Can it!

One of the fun things about living in a new country is discovering what's in the supermarkets. And when you live in places where the electricity is iffy (so you try not to leave food in the freezer before going on holiday) and the stocks in the shops are unreliable, canned foods are very convenient.

No freezing necessary. Keeps for years. And you can buy stuff for a special dish while waiting for the other ingredients to show up on the shelves.

In more recent years, it's been amazing to see the kinds of things that are canned. In Angola, a lot of the canned foods are produced in South Africa. Not only were there exotic African foods, but also, for the most part, South African products are halal.

In Yemen, I get the impression most of the tinned products come from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. You can find Middle Eastern foods such as grape vine leaves, tabbouleh, hummus, pulses, etc. (A word of warning: canned hummus blows!)

But I think the most "bizarre" stuff can be found in Asian food shops. I've tried "mock meat" (like it), taugeh/bean sprouts (tastes different from fresh - could almost be a different vege), tofu (not bad). I have a can of jackfruit waiting while I think of what to do with it. Yesterday I had quail eggs that I bought at Asian Shop and put it in my mee soto/noodle soup...quite nice.

One thing I haven't seen here and miss is smoked mussels, smoked clams, squid in ink that you can put in pasta or tapas.

No doubt we'll find plenty of weird and wonderful stuff in France.