Barbados Groceries: Finding Joy in Big B

I’ve been living in Barbados full-time since January 08.  I admit that living down the street from Whole Foods in San Francisco spoiled me a bit.  Being from the Land of Plenty made the come-down all the harder when I first encountered Big B.  I expected grocery stores here might not stock such esoteric products as my favorite Greek yogurt … but I fully expected lots of good produce.

Alas, oranges are small, seedy, and dry.  Pineapples are without flavor.  Berries are almost non-existent and when I find a sad little display of them they’re usually not worth buying.  I live on grapefruits and bananas, both plentiful and delicious (and mostly locally grown).

My partner Greg (a native Bajan) says that Big B’s goal is to take one’s expectations to zero so that they can easily exceed them.

In Big B this morning I spied bright red, big, fat, juicy-looking strawberries. They had a Driscoll’s sticker on them; I’ve had my issues with Driscoll in the States but snapped up several plastic containers of strawberries and happily paid the equivalent of $10.50US for each.

Home from Big B, I opened the first box and pulled one out as though it were a Maison du Chocolat morsel of heaven.

Darned good. And eaten with much gratitude. Absence does make the heart grow fonder … oh, not for my lover necessarily, but definitely for strawberries.