Wait, Jen, you didn't go to Africa, did you? Nope, next best thing...Jungle Jim's grocery store in Cincinnati. I'm not sure which is more rare in Cincy--the giraffe or the foreigner--but keep in mind that the giraffe pictured above is fake.Apparently there's a large and growing international community in Ohio. Even in Columbus I was struck by the number of Asian supermarkets and halal meat shops. I wonder if these people feel they've been relocated to purgatory while waiting for space in a real city to open up. Well, until that time they have Jungle Jim's, an international shopping warehouse with grocery aisles labeled by country and cuisine. It's a bit hokey, to be sure.
No, I don't think that the National Lavatory Association actually exists, so don't go looking around for "award winning" restrooms in your neighborhood. (And why the quotes, I wonder? Is it like Ralph's dad's "major award" in A Christmas Story?)
The store is not just silly, it's blatantly commercial, too. In the fish section, you can be serenaded by General Mills cartoon characters (sponsored, no doubt) on the S.S. Minnow.
Just so I didn't feel too far from home, we investigated the Philippine food aisle and found some of those products that any self-respecting Pinoy cannot live without...
Goldilocks? That's what a Pinoy cannot live without? They leave a country that is, I'm sorry to say, bread-challenged, and go to one that is, if nothing else, bread-neutral, and yet they pass up bagels and baguettes for frozen pan de sal? Those things are not worth $2.59 when they're fresh.
Here's another surprise: Manila style hot dogs? I didn't know coloring pork by-products blood red and injecting them with tasteless imitation cheese spread was a style. Thanks, I'll pass. Ah, now this I understand craving...
I suppose one misses the strangest things when far from home. I packed an entire layer of our luggage box with O.B. tampons to bring back to Manila, so who am I to judge?
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