A day at the market(s)

A tale of ignorance and bliss

A while ago, we did a reader survey. A respondent said they wanted to know more about everyday life and specifically mentioned grocery stores/shopping. We absolutely take requests. Last Friday seems like a good day to report on. It’s not the most typical day, but it’s not out of the ordinary either.

In our home, Scott does all most of the grocery shopping and Amy does most all of the cooking.

Given that this is a story about the former and it’s best told in the first person, Scott (who’s feeling much better now, thank you) will take it from here.

Friday’s grocery list was a little longer than usual owing to the need to make a new recipe on Saturday. That plus the fact that said recipe called for a few unusual items tipped us into deciding it would make sense for me to go to El Corte Inglês (ECI) for this shop.

ECI, for the uninitiated, is a BIG grocery store inside a GIANT … I’m not even sure what to call it because mall is neither accurate nor sufficient. Technically, it’s a department store. It also feels larger than any shopping mall I’ve ever been in.¹ It’s a huge freakin’ building - no fewer than seven stories above ground and four below - inside of which it’s possible to buy (almost) anything you can think of.² In the past, we’ve been able to find grocery items like tahini and naan that aren’t necessarily ubiquitous around here. It also has its own Metro stop so if the bags got too heavy, it’d be easy to get home. It made sense to go given the state of the shopping list.

The Before picture. The stuff at the bottom is what we usually get from Pingo Doce, one of the closest grocery markets to our home (the last two items being Pingo Doce branded products). The list is organized by where things will (hopefully) be in the store.

When in discussions about the items to buy,³ a long-standing mystery was resolved. The conversation went a bit like this:

Scott: Um … sweetie?

Amy: Yes?

S: Um. I couldn’t help but notice that, uh, well … the … the shopping list says we need pasta.

A: Yes. We’re making a pasta salad on Saturday.

S: Right. Yes. I, I know. Uh, but you do know, right, that we have, like, a lot of pasta in the house? Like … this much?

These were in the house before the shopping trip. (To avoid any confusion: they were also in the house after the shopping trip.)

A: Yes. They’re not the right shape.

S: The right shape.

A: Yes.

S: Ooook. Um. What … what shape do we need?

A: Bowtie pasta is what you use in a pasta salad.

S: Ah. Ok. Yes. I see that we have no bowtie pasta here. I understand now why pasta is on the list. *Bangs head on wall.* Thank you.⁴

The morning of the shopping trip, the list was finalized and the pasta entry had changed from the night before. Apparently, there’s some flexibility to the shape rules after all. The new orders were to get spirals in a tri-color style.

Spoiler alert: mission accomplished!

I left the house shortly after 11:30. It was the poster child for a glorious day - sunny, breezy, dry, mid-20s (mid 70’s Fahrenheit). Just lovely to walk the roughly 2 km / 1.25 miles to ECI.

When I got there I was in no hurry, happy to wander the grocery store. The soundtrack from the overhead speakers - Simon & Garfunkel, Journey, Cyndi Lauper … - transported me to 1989 so I meandered simultaneously through both the aisles and a fog of nostalgia.⁵

Wait, what?

I’m a 52-year-old American male. Prior to June 2022 I’d spent about 6 weeks of my life beyond the borders my home country. But somehow, if the Muzak I heard on Friday is any judge, I am the target market of an enormous Spanish supermarket located in the heart of Lisbon, Portugal.

That’s. Weird.

I also learned it’s hard to casually follow people in a grocery store.

You see, lately, I’ve been falling in love with the sound of the Portuguese language. There are two distinct variations and I’m just starting to be able to distinguish between the Brazilian and European dialects.⁶ So when I catch a phrase in the wild - like a young girl saying acho que não⁷ to her parents - I want to stick around in hopes of hearing more. Some families move quickly, though, and keeping pace would likely draw the wrong kind of interest.

Oh yes, right! The list! I have groceries to purchase. Back on task!

