I like to spend time in grocery stores when I travel. (And no, it's not just because I was employed at the fabulous Family Fare supermarket throughout high school and college. Although, being a former cake decorator, I admit I do examine the desserts in bakery departments and pass judgment if I believe I could have done a better job making them. Sorry, it's a weakness.) It seems strange at first maybe, but you can actually learn some interesting things about a specific community or country by checking out all the different foods and brands available in a regular neighborhood grocery store patronized by the locals.
When I travel to a foreign country, it's likely that I will enter a grocery store in the afternoon to purchase a snack of some kind. It's a good budgeting technique. Eat the free breakfast at your hotel and take a piece of fruit to eat later. Then, in the afternoon buy something small and eat it along with your fruit to pacify the appetite for a few hours until a nice dinner in the evening. Because I have breakfast and supper provided for me here, I have often found myself perusing the snack aisle at Tesco or Sainsbury's in the afternoon. I regularly crave crunchy and salty snacks so I tend to grab a small bag of chips (or crisps, as they are known in the UK) along with whatever else looks good at the time.
If you've been to Europe before, you may have noticed the oddly flavored chips that are available. I remember purchasing paprika flavored chips with my sandwich at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. (They were tasty!) What I didn't realize until recently was that paprika flavored snacks are not that weird compared to the flavors I've come across in London. Paprika is at least a seasoning. Here, the British seem to have a weakness for MEAT flavored crisps. As if 'meat' is a seasoning--like it's something you can buy in the spice aisle by the celery salt and bay leaves.
Below you will see some photos of the bags of crisps that are sold here. Some of them I purchased for the purpose of scientific taste analysis, but others I didn't dare sample myself, so I just took a picture of the bag sitting on the shelf in the store.
(Nothing like making a spectacle of myself--taking pictures of crisps...crazy American. But it's for my blog! It's for you!)