Dear Dad,

I have finally, now that we've been here for two months, made it to an Italian grocery store.  We have one on the end of our street called Pam.  The grocery stores in town are much smaller than the ones back home, only having 8 or so aisles.  It's more similar to a corner store.  The bigger grocery stores are further out, stand alone, and are only about the size of a Dollar General.  They might have even larger ones...but I just don't know how to read most signs, so I wouldn't know.

Here are some major things to know about Italian grocery stores:

1.  You never, ever, ever even think about touching/looking at/walking in the general direction of produce without wearing a plastic glove. 

2.  You weigh your produce and get a barcode for it before you take it to the check-out.  Each different item is assigned a different number.  For example, apples might be "19".  One you get your apples (using a plastic glove of course), you take the bag to the scale, push 19 on the large number board, and then a machine prints out a sticker with the price or barcode on it for the check-out counter. 

3.  Everything here is in grams or kilograms, which makes for some quick conversions at the meat counter if you don't want to end up with 4 lbs of prosciutto. 

4.  They have fresh pasta, as well as dried pasta, and although I haven't tried it, I've been told it is the way to go if you're wanting to make a pasta dish. 

5.  "Equino" is horse meat.  I think that's all I need to say about that. 

6.  They don't have much of a bread section or selection.  I guess most people get their pane from the pane stores instead of the grocery store.  That might be the next store I explore. 

7.  You either take your own bags, or you pay for plastic ones there. 

On this trip, we got a random assortment of things, including some tomatoes, garlic, arugula, parmesan and pecorino cheese, fresh mozzarella, a chicken (with some feathers still on...but no head, thank goodness), wine, balsamic vinegar, and bread.  We're going have a little tomato/mozzarella/balsamic antipasta tonight and roast the chicken with onions and potatoes.  I don't think we're going to start shopping exclusively at the Pam, but I do think they had a good enough selection to prevent us from having to go to the commissary every day. 

P.S.- I didn't see any Chef Boyardee on the shelves, since you were wondering.