Some things are a cinch to tick off: two loaves of bread? First in the cart.⁸ Tri-color pasta? Easy-peasy. Chickpeas? Right where I thought they’d be. Pepitos? A little more challenging than the first items but actually easier than I’d anticipated.

Feeling pretty good about myself right now.

Then things got harder in a hurry. Edamame? Uh oh.

I learned pretty early on that you’re best off knowing the Portuguese word for what you’re looking for because stuff doesn’t always have the same appearance as what you’re used to so a picture on a label may not help. But how do you say edamame in Portuguese? I plugged it into DeepL. The result? Edamame. Ok. This happens every now and then with DeepL.⁹ Sometimes it’s because the word is actually the same in both languages.¹⁰ Other times I know for a fact that it’s wrong. In this case, I wasn’t sure what was up so I used my “Phone a friend” lifeline¹¹ and learned I was looking for either édamame, vagem de soja, or feijões de soja.¹² Unfortunately, though there were beans as far as the eye could see, none had any of the key words on them. So I decided to back burner the edamame and move on.

There’s two kinds of olive oil on the list. Cheap stuff? I can read a price tag. But what’s a good dressing olive oil? The olive oil section went from floor to above my head and was easily two meters wide. Several brands and a range of price points.

To make my choice, I used the following reasoning: glass bottles are heavy. I have to carry this home. I will find something that’s not in a glass bottle.¹³

Next.

Eventually, I was down to edamame and produce so it was time to put on my big boy pants, flash my Portuguese skillz, and *gulp* ask someone where to find the soybeans. Feeling unexpectedly confident, I decided to break out a word I’d picked up recently: vejo (“I see”). I walked around the corner from the bean aisle and spotted an employee stocking a shelf.

Scott: Com licença. Não vejo feijões de soja. Vende aqui?

(A fine mix, if I do say so myself, of nearly complete sentences with a Caveman finish: “Excuse me. I don’t see soy beans. Do you sell here?”)

Employee: wordswordswordswordswordswordswordswordswordswords wordswordswordswordswords numbernumbernumber wordswordswordswordswords (OH THANK GOODNESS SHE’S POINTING) wordswordswordswordswords wordswordswordswordswords Diatéticos. (WAIT! I RECOGNIZE THAT! I KNOW WHERE THAT AREA IS!)

That went well.

Off to Diatéticos.

Now is a good time to point out that this was the first area I’d searched upon arriving at the store. But clearly I’d missed my target so I scoured the shelves again, to no avail. Eventually, I decided my only recourse was to ask another employee.

So, loins girded, I tried to keep it simpler this time.

Scott: Com licença. Vende feijões de soja?

Employee: wordswordswordswordswordswordswordswordswordswords wordswordswordswordswords congelados wordswordswordswords

Scott: Obrigado!

Hmm. Congelados means “frozen.” I’m not sure I want to get any frozen food right now because it’s a long way home. Well, I’ll take a swing through the section anyway, it would be helpful to at least get a sense of what I’m looking for.

I couldn’t find them.

By now, I’ve decided I’m going to have to go to Pingo Doce. And since I’m going to Pingo Doce anyway, there’s no sense in buying a lot of heavy, cold, squishy produce here that I have to carry home. So I took my nine items to the register and left ECI.

I could have taken the Metro back to Avenida, but my purchases all fit in my backpack and it was still gorgeous out so I chose to walk.

En route, I decided the MyAuchan store I would almost pass wasn’t worth going a half a block out of my way for. While they do carry Powerade, it’s only one flavor¹⁴ and there was virtually no chance they’d have edamame.

But Aldi … Aldi seemed like a possibility. And with just a minor alteration of my route, I’d walk right by it. Perfeito.

Arriving at Aldi, I wandered the aisles a little before steeling my nerves and asking about the beans.¹⁵

Scott: Com licença. Vende feijões de soja?

Employee: Não

Scott: Obrigado.

They did have some of the produce I needed so I tossed that into my insulated bag and headed up the hill towards home.

I arrived to a nice greeting from Josie, who was holding down the fort herself as Amy was lunching with a friend. I unpacked my bags, drank some water and headed back out towards the Pingo Doce.

