Dairy
This is a city of yogurt eaters. Looking down the aisle you will see both sides filled with yogurt of many different varieties and brands. Activia is huge here. The most popular flavor seems to be strawberry but plum, maracujá, and kiwi are also popular choices.
Dean and I are cheese lovers and the cheese department here is definitely lacking. You won’t find any sharp cheese here (if we’re lucky we can find a mild cheddar). Feta is also unheard of. Brazilians tend to like more mellow (boring) cheeses. Mozzarella and parmesan are pretty popular and there are a few local cheeses that we’re not so crazy about. Philadelphia Cream Cheese is very popular and can be found anywhere. They have something similar to sour cream, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Butter and margarine are equal to what you find in the States.
Milk is another thing here that is totally different (see photo below). If you think you can find it near the yogurt and cheese, think again. There is no refrigerated milk -only shelf-stable milk can be found here. Grace drinks soy milk and the majority of the soy milk is mixed with fruit juice to make it drinkable (I’m told that grape and orange are the best flavors of soy milk). Another thing you won’t find refrigerated here-eggs. They can be found either in the produce department on a regular shelf or in the baking aisle.
Needless to say, our dairy intake has plummeted since we have been here.
Frozen Foods
Of course they have the basics: ice cream, pizza, French fries, and some frozen vegetables (but not as many different kinds as we are used to). This isn’t a huge frozen food country. Why buy frozen meals when your maid can prepare fresh meals for you? We don’t eat a lot of frozen foods (except for frozen vegetables), so this doesn’t really affect us.
Meat
This is where the smelly part comes in…
Bacalhau is a dried salted codfish that is very popular here. It is expensive so it is a “treat” and many people here have it at Easter and Christmas. Bacalhau has the capability of smelling up the entire grocery store because it just sits out in the open (see photo below). The smell is indescribable and as I go by it I usually do not breathe and just walk as fast as I possibly can to get away from the epicenter of the stench. I do not understand how people can enjoy eating something that smells so horrific. I am told that it is put in water for a couple days to rehydrate then cooked.
Next to the bacalhau is the dried meat department (see photo below), where you can buy pretty much any kind of beef, sausage, and some pork items dried. That’s about all I can tell you because I haven’t gotten too close to this area either. Of course these items are just hanging out without being wrapped or anything either.
Beef is king here in Brazil. You can find any cut of beef you want and Grace enjoys seeing the slabs of beef hanging with butchers cutting them up (pretty gross if you ask me). The price of beef is very reasonable, which makes sense since Brazil raises so much cattle.
Chicken and various cuts of pork are also available but I have yet to see a turkey. I hear they have them at Christmas time, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
We are fish lovers (except for the bacalhau previously discussed) and we have tried many different kinds of fish here. We have been pleasantly surprised and usually eat fish at least once a week. We get salmon here but of course it’s nothing like our Alaskan salmon (sigh). We occasionally get shrimp: they are really expensive but worth the splurge.
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