What to Do When You Can’t Find Your Favorite Foods

Many of the posts in expat Facebook groups are requests for help finding certain favorite foods. I know, I know. It’s so American! But let’s face it, we all have our comfort foods, our go-to celebration foods, and sometimes, you really just want the good ketchup. (Heinz, not Hunts or—gag me—store brand!)

You will NOT find the sugar laden, heart-stopping, soul-hole-filling, sky-high caloric, yummy overindulgence like the donuts below. I know. I have tried. And yes, just as well.

Portugal Already Has a Lot of Your Favorite Foods

So, first, the good news. Portugal has a LOT of your go-to foods already. I think Nestle owns half the country. You will see M&Ms (though more peanut than plain), Ruffles/Lays potato chips, many flavors of Oreos (though I have yet to find chocolate stuffed). You can easily find Heinz ketchup, Cheerios and Special K. Philadelphia Cream Cheese is everywhere. Ben & Jerry’s is pretty common. Coca-Cola (Coke Zero is a staple here), Lipton Ice Teas, Pepsi, Hellman’s Mayo, even Tang. (Tang? They still make that?)

Sometimes the flavors are “weird” or maybe just weird to me since I’m neither a “good” eater nor an adventurous one. For example, I was thrilled to find boxes of Dunkin Donuts at Continente, one of the larger grocery stores. I was not so thrilled to find out they were strawberry glazed and caramel or hazelnut or whatever. The Portuguese LOVE hazelnut. And caramel. And they are really good about eating fruit and other things that are good for them. Ergo and amazingly enough, the donuts available are the flavors that most of the people in Portugal like. I do not particularly care for any of those flavors. Just outside that grocery store is a little coffee and pastry kiosk that happens to have a glazed donut that is as good as anything Dunky’s ever turned out. When one door closes, God makes sure you get your donut.

Finding Your Favorite Foods Can Become a Treasure Hunt

I live in a small village outside Tavira. I can get just about everything I need in the small village groceries, and I can sometimes find things in the small stores that I can’t find in the big stores. (Molasses, for example.) If you’re living in a larger city like Lisbon or Porto, you probably have even better access to your favorites.

Grocery shopping here is an exercise in persistence. It seems like you can find most things you want or need, just not all at one store. The Lidl has become my go-to store. I can get just about everything I need there. But… I can’t get the little Stevia tablets I use in my coffee there. Or plain M&Ms, except for when I can. I once found sour cream there; now they don’t stock it. I can go up the hill to Aldi and they might have it. I love the bottled cream I get at Pingo Doce, but that’s about the only thing Pingo Doce has that I can’t find anywhere else, so I have switched to the preserve packs of cream. And lately, I’ve started using it to make my own Half and Half. It works. Mostly.

You will end up going to several different stores to get all the things you want. When you go to a new town, you might discover the Lidl there stocks things that the Lidl in your town doesn’t. You might go to an Indian grocery to get one ingredient you can’t find anywhere else. I go to one of the smaller markets in town to get confectioners’ sugar.

It’s a journey of discovery!

Yes, please read that with whatever level of sarcasm you want. I say it with a big grin on my face. Because really, when you’ve been looking in every grocery store in a four-town radius and you suddenly find it, you get a sense of victory that is disproportionate and yet, still good.

But there are some things you can’t find easily.

There are stores that help fill the gap, for both Brits and Americans. There’s usually a British grocery in even the medium-sized cities and you can find a few “American” things there. (Example, canned soups. Not a lot of variety, but canned soups are not a thing in Portugal.) The British stores are fun just to get some of their goodies which might become your new favorite foods. A British friend visited and introduced me to all sorts of new British treats, many of which are easily available here. (There are almost seven times more British immigrants than American immigrants here.)

Ordering Online

American Groceries Europe has an online service. They stock things like Betty Crocker cake mixes (currently €6.99/box), Ready-Crust graham cracker crust (€7.99), and a small jar of cream of tartar (hard to find here) for a ridiculous €8.99. You can find Tex Mex in the form of Old El Paso (which can sometimes be found in regular groceries), Taco Bell, and McCormick spices. (A packet of McCormick taco seasoning is €3.99.) A box of Kraft Mac n’ Cheese? €3.29.

So…

Let’s just say that there’s an upcharge to getting those brands you loved back in the States. I know food prices have gone up everywhere, but I’m not paying $3.50 for a box of Kraft. That little five-ounce bag of Twizzlers? €4.99. I love Twizzlers. But not that much.

