Grocery Shopping

We just finished our first grocery shop, and I feel seriously retarded.  I know we live in the Netherlands, and that they speak Dutch (or Nederlands) in the Netherlands, but would it hurt them to put some English subtitles on the items in the supermarket?

Groceries get stored in a cool dry place i.e. anywhere in the house, no pantry required

There are many things different in the supermarkets here compared to back home.  For example, fruit and vegetables are often priced individually, rather than by weight.  Sometimes they are priced by weight, but not per kg as you would expect- the price might be given per 500g, per 100g, or even some obscure increment like 350g or 800g.  This can lead to some serious heartbreak e.g. 'Holy crap, capsicums are only 0.79 euros per kilo! Wait... That's 0.79 euros each...'

Kaas = cheese

Large supermarkets like Woolies or Coles back home don't exist; instead, there seems to be smaller supermarkets like the ubiquitous Albert Heijn dotted throughout the city.  Rather than doing a single large shop per week, people seem to do multiple smaller, more frequent trips to the shops.  I guess this is because people don't drive to the store, so you can only buy what you can carry home (or fit on your bicycle).

I thought kip might have been fish, but I was wrong.  It's chicken.

It will take a while to get used to looking for kipfilets and rundvlees (chicken and beef), suiker and zout (sugar and salt), but in the meantime we're bound to make many mistakes, like coming home with candied ginger rather then minced ginger, or mayonnaise so hot you can hardly eat it.

Walking home from the grocery store- through the snow

And the beer is crazy cheap!  A crate of 24 bottles of the local pilsner was 4.50 euros (around AUD$5.50), compared to the minimum $30 for even the cheapest case back in aus.  But I couldn't resist a 6 pack of Hoegaarden, a wheat beer with a really distinctive taste that I've only had once or twice before, but really enjoyed.  It set me back 3 euro (less than AUD$4).  Incredible!

Delicious Hoegaarden at the unaustralian price of $4 for a six pack