On the way, I remembered that the Continente Bom Dia that’s just a block or two from Pingo Doce has Powerade in multiple flavors¹⁶, while Pingo Doce doesn’t carry it at all. So I swung into CBD and, while there, I asked about the beans.

Scott: Com licença. Vende feijões de soja?

Employee: ??

Scott: Feijões … de … soja?

Employee: Feij … õ … es ?

Scott: Sim? Soy beans?

Employee: wordswordswords *dismissive gesture in direction of small section of beans I’d just come from.*

Scott: Obrigado.

I paid for my Powerade and headed to Pingo Doce.

Pingo Doce is my go-to. I feel like I know that place like the back of my hand. And I know they have a lot of beans. A lot of beans.

Everything on a shelf in this photo - and stuff on either side, above, and below - is a bean of some sort.

But nothing matched the words I was looking for. Time to ask another employee. Only, there weren’t any. Other than cashiers, and someone behind the butcher counter, there was nobody to ask. It was nearly 15h (3pm); was it lunch hour? I didn’t know but I gave up the hunt for a warm body, made my purchase and headed home.

The After picture. The lonely, unchecked item is arguably the most important thing on the entire list. Well, except for the tricolor pasta.

A total of 7 kilometers (4.35 miles)¹⁷ and 69.44€ later, I got home around 15:30 to a(nother) nice greeting from Josie, unpacked the groceries and took a final picture.

Yes, you are reading the ruler correctly. The receipt from Continente, which is where I bought the fewest items, is 42 centimeters (16 inches) long.

That’s all for now.

Love from Lisbon,

Scott

1. Yes, I have been in the Mall of America. The two structures are laid out completely differently. ECI is much more vertical than MoA and I wasn't able to find size info on it quickly so I'm going with “feels larger.”

2. From various places inside this edifice, we have - over multiple visits - purchased: plates and bowls, flatware, cookware, dog toys and beds (it is here, in fact, where we first learned that the dog food we semi-randomly settled on when we first arrived is actually a Pingo Doce branded product), a waste basket, WD-40, tennis balls, a few items of clothing, stationery, a clothes hamper, bed sheets, sewing accessories, ribbon, vanilla, and many, many grocery items. We have eaten a handful of meals in the food court and we have gazed longingly at the beautiful, high-end chocolates and cakes available on the upper floor. We have not, however, seen a movie, purchased tickets to a Mediterranean cruise, or had a large in-person order delivered to our home - all of which it is possible to do at ECI, a department store, not a mall.

3. This happens usually when there are “specialty” items involved. “How many pepitos do we need?” I will ask. “About this many,” Amy will reply, making a shape with her hands, or pointing at a computer mouse for reference.

4. This may go a long way towards explaining why we have seven unopened bags of pasta in the first place. These would have been purchased before I learned we had strict pasta shape rules in this house.

5. Though the acoustics were terrible so there were times I was pinned to a spot underneath a speaker until a song ended.

6. Brazilian has bit of a harder edge to it. The standard morning greeting is “Bom djia,” and you’re likely to hear “boa tardje” after lunch. European Portuguese is … swishier. Lots of sh sounds, almost soothing.

7. It sounded like ahshkuhnow and it translates to “I don't think so” or “I think not.”

8. I made a game day call to save the cold items and squishy stuff for last. Then I found the bread first. 🤷‍♂️

9. At least it does with the version on my phone app. Maybe it’s my phone?

10. “Internet” and “wifi” are two such examples. Not that we’ve had any reason to learn that lately.

11. Thanks Filipa!

12. I was last Friday years old when I learned that edamame is soy beans.

13. The jury is very much out on whether or not this was a good call.

14. What flavor? Blue. Yes. Blue is a flavor.

15. While in Aldi, an employee asked me a question. In English. Why, I wondered, did he choose English? Oh right. My shirt.

So much for blending in with the locals.

16. Orange, red, and green if you must know.

17. Not counting the wandering of aisles.