Food: win some, lose some

I'm sure I've mentioned what a challenge grocery shopping is for me here. I'm never quite sure what I'm buying so at this point I'm depending largely on the pictures on packages to get by. This technique works well for some things, not so well for others. For example, they seem to have a hell of a lot of sauces here. I mean aisles of it. I can only think of so many things that they could be: ketchup, mayo, mustard, tartar sauce, maybe BBQ? Anyways, the pictures are not so helpful when it comes to deciphering the sauces (or canned fish for that matter- all fish looks the same). I think there must be some 20 types of mayo and they've all got an image of eggs on them with various veggies. How am I to know what's the difference? Well, obviously I don't, because I purchased what I though was some sort of Tzatziki/ Greek dressing but is most assuredly light mayonnaise now that I taste it. It made for a kind of bland pita, but whatever- win some, loose some, right? Well, today I won. Since we arrived I've been searching several stores for oatmeal. I know, I have an obsession, but all I have been able to find so far is SUPER instant oatmeal (close to oatmeal powder). For those of you familiar with my oatmeal dependency, you can imagine the my devastation. But today I tried a new store and found quick-cooking oats AND they were cheaper than the sawdust I've been eating. Score! I also found this stuff that looked like canned pumpkin. After a bit of translating, I learned that it's got onions, tomatoes and salt in it, so no pumpkin pies here, but I tasted it and it was delicious. It looks a bit like baby diarrhea, but yummy! I don't know what the Russians do with the stuff, but I've put it on rice and it worked nicely. Who knows, maybe it's for babies. As long as it's not dog food I'm in the clear.
 After today's great finds I found another store on the other side of a busy street and for some reason the prices were double or triple what the other stores are charging. I don't get it- they've even got many of the same products. Geez, guess that's Moscow for you. Just reinforces my suspicion that I should shop around for the best deals. Nothing's going to come easy here!