Today I would like to share with you my experience regarding Portuguese cuisine. However, if you expected to hear which restaurants and cafes are worth to visit in Lisbon, I have bad news for you. It is not a topic of my presentation. The article is about my personal cooking experience.
Of course, before starting to cook you need to go to a supermarket or a local market and buy all ingredients for your meal.
The largest retailer in Portugal is called Continente. This chain is in spread all over continental Portugal as well on Madeira and in Azores. One of the shop is just 3 minutes far from my apartment i
n Laranjeiro. I always go there if I want to buy some fresh fish or wine. There are always good discounts for these groups of products. You can buy wine even with 70 percent discount. However, the diversity of food is not the best. Never buy avocado in Continente!!! Do not repeat my mistake – I have done it twice and both times avocado was rotten from the inside. Despite the avocado, I bought once a chocolate truffle, which were attached to each other. The list of my unhappy shopping situation could be longer, but I do not want to steal your time.
As an alternative to Continente you can go to Pingo Doce, which is also one of the largest supermarket operators in Portugal. I specifically recommend going there on Sunday, because of the discounts and great choice of products. Pay into attention that you can buy also good fish there, which is impossible to find in other shops.
French retail chain Auchan is present in Portugal under the name Jumbo. From my point of view, prices there are slightly higher then they should be. They have a big choice of fruits and vegetables. You also can get 1 liter of fresh orange joice just for 3 euro, but you need to make it by yourselves. If you go there, be ready to spend a lot of time as Jumbo market are huge and you need long time to find all what you need. There are also long lines there.
But the shop with the longest lines in Portugal is Lidl. It does not metter is it morning or evening, There are always long lines. It looks like they want to save money not recruit enough staff. On the other hand, Lidl is a proper place to buy non-perishable products. The shop also offers a rich choice of frozen ready-to-cook meals.
