Food on Friday: Stepping Out of Our Comfort Zone

Living in a country where English is not the first language certainly takes you out of your comfort zone, especially regarding food shopping. Imagine walking into a supermarket and suddenly seeing none of your favourite foods and familiar brands; throw the added complication of language into the mix, and you may feel you have landed on Mars – an alien in a foreign land.

Many of the cuts of meat you buy ‘back home’ do not seem to exist here, or if they do, you don’t recognize the description. Unfortunately, so much gets lost in translation.

There are also things you do recognize, like chicken feet, pig ears, half of a pig’s head, and “unmentionables” that you would not want to eat, however well presented they are!

Makes my trotters twitch just thinking about this. Sorry, no Pig’s head or ‘unmentionables’ photos.

Joking aside, the quality of meat in Portugal, especially fresh chicken, turkey, and pork, is excellent and far exceeds that of the UK.

The simplest food shopping foray often becomes a ‘mind game’ as you study the labels, product descriptions and pictures for clues. Finding products is difficult when you can’t fully understand the language. You ponder for ages and think “what is this for?” or “what does that do?” as you wander up and down the aisles looking for various everyday items such as self-raising flour, caster sugar, short crust pastry, herbs and spices, spray to remove dust from the TV, normal toothpaste (not for dentures as I inadvertently bought once). You scan the shelves, looking for inspiration, praying for guidance or at least some form of heavenly intervention, such as an assistant who can speak English. I have tried asking for help in my limited Portuguese. Still, often, the pronunciation of some words such as massa (pastry) and maça (apple) sounds so similar that you are offered completely the wrong product.

A classic example of the above was when I asked an assistant for eggs (ovos) and she directed me to the grapes (uvas). Frustrated, I performed a chicken laying an egg impression with full clucking sound effects. The assistant, momentarily stunned by my performance, then directed me to the fresh chickens. Shaking my head the poor assistant looked at me as though I had just been released from a lunatic asylum such was my enthusiasm to get my point across. More egg-laying impressions. She then enlisted the help of another assistant (she probably thought there was safety in numbers) further chicken impression and both dissolved into laughter at my elation when we did eventually locate the elusive eggs. I can just imagine her relating the story of the “mad English clucking woman” that evening to her family. Poor love, probably had too much sun…!

On a positive note, since living in Portugal, my ‘charade’ skills and animal impressions have dramatically improved. I eat more fresh fruit and vegetables, drink more wine and TV dinners are definitely off the menu.

Years later, I still struggle!

How would you fare?

Originally posted here in February 2011. Despite the passing of time I still struggle.

The Grocery Shopping “Experience” in Portugal

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