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Shopping in supermarkets in Southern Europe (and everywhere else!) is exciting and interesting. It is fun to browse through all the raw materials and products that you are not used to from Sweden. It's also interesting to observe the range of products in the shops as it tells you a lot about the food culture in the different countries. We have now travelled in France, Portugal, Spain and Italy for eight months. Here you can see our reflections from the supermarkets. Maybe you have other experiences?
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France
- Available in abundance: Pâtés, pâtés, terrines, offal, cheeses and crème fraiche.
- Difficult to obtain: Nothing - a fantastic selection!
- Most different/surprising: Miniature chickens (like a clenched hand), various birds and bird eggs (e.g. quail), lamb brain and other unusual offal, sea snails and other unknown small shells. That powdered soups are tastier than in Sweden, even when it is the same producer.
- Our favourites: Duck liver pâté, blue mussels (especially on the west coast!) and the fine and affordable cod loin.
Portugal
- Available in abundance: Dried salted cod (bacalhau)
- Difficult to obtain: Asian products and some spices (dill, saffron, sambal oelek).
- Most different/surprising: Whole skinned rabbits. That people buy dried fish (bacalhau) from Norway even though the sea is just outside.
- Our favourites: Green (bubbly) wine, fresh and affordable fish that dourada and robalo.
Spain
- Available in abundance: Pata negra (large femurs with air-dried ham), olive and boquerones (fresh anchovies).
- Difficult to obtain: Crème fraiche, good yoghurt and sambal oelek.
- Most different/surprisingly: That milk and cream are not refrigerated. That yoghurt is often very sweet, has a jelly-like consistency and seems to be made for children? That powdered soups are so watery, even when the same producer makes Swedish and French soups.
- Our favourites: Iberico meatballs, air-dried ham, coquinas clams and fresh and affordable fish such as dorada and lubina.
Italy
- Available in abundance: Pasta, pasta, pasta (fresh, dried and frozen, stuffed and unstuffed in billions of forms), crushed tomatoes, olives, squid (and right now in Sicily - melons!).
- Difficult to obtain: Crème fraiche and liver paste
- Most different/surprising: Small snails sold in vegetable counters. Most of the yoghurt range is 0% or 0.1% fat. Milk and cream (and some soft cheeses) are not refrigerated.
- Our favourites: Vongole mussels, fresh salsiccia (sausage), bubbly white wine (frizzante) and the delicious tomatoes.
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Marina says:
Fun and interesting reflections! And as you say, it's a bit exciting to import fish from Norway given the domestic fishing industry.
03 August 2015 - 16:59
anita wag agrimanaki says:
Interesting and fun list to read! Would have been fun to see how you had perceived Greece. Just what you wrote about milk that it is not refrigerated goods in Spain surprises me a little too. Here with us it is full of milk and youghurt in all forms in the fridge. In the beginning when I lived here, it was not as common with "fresh milk". Many people used longlife milk that is in cans (I think it's called condensed) Many children here grew up with that milk. My children hated it so it was lucky that "fresh milk" became more and more common here.
03 August 2015 - 17:02
Klara says:
Oh, now I got hungry from reading this 🙂 .
03 August 2015 - 17:18
Steve says:
So much deliciousness. There is always something to enjoy. Of the countries you describe, France is definitely my food favourite.
03 August 2015 - 17:24
Maggan och Ingemar says:
Made a comment on the previous post, but it apparently disappeared into cyberspace. Do a new search 🙂
Of course you can use my pictures if you like. Then I had recommended you to take a look at the city of Noto you can read here. http://www.lillviks.blogspot.se/2015/02/noto-en-barockstad.html
If you continue around the headland you are on, you will reach Marsamemi, which you can read about here. http://www.lillviks.blogspot.se/2015/02/marzamemi-en-mysig-liten-by.html
You have found a nice campsite, unfortunately they are usually closed for us winter campers.
Kul med era reflektioner av maten…….stämmer ganska bra med vår upplevelse.
Cream and crème fraiche are available, but you have to look in the shops on the shelves. We made the same observations about not having the products in the fridge. They have a much longer shelf life than our refrigerated products. The same goes for the bread...... there is almost only white bread and we also have to hunt for salted butter. 🙂
I often miss items that are available at home, but not abroad.... so now I fill the fridge with things I think are not available while travelling.
Nice to hear your thoughts and reflections.
Now the heat is finally coming to Sweden as well 🙂 .
Goodbye!
03 August 2015 - 17:40
Maggan och Ingemar says:
Looks like my comment disappeared again 🙁 .
03 August 2015 - 17:41
Maggan och Ingemar says:
I see that there were two comments.... you can delete one of them 🙂 .
