´ó¿§¸£ÀûÓ°Ôº

For me one main difference is the timing of meals with most restaurants only opening at 19:30 for dinner. Lisbon and Porto (don't know about the Algarve) are a bit different in the more touristy areas.

We are only eating out once in a while and then usually for lunch. It has been very easy to buy the ingredients for cooking at home. Even in smaller towns there can be more than 5 supermarket chains plus markets and smaller shops.

Outside of the main tourist centers it is difficult for me to find restaurants with a good interior atmosphere.

There were some challenges when we first came to Portugal in terms of ingredients or foods that we were not able to find in regular stores because the Portuguese apparently don't eat them. For example it was a huge surprise for us to discover that the Portuguese don't eat corn on the cob, either boiled or roasted. I have previously lived in Romania, China, Hong Kong, Canada (both coasts) and in all those places people eat corn on the cob, so I expected to find it here too. But... no. Another thing that we were not able to find was dill. Fortunately in Porto it is available in an Eastern European foods store, so now we can get it. Same for pickled cabbage (available in all those countries above but not in Portugal). We discovered that pickled cucumbers are sweet here in Portugal (added sugar).

We mainly cook at home because we found Portuguese cuisine to be rather bland and boring (a combination of some meat with rice/pasta/potatoes and little if any vegetables). While at home we cook a variety of foods from various cuisines, from Romanian to Ukrainean to Chinese to Indian to Italian. We also adopted a few dishes from the Portuguese cuisine (feijoada de marisco, atum a bras, etc) but enriched them in terms of vegetables, which we found rather poorly represented in the original recipes.

Another big surprise was how many meals the Portuguese have during the day, how poorly represented breakfast is and how huge the morning snack, and how late in the day they have the last meal. Most locals seem to have just some sort of sweet bun with coffee for breakfast (including kids!!! I saw colleagues of my daughters in confeitarias in the morning with a sweet bun and a cup of espresso in front of them before school), and that, to me, seems to explain the very high rate of diabetes in the country (second in the EU after Spain).

Also, soups here seem to be all the same, some vegetables blended together to death and consumed without bread, whereas the soups/borsch/chorba that we cook at home have a variety of cubed vegetables combined with various meats offering a large variety of tastes and textures.

Salads and vegetables in general seem to be very poorly represented in the main courses in the Portuguese cuisine, and we practically never see anybody in any restaurant consuming a salad. (I even heard the abomination that if you want vegetables make sure you eat your soup!) Whereas half or more of our normal meals consist of vegetables. Our daughters' colleagues at school are amazed that they always have vegetables and salads in their school snacks (sometimes they even make fun of them), and do not seem to understand the importance of eating not just white bread with cheese/ham and sweets as a snack.

I'm pretty sure that Johnny fellow will have a stroke reading my post. :-)

I couldn't have expected anything else from you... generalisations and misinformation. You call Portuguese cuisine boring, I'd say your posts are tedious to say the least...

Here we learn that Romanian cuisine is the best in the world! Marvellous for you and your ego!

According to TasteAtlas, the ranking of best cuisines refers to the gastronomy of a country as a whole. The cuisines that generally dominate the top are: Italian, Japanese, Greek and Portuguese. Where's your Romanian?!?!

Stroke? I don't care what you write. I have more to worry about. Your posts usually serve to amuse me and make me laugh .... ....

Have a nice day. And don't overdo the vegetables and salads, it could give you an intestinal disorder ... and mental, for that matter....

Kind regards

@ctomac

And not only Johnny PT !!! You obviously know nothing about Portuguese food ! What you write about it can be said for all ´modern’ meals in whole world. Sorry

@ctomac

Could not find Corn on the cob? How very strange, I saw it being sold in Portugal, maybe you didn't look very hard. 

@ctomac

If you hate Portugal so much, why do you live there?

This is what I don't understand about people; I have seen it a lot in Austria. They just pick fault with everything, there are no 24-hour shops, they are closed on a Sunday, back in my country, this is cheaper, this is better made.

