.

Long drop fairground ride

As you walk into the immense open space at the center of the mall you come face to face with a large long drop style fairground ride   This open space plays regular host to events such as fashion shows or 'Miss Khan Shatyr' competitions.  There are more fairground rides, games machines and soft play areas on the upper levels including a log flume and a monorail.  It is somewhat reminiscent of Brighton Palace pier.  Children love to ride around the perimeter of the mall, looking at the people enjoying their weekend and waving to all and sundry.

Busy soft play under the tent.

Monorail in the Khan Shatyr

Aside from wandering around and enjoying the cutting edge architecture the real reason to come to the Khan Shatyr is the sky beach.  The top floor is dedicated to a spa and swimming pool complex.  The swimming pools are surrounded by sand flown in from the Maldives.  Here you can enjoy flume rides, swim, play volleyball or just relax with a smoothie from the bar even when the temperatures have dropped to -50 degrees outside but sadly it is an expensive place to visit.  Discount websites such as chocolife.me sometimes have vouchers on sale for cut price entry but without these you are looking at a cost of about 8,000 tenge (nearly £40) per person so we usually only ever go when friends or family come to Astana.  There is a gym attached to the spa with a running track around the perimeter of the tent.  It certainly looks spectacular but I have never seen anyone brave enough to run around under the beady eye of people enjoying their burgers or fairground rides.

Swim on the beach - even when it is freezing

Enjoy the beach in the middle of the steppe. 

Running track - for the very brave and figure unconscious

The walls of each floor are covered in artificial plants giving a welcome splash of green in the middle of winter.  This is the place to come if you want to pick up imported clothes from stores such as Gap, Zara, Massimo Dutti etc but I tend to find that the other malls have better supermarkets and food courts.  The parking is also somewhat chaotic and it is expensive (500 tenge/£2) to park underground.   I actually enjoy seeing the Khan Shatyr from the outside far more than spending time inside.  It is a spectacular addition to Astana's beautiful and rather unconventional skyline and looks it's best at sundown when the sunset bathes it in orange.

Spectacular sunsets - even when snapped from a telephone

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Shopping in Kazakh Bazaars

A little earlier I wrote a post about shopping in Kazakh supermarkets.  We can get most of the items we want from those supermarkets but I tend to find that certain things are better bought from the bazaars.  

When we first arrived I was surprised to find that the quality of fruit and vegetable in the supermarkets is fairly low and that the prices are expensive.  I asked our housekeeper where she did her shopping and she directed me to go to the bazaars. 

There are a few to choose from, the best are the Centralni (which is on the way out of town not in the Centre as one would expect) although that suffered a fire recently, Eusasia which is more like a mall with a lot of small independent shops and Artyum, a cross between a bazaar and a shopping mall, which is my favorite place to go.  Artyum is not anything like a bazaar of one’s imagination.  It holds no echoes of the Moroccan Souks, the Istanbul Grand Bazaar or even the bazaars we used to visit in Diyarbakir.  It is a large, square, concrete edifice close to the centre of the old town.  The first time I went there I prepared for disappointment but this changed as soon as we walked inside. 

Ground floor of Artyum Bazaar

The ground floor has three corridors of small shops which are lined with food stalls.  There is a meat market with the meat displayed underneath pictures of the animal of origin.  I do not buy meat there, however, as I am never certain how long it has been since butchering and it does not always look or smell fresh.  The small shops sell all sorts of dried and packaged goods, from cereal to instant noodles, juice to sweets.  The real benefit to shopping here, however, lies in the stalls that line the rows outside the shops.  These sell fresh fruit and vegetables throughout the year.  While the supermarkets seem to carry old, poor quality specimens the stalls always have a good selection of high quality produce.  The stall holders are very friendly and will usually allow you to choose your own so you can be sure of avoiding the rotten pieces.  They go to a lot of trouble to display their wares in interesting patterns and spray them regularly with water to keep them looking fresh and tasty. 

