Shopping and Eating in Tahiti

Waiting for the bus

It is definitely an adventure and we all love going to check out a new store or a new restaurant. Prices in French Polynesia are more expensive than Mexico, but we are learning how to survive on our budgets (almost) - just like the locals.

Fine dining at Taua King

Our favorite Chinese restaurant is Taua King, just down the street from Marina Taina. They make the best fried Nems, (egg rolls) and Cantonese Rice, plus wonderful chow mein. We love watching the flames from the butane burners cooking our food - you know it is coming out hot.

Dining at the Roulettes

Besides Chinese food, French Polynesia is famous for their "roulettes". In the States, we would probably call them "roach coaches", but they do serve great food. They usually setup in the evenings and serve everything - a variety of Chinese dishes, dinner and dessert crepes, roasted veal, hamburgers, french fries, pizza, etc. You just stroll around until you find a good one and have a seat. Remember to bring your own bottle of wine!

Rows of pate's

We have two favorite grocery stores close by. Super Marina has almost everything we need and it is small - perfect for our daily baguette and soda runs, plus it has a great meat selection. Carrefour is a wonderful supermarket and has everything from household items to an extensive selection of French cheeses, pates, salamis, meats, and more - yum.

Fancy French cheeses

Since everything is usually in French (with a few exceptions), it takes us awhile to figure out what we are buying. Some things are easy because they are similar to the Mexican version. Others, not so easy even when we have our French books handy.

Salami's and other good stuff

Sometimes you just don't know what you are buying until you get it back to the boat and taste it. Good thing we love an adventure!

Hauling groceries

One thing that really makes shopping in Tahiti easy - we are allowed to bring our shopping carts back to the Marina. Someone else returns the carts for us. All we have to do is load everything into the dinghy, motor out to the anchorage, and load our goodies onto Moondance. Whew - shopping is definitely a workout and takes up most of the day.

Oh well, what else do we have to do?

If you are interested, below is a sample of the prices that we are paying at the grocery stores. Not too different from California - go figure. Hope you get to check it out yourselves one of these days!

Dozen eggs: $4.17
Hinano beer: $2.40 for a 1/2 liter
Fresh baguette: $.65
Rum: $16.00 a fifth for the Tahitian brand
New Zealand ribeye steak: $11.00 lb for boneless
Fresh green beans: $3.80 lb
Coke Zero: $1.07 per can (tastes better than Diet Coke here)
Roquefort cheese: $19.00 lb (excellent)