Look, you are in a different country, get used to it.

@JohnnyPT

Going to different countries and experiencing their cuisine is one of the best bits about it. I love trying traditional foods.

@ctomac

I am also not a big fan of the Portuguese restaurant food. However, I am very happy with what is available in markets and supermarkets even in small towns like the one I live in. So we can make what we like and we only go out for for exotic food which we don't prepare at home.

I know that you triggered a number of people (esp. JohnnyPT) with your post. I guess that was intended?

@ctomac
If you hate Portugal so much, why do you live there?
This is what I don't understand about people; I have seen it a lot in Austria. They just pick fault with everything, there are no 24-hour shops, they are closed on a Sunday, back in my country, this is cheaper, this is better made.

Look, you are in a different country, get used to it. - @SimCityAT

Did he say that he hates Portugal? To me it sounded like he isn't too fond of Portuguese food. I love the food in Austria and I always find something for me on the menu of an Austrian restaurant. However, I accept that there might be people who don't like Austrian food while loving to be in Austria.

Hello everyone,

Thank you so much for your input so far.  It is always interesting to read about different food experiences around the world.

The conversation drifted a little (still about food, but more about personal preferences), so I would love to bring it back to the main question: how do you manage your meals on a daily basis as an expat?

Cheers,

Cheryl

I usually do a weekly shop every Sun morning at  Continente. If needed throughout the week, I may pop into Aldi or Lidl. However, I also try to support the farmer’s market each week for fresh veg, nuts, cheese, etc. (my fave is Tomar) and when I absolutely don’t feel like cooking, Uber Eats or Glovo delivery is just a few clicks away.

@Cheryl

I would think that "how one manages meals" absolutely depends on personal preferences and not much else, considering that Portugal is a country in Europe. As this question is being asked by ´ó¿§¸£ÀûÓ°Ôº all around the world it might be more relevant in the "Democratic Republic of Congo" (I have never been there).

I've been to the DRC.  In Portugal one of the things managing lunch is, after a morning of mixing lime morter and pointing stone work, just going to 3km to a little town and finding the bar/cafe with badly parked trades vehicles outside. In some back room there'll be a set meal for a set price at a set time and noisy builders who'll let the owner know if the food is not acceptable. No pre booking required.

We eat out about 1/3-1/2 the time. I really don't like to cook. But I will cook.

Don't meal prep at all. But that's a me thing.

The differences in ingredients are many. We looked around Intermarche and Continente before we moved here, so we were aware that you have to make substitutions. Yes, the milk is stored at room temperature, and the eggs are unrefrigerated. If you didn't know that before you moved, you didn't do ANY homework. I haven't seen any canned soup, and few canned vegetables. Yes, I would prefer fresh veggies, but sometimes you're wrung out and reaching for a canned veggie is easier. Had to discover substitutes for the canned goods I was used to. Crackers are different, and we had to discover which ones we liked. I've had dishes that I couldn't cook until I figured out what would substitute, like heavy cream for creamy soups, or a cheese sauce for macaroni and cheese. Although I haven't found substitutes for everything yet, I have found enough to have a repertoire of meals. And bagels don't seem to be a thing in Portugal, much to my husband's dismay.

What bothers me about it is the fact that various things can be hit or miss, there one trip, but not the next. Or the slight moves, but that's supermarkets everywhere. Supermarkets here do not carry and stock the shelves like I was used to, and that was difficult to figure out.

You may have to shop at several supermarkets to get everything you want. There are things that are available at only one supermarket. Some spices seem to not exist here. Others are packaged differently, and it took time for me to realize that.

On the other side, OMG the fresh OJ machines! And fresh cut pineapple machines. And fresh nut butters machines. And the fresh bread selection.

The farmer's markets are great too. Fresh veggies, fresh honey, fresh jams, fresh nuts, dried fruits. And it's a lot easier to get to.

As for restaurants not offering fresh veggies, well yeah, the selection seems to be few, but that's true in American restaurants as well.

Not regretting our move at all!