trip to the grocery in Maputo

I've been to the grocery store a couple of times in Mozambique so far. There is a Shoprite that is awesome. It is closer to the one stop shopping I was used to the the U.S.

Granted, there are things that are simply not available, but for other things we do have more options here than we did in Cambodia. For instance, there are multiple brands of peanut butter (a staple in my diet). There are all kinds of beef products available as beef is easily imported from South Africa. The quality is quite good and the cuts are recognizeable.

The one thing I see an obvious lack of are quality dairy products (which is surprising since beef is available). There is one thing I haven't seen at all. Not once at three different stores in the three weeks we've been here. What's that? Fresh milk. It is completely absent from the shelves, just non-existent. I'm told it is available from time to time on rare occassions. I guess that means we are converting to UHT milk in Africa. I try to avoid UHT milk because it seems to have a funny taste to me, but I don't think we will have an option here. UHT milk or nothing.

What is UHT milk? It is long-life processed milk. It can sit on the shelf for months, unrefrigerated and still be edible. I don't know how they process it, but I do understand the preference for this product in our current environment. Refrigerators are a luxury item. Electricity is not constant. No one wants their milk to go bad. So, UHT milk it is.