I have resorted to Amazon Spain from time to time. They are not much better. A five-pack of Kraft Mac n’ Cheese is €22.25, or roughly €4.50 each. For fun, I just searched for Twinkies. You can get a pack of 10 cakes for €17.90 or 20 for €35. Fortunately, I do not crave Twinkies. But they can be had! A 32-ounce bag of Twizzlers for €15.65 is looking like a bargain right now!

Some spices are harder to find than others. A quick trip to the local municipal market yielded the ground clove I couldn’t find anywhere (probably right under my nose in three places, but sometimes you just don’t see it). The vendor had all sorts of spices in bulk. The municipal markets are an amazing source of fresh produce, local honeys, meats, fish, and Portuguese delicacies. You will not find those American comfort foods you are craving but you may find the ingredients for them.

I have found odd items at different stores. The Auchon is where I first found Ocean Spray cranberry juice (in smaller containers, not the two-gallon US mini-kegs). I later learned that one of the chain liquor stores always stocks it. The Aldi will have some Trader Joe’s brands and is one of the few places where you can get American style hot dogs.

You Will Find Substitutes

First, a word of warning: PiriPiri is MUCH hotter than Louisiana Hot Sauce. (50,000 minimum Scoville Heat Units to 450 Scoville Heat Units.) Adjust your measurements accordingly. You’re welcome.

Finding cream for my coffee took some doing. Once I understood that the milk and cream in those shelf-stable preserve packs were as good as fresh, I was pretty much set. In the States, it is easier to buy Half and Half than to make it, but since they don’t have it here, I do my own version of it. I found out a friend of mine does the same thing. (His wife also turned out an amazing brunch of biscuits and gravy, seasoning local sausage to taste like breakfast sausage.)

I grew up on Wonder bread. It took years of adulting to shift to whole grain. I can buy US store brand bread (Bimbo and Country Harvest) but I prefer to go downstairs to the bakery and get a fresh loaf. It’s not as soft and pliable as the store loaves, but it tastes better and costs less.

I used to buy spaghetti sauce in the jar. I kind of miss it. My mother made fresh sauce every week and I have a vague idea of how she did it, but the cans she used are different sizes than the preserve packs on offer here. My friend Maryhelen showed me how to make it using what was available locally, including showing me that tomato paste comes in tubes here. Now I can make spaghetti sauce. Not as good as my mom’s but then, my mom had a lot more practice than I have had.

I’m eating Heinz baked beans instead of Friends. I doctor them. I eat the local lettuce because Romaine is rare here. I eat a different brand of dark chocolate that is actually better than what I was buying in the States. I get some sort of flakes cereal that is close enough to what I used to get in the States. (Really, the way I load on the sugar, I could start with cardboard scraps and come up with a close equivalent.)

You will find new brands and start substituting in. And those adjustments come over time. When I first got here, I decided to try at least one new food a week. You can do the same with brands.

But if you have a favorite food that you’re craving and still can’t find…

You Can Make So Many Things from Scratch

Well, really, it’s the junk and convenience foods you miss. Amazon Spain has Betty Crocker, Ghirardelli (at least double the US price) and Duncan Hines Brownie mix. Once you know how easy it is to make brownies from scratch, you won’t need them. I couldn’t find coffee ice cream in the stores, so I learned how to make it. (It’s stupid easy and tastes amazing.)

And that’s what happens.

I used to cook with Campbells’ condensed soups; I no longer do. At this late stage of my life, I have learned how to make cream sauces and OH MY GOD I am not going back. I have a recipe for Twizzlers that I have yet to try, but it’s lurking. I have learned to make a potato-corn chowder that is better than the soups I would get from say, Panera.

Almost everything you make from scratch is going to taste better than the processed, packaged stuff you had easy access to in the States. Sometimes you have a favorite food that has its own flavor—not the “real” flavor of the original dish. I mean, really Kraft Mac n’ Cheese made with the orange powder can’t hold a candle to homemade mac n’ cheese. But sometimes, it’s the flavor you grew up with and that’s the flavor you miss. However, a month or three of eating a new version of an old favorite and your taste buds adjust.

Some Favorite Foods Fall by the Wayside and Others Never Will

There are some favorite foods—comfort foods—that you will always miss. (Marie Callender’s chicken pot pies just flashed through my brain.) Don’t let anyone tell you that you need to grow up. Your foods are your foods. I miss twenty-four hour breakfast places. And New York boiled bagels. And yes, Peggy Lawton Choco-Chip Cookies. And that’s okay. I have new foods that I like and that have become new favorites. I am spoiled rotten by the bakery just downstairs from me.

Your favorite foods—you can find them, substitute for them, make them, import them and, for some, miss them. But you never know when you’re going to find a new favorite food—Portuguese style.