Friendly stall holders display their wares

It always surprises me when some expatriates complain about the poor variety of fresh ‘greens’ in the winter months as, other than salad I have never found them difficult to buy. Herbs can be difficult to source and expensive to buy in winter but I have followed the suggestion of my housekeeper and buy them at the end of summer when they are plentiful and cheap and then store them in the freezer. Artyum is a good place to practice Russian, the stall holders will happily give you the proper Russian or Kazakh name for any of the vegetables if you ask.  One stall holder I go to regularly even tested me each visit to see if I could remember what she had taught me the last time.

The stalls are beautifully set out

Interspersed between the stalls selling fresh produce you can find stalls with dried fruit, spices and pulses.  I usually pick up some dried chickpeas to make hummus and some dried fruit for a family snack.  Kazakhstan has brought the concept of dried fruit to a whole new level.  Of course we can buy the usual raisins and sultanas, dried apple and apricots but we can also buy dried pineapple, peach and kiwi. 

As you reach the back of Artyum there is a ‘gardening center  of sorts.  Plants from the florists are expensive but some really beautiful plants can be bought here for about 1/3 of the price.  A lot of the gardening stalls sell seeds and I think I will buy some kitchen herbs and possibly some cut and come again salad to sow next winter.

Artyum's Garden Centre

The second floor (Kazakhstan follows the American rather than the European floor numbering tradition) has a range of shops selling homeware, small pets and pet supplies and shoes, there is also a wide range of shops that sell Kazakh souvenirs.  These range from decorative (!) plates and rather tasteless statues of horses and the Baiterek to the distinctive Kazakh felt work.  We bought our vacuum cleaner here and the place is such a warren that every visit turns up something new.  I was over the moon on my last visit to find a shop selling hide chews for dogs.  Our poor girl has been putting up with carrots instead of chews since we arrived here.  She is very fond of carrots which do just as good a job of cleaning her teeth but I know she does not find them as satisfying.

Souvenirs of Kazakhstan

The third floor is full of fashion shops selling clothes for men, women and children.  You can get evening gowns, lingerie, suits and sports ware.  In the winter it is possible to buy Shubas (fur coats) for half or even one third the price of the shops in the major malls and some of the shops sell the beautiful fur hats that most women here wear over the winter.  The debate on fur rages heavily in Europe and America but here in Kazakhstan it is seen as the most practical material to cope with the cold as it is both warm and windproof.

The upper floors carry a range of furniture, craft shops and beauty salons.  The furniture in Artyum is mostly Chinese imports and does not always appeal to western tastes.  Furniture is expensive here in Astana and the bazaars are about the only place to get any at prices I would consider approaching reasonable. 

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Shopping in Kazakh Supermarkets

Earlier this week I was speaking with a new arrival here in Astana.  He was telling me how confusing he found the supermarkets and how long it had taken him to get everything he wanted.  This started me thinking about how I get around things like shopping when I come to a new posting.

I find that I get used to whatever is available in my last home and fall into a way of shopping and eating that works well with what is available in the shops there.  My basic shop in the UK is subtly different to one I would do in the Netherlands for example.  Moving to a new country presents a challenge – not everything I want will be available and I have not yet got my head around the cost of living.  Add to that not speaking the language and even naming something can be interesting. 

Kazakhstan threw up a new challenge for me – it is the first time I have lived somewhere with a different alphabet.  For various reasons I did not have time to learn much Russian before I came out so the Cyrillic alphabet was very strange to me.  Adding to the confusion is the fact that there are two languages spoken here – Russian and Kazakh.  Kazakh is written in modified Cyrillic so until you can tell the difference you are not even sure which language you are reading. 

My usual trick when I go somewhere new is to prepare a basic shopping list with translations so I can get at least the staples into the house.  This time we were taken to the supermarket straight after waking up on our first day.  It was a very kind and well meant offer but unfortunately it also meant that I had no time to prepare a list or even to grab a dictionary from the suitcase.  

