No Refrigeration Needed

Many grocery stores in Sydney are conveniently located in shopping malls. The Coles & Woolworth's (Woolies) stores, which are large chains, also have stand alone stores in other locations, but these may be more difficult to get to if you don't drive or have a car.

In such cases, stores at the malls can be lifesavers because they're accessible by public transportation. 

Coles Grocery Store at the Chatswood Mall

Grocery stores in malls make them one-stop shopping centers. This is especially useful here where they don't have grocery sections in big box department stores like Target or Kmart, and there are no Walmart stores, most likely because the minimum wage in Australia is $17.29 an hour and Walmart would be forced to pay it. You can only purchase food from a grocery store or market. 

For convenience, folks getting off the train can shop for grocery items at the Woolies annex below before heading home for dinner. It's a small grocery store with all of the staple items but it is limited when it comes to fresh fruits and veggies. The full Woolies and Coles grocery stores have an overabundance of fresh fruit and veggies, but not these quick shops. 

I stopped at the Woolies below one day looking for grapefruit, but they didn't carry it at that location. However, they had everything else I had on my small list. 

Chatswood Shopping Area & Transport Stop

Inside the store, the placement of food selections are different than I'm used to, so it took me a while to learn where to find the products I like. 

For instance, eggs.

I searched through all the refrigerated sections and couldn't find them, so I went on with my shopping until I came across the egg aisle. Huh, there's an egg aisle???

Coles at Chatswood

In this store the eggs are kept on a shelf next to the cake mixes - okay. 

Eggs next to the cake mixes

Some Australian and European stores believe that it isn't necessary to refrigerate eggs because producers vaccinate laying hens, which stops the transmission of salmonella. 

An eggs natural coating then prevents anything from outside the shell penetrating the egg. 

In the US, the eggs' natural coating is washed away and the eggs are sprayed with chlorine. Without their natural coating, they need refrigeration. 

Free Range Eggs

The first day my daughter cracked open eggs for breakfast I looked at them and tried to figure out what was different when it hit me: they were orange. 

Sydney Eggs

I complained about the orange eggs for months and joked about having orange eggs and ham for breakfast. (Australia sells Canadian bacon, which looks like ham. It's thick, meaty, with fewer streaks of fat, so it doesn't get crispy. It's hard to find the bacon strips like we have in the US anywhere. That is one food item my daughter and I really miss!) 

Once the orange eggs were scrambled and I tasted them, I actually thought they were very good. The color still troubled me so I decided to research it. 

I read that fresh eggs are supposed to be orange. Who knew? The rich color is a sign that the chicken was fed a nutritious diet that includes omega-3 fatty acids, xanthophyll (yellow pigment of leaves) and meats. 

In the US the eggs are a nice yellow and since I was not raised on a farm, I didn't realize that a healthy egg has a scary orange yolk. 

My US Eggs

Many times in the US I leave the carton of eggs on the counter after cracking some while cooking. The British theory is that salmonella can penetrate the shell of chilled eggs once left out long enough to warm. Oops. 

My daughter buys only free-range eggs, refrigerated or not, and the grocery stores here sell multiple brands of free range eggs, free range chickens and even free range pork. People have become very conscious here of animal welfare in the food industry.

We refrigerate our free range eggs after bringing them home from the store. 

For Father's Day, my daughter's mother-in-law gave her husband a dozen free-range eggs that cost $10.00 a dozen. They were very orange. 

Many websites on eggs that I have visited state that contrary to what people believe, eggs should be stored in the refrigerator, and I've noticed that some Sydney stores have moved their eggs to either refrigerated or cooler areas in their stores. 

Woolies Grocery Store - Long Life Milk Sign

Another interesting product that blows my mind is long life milk or shelf milk, no refrigeration needed until opened. 

The milk below was purchased on April 12th (12-April-2016) and does not expire until August 9th (09-Aug-2016). That's four months on the shelf!

Case of milk from our cupboard

The correct name for shelf milk is Ultra High-Temperature Pasteurization milk or UHT. The secret is the pasteurization temperature and the aseptic sterilized packaging. 

There are some UHT brands sold in the US but this product is not very popular since we want our milk refrigerated. 

My daughter also buys fresh (refrigerated) milk but when it's gone, she goes to her shelf and pulls out the UHT. UHT is heavily used here. For example, my daughter is a doctor and the cupboards of the hospital kitchens are filled with it. 

I'm a huge fan of shelf milk and can't tell the difference between UHT and fresh milk. I like to drink milk and the thought of always having it on hand is a good one. 

We buy milk by the case since we have a toddler, so when we are low on fresh milk, we put the UHT in the frig to chill, then serve. 

Australia uses the metric system, like everywhere else in the world except America, so everything that has a number has to be converted for me to understand quantities. 

The milk comes in 2-liter containers. With the metric system we are actually getting less milk buying it by the liter than by the quart or gallon. A quart is a bit less than a liter and a gallon is equal to 3.7 liters. 

Shelf Milk from Woolies Grocery Store

UHT costs $2.00 or less for 2 litres, but for fresh, you pay $4.69 for the same amount. This makes shelf milk not only a great product, but cheaper. 

Fresh milk at Woolies

Stores that don't keep milk and eggs cold are saving a bundle on their electric costs because they don't need refrigeration units. 

Imagine in the US when it's going to snow and everyone stocks up on eggs, milk and bread and then loses power. Ouch! These would be great products to have on the shelf, as long as they're safe. 

Grocery stores in the mall . . . 

Orange eggs and shelf milk that need no refrigeration . . . 

No Walmart . . . 

A minimum wage above $17 an hour. . . 

. . . I am not in Kansas!