Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Grocery shopping

I know I promised pictures of the apartment but that will have to wait until tomorrow.  I went grocery shopping today.  It's quite the adventure.  I took Zeli and Joaquin with me for help.  You might think grocery shopping is a normal everyday occurrence.  Maybe in the States but not here in Brazil.  Especially not if you go on Quarta-fiera at Extra.  Quarta-fiera is extra offerta dia.  I wish you could here how it sounds on the loud speaker.  You'd laugh.
Little portuguese lesson...
Quarta-fiera = Wednesday
offerta = sale
Back to the store.  Everything in the store is a little overwhelming.  Add tons of brazilians trying to get the current offerta and you have a madhouse.  It was totally entertaining and kind od fun.  We started in the in the meat section.  This is nothing like an american meat section.  They have all kinds of weird cuts of meat.  They have every animal imaginable too.  We bought a few cuts of beef, chicken breasts, some pork chops and bacon - but not american bacon - this stuff isn't refrigerated or cut in to nice even slices.  It's a hunk of pork.  Zeli said it's delicious.  Next up was the fish department.  This scares me.  I like fish but I really don't like seeing dead fish all over the place.  I prefer Costco frozen fish already marinated in its nice little prepackaged individual size pieces.  Nothing like that here.  So we bought a tilapia.  The fish butcher cleaned and cut it up for us right there.  Not bad.  We also bought a bunch of salted unrefriderated meat to make feijoada.  I'm hopeful.  
feijoada = super yummy black beans with meat
Then we went through the produce section.  It was crazy busy.  Tons of offertas.  We are all loving the fruit here so I stocked up.  

Next was the bakery.  They have the most amazing bread here.  I'm not sure what it's called but it's delicious.  They make it fresh several times throughout the day and it's cheap.  It has a hard crust and super soft and is light and soft inside.  We all love it.  The only problem is it only lasts until midnight.  Then it turns hard and crunchy.  I also grabbed a yummy treat for dessert.  I have no clue what it is but it looks good.  It was also an offerta.  


 This box of cereal is so deceiving.  They made the box at least 3 inches taller than the bag.  What's up with that?  Cereal costs a fortune here.  I want the whole box full.

Our soda, juice supply (pear, apple, peach and grape), milk (it comes in a box and no it's not refrigerated either), water
We bought a lot of other new to me things.  I'll post about them another day.  Let's just say grocery shopping is a totally eye opening experience here.  It also costs a pretty penny.  After checking out I spent R$508.96.  This will hopefully last me a week.  

5 comments:

Amberly said...

I love hearing about your adventures, thanks for documenting your daily life- I'm so glad you're happy there!

Ja said...

FUN! reminds me of the good old days. I remember eating a lot of chicken rice and feijoada... in fact... i believe we bought rotisserie chicken pre-cooked for pretty cheap. just cooked the rice and beans on our own.

Also ate a LOT of pao francais with an egg. SO yummy. Have you tried the cochinhas?!!??! oh my GOSH--I want one right now.

And has Drew showed you the Cevada?!!??! I'm a big fan of all things coffee flavor. Cevada is burnt barley; tastes JUST like anything coffee flavored, and has ZERO caffeine! Drink on (great for cold winter days).

cecily said...

Sonho... Those are the doughnut things. Oh yummy. Write on you are making me home sick for Brazil!

houseofgirlsandjohn said...

Eryka, I love hearing about your adventures. You always were up for something new and exciting. Is this a long term thing or just a couple of year?

Kim said...

FUN! Thanks for sharing your adventures. I always admire you for living your life with no boundaries. You are brave and awesome.