Supermarkets here are well stocked with everything we could need so  I was just about ok - meat is meat, juice is juice wherever you are in the world.  I was a little apprehensive about buying horsemeat by mistake but it turns out that it is quite distinctive and most meat is labeled with pictures of the relevant animal.

The real confusion started when I came to the dairy section of the supermarket.  Kazakh supermarkets have a bewildering dairy offering.  Most comes in a range of fat percentages - you don't buy semi skimmed milk you buy 2.5% milk.  The milk that comes in cartons tends to be longlife and fairly unpleasant, you can buy it fresh but it comes in bags to decant into a jug rather than in a carton.  In the UK you can buy one type of sour cream - here the supermarkets stock at least 3 different types.  

Sour cream - it comes in more variants than you could possibly imagine.

Milk in comes in bags rather than cartons

I spent a good 5 minutes trying to make head or tail of this confusion but I was not very successful.  My first error was to mistake Kumiss (Кумыс) for Milk (Молоко) just because it comes in milk cartons. Kumiss is a sort of fermented milk/yogurt perfect for making yogurt based doughs but it is an acquired taste and the children were not at all pleased to find it on their cereal. It was a stupid mistake because  Молоко looks so like milk but I was tired and on autopilot.  I have since heard from a number of people that they made the same mistake.    Still this is part of a long tradition of family mistakes - when we moved to Norway my mother misread a label and bought whale meat instead of beef. 

Kefir is not milk - and it is not a pleasant mistake to make

Strangely enough for a long time it was almost impossible to buy natural yogurt.  All the yogurt available came pre-flavoured, fine if you want to eat it, not so good for cooking.  Kumiss is a good substitute but in recent months live culture natural yogurt has been in all the shops.

There are some other strange differences to get used to.  Tomato ketchup and mayonnaise are very popular but it took me some time to find them.  I was looking for jars but here in Kazakhstan it is sold in squeezy pouches, they are actually much easier to use and store and it will be quite a change to go back to using jars when we move.

Mayonnaise

Butter was also a difficult staple to locate - I looked in all the chiller cabinets but finally had to give in and ask for help.  It is stored in the freezer section rather than in the refrigerators.  Another slight annoyance is that it tends to come in 200g blocks instead of 250g.  I never weigh butter - I measure it by eye and it took me a little while to adjust.  Eggs are  found in packs of 10 rather than 12 and are kept in the refrigerators, my housekeeper thinks I am very strange for keeping my eggs out on the counter rather than in the fridge.

It can be difficult to explain how to find items, a few months ago I was back in Europe and my husband called me from the supermaket asking me what the washing liquid looked like.  We had run out but he could not tell what bottles held the washing liquid and what bottles held the fabric softener.  I had managed to work this out when we arrived because I recognised a brand name otherwise it would have been a process of trial and error.  In the end he plumped for a washing powder instead just to be certain he was getting the right  product.

Before I worked out the brand names and labels I made a number of mistakes buying tomato puree instead of passata.  The puree is sold in jars here instead of tubes. This has another long pedigree in our family.  Years ago we bought what we thought was tomato puree from a Nigerian supermarket.  The name 'Tomapep' should have given it away - it was a hot sauce rather than a puree - we all had a bit of a shock when we ate our food that evening.

In the winter it can be difficult to get fresh vegetables, our local supermarket has a particularly limited selection but the bazaar is pretty good even in the depths of the cold.  Herbs are like gold dust and very expensive during the colder months so I freeze them in the autumn and then use them as necessary.  I also keep a pot of windowsill herbs for basil and rocket because I like them very fresh.

My favorite aspect of shopping in Kazakhstan is the wide range of juice available.  In most places we have lived (other than Turkey) the range of juice tends to be limited but here we can enjoy Sea Buckthorn, Rasberry, Cherry, Rosehip, Peach, Apricot and many many others.

Juice comes in lots of flavours

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