03 August 2015 - 17:59
admin says:
Marina, yes it is a bit surprising. The dried fish was not overly cheap either, but if I remember correctly, it used to be much cheaper. The fish is apparently soaked and then cooked in different ways. The Portuguese seem to be very fond of it!
Anita, interesting to hear! Spain and Italy are certainly not dairy countries (except for cheese), but I imagine there is more in Greece! Hopefully we'll get a chance to explore that at some point too!
Steve, France is our food favourite too (of these)!
Maggan and Ingemar, when you put several links in the same post, the blog thinks the comment is spam and puts it in the spam bin. So it doesn't disappear, but I have to approve it. (In the worst case, I can miss such comments, so it was good that you wrote that they disappeared, though!) Sorry you had to write several times... Thanks for the great tips! Noto we will try to look at! Will look at your posts about both it and Marsamemi! Thanks for letting us borrow pictures! It will not be exact now, but when I / we do it, we will of course link. Interesting that you agree with the reflections on the food. We find cream (not refrigerated) easy to find, but creme fraiche is tricky. Have found tiny jars (125g?) in a few shops here in Italy, but quite rarely. I agree with the butter! We salt it ourselves 😉 By the way, the pitch we are standing on is open all year round. The owner said that he has many Swedes, Germans, Dutch and Swiss here in the winter!
03 August 2015 - 18:07
Monica says:
Agreed. Fun list. And I believe you when you say that the biggest and best selection is here in France. We have also shopped here in the north, in Brittany, and find that in the big chains like Intermarche (our favourite), Casino and Leclerc, it looks exactly the same as it does in the far north. They are huge supermarkets with huge fish, cheese and meat counters, always staffed and with super service. What we can't always get hold of is dill, which is not widely used in French cooking. Milk comes in many forms here and is always refrigerated, but eggs are not always. Most people know what gluten-free is, but it's in short supply. There are no loose sweets at all, which must be a treat for French mums, and there are no Friday or Saturday sweets either. What we buy from Sweden is matjes, anchovies, Västerbotten cheese and sometimes liquorice. Everything else is available here and Kalles and snaps are available at Ikea!
03 August 2015 - 18:52
Frankie & Co says:
Oh - food is my life there? If I am to pinpoint what I envy you, it is precisely the food cultures you get to experience on the trip - I chew on every dish you blog! Wonderful!
03 August 2015 - 20:17
BP says:
I agree with you on most things. Except for yoghurt in Spain. There we always go for the French Danone naturell. It is superb. Turkish or Greek yoghurt is only available at Carrefour.
Dairy products with a very long shelf life are really questionable. I wonder what they contain... But considering the heat around the Mediterranean region, it is not so surprising that "fresh" milk/cream etc. become sour at once.
The idea of importing fish from Norway is like sending Norwegian cod to Thailand/India to be packed and frozen and then sold again as Findus in Scandinavia. Ridiculous and hard to understand actually!
03 August 2015 - 21:26
admin says:
Monica, thank you for your comment! We thought the supermarkets in France were fantastic. That you can't find the most typical Swedish products is understandable. Most things we can do without for a year, but we also like dill and we like to use Västerbotten cheese in mashed potatoes.
Frankie & Co, we love food too! Unfortunately we can't go out to eat very often, but you are confronted with the food culture even in the shops!
BP, good that you found a good yoghurt in Spain, but you also write "the French Danone naturell". Yes, French yoghurt tastes good! And with the shelf life, we have to admit that we feel it there, everything keeps poorly in the heat so that is perhaps a reason.
03 August 2015 - 21:36
Lennart says:
I can't wait for the food in Portugal!
Live well!
03 August 2015 - 22:18
Ditte says:
What a fun post! You have seen and tried a lot during the trip and exciting to see similarities and differences. To botanize the local products and find your favourites is really fun and what you learn.
The food culture is so different .
03 August 2015 - 22:41
admin says:
Lennart, we liked the fresh fish in Portugal! What food in Portugal are you looking forward to?
Ditte, we have not been to so many restaurants - but we have visited a lot of supermarkets!
04 August 2015 - 8:29
Frankie & Co says:
Yes, that's exactly what I like more - more authentic with food from the shop and at home - me like! Restaurants can often be almost plain so you don't know which country you are in, or so posh that the people themselves don't or rarely eat such restaurant food.
Shorts weather this working day too 🙂
04 August 2015 - 8:51
Ama de casa says:
Isn't it fun to botanise among the food when travelling? Many times what looks really creepy is what is most delicious and flavourful 🙂.
About the yoghurt in Spain... There is that really disgusting consistency-essential yoghurt. We have learned to avoid it 🙂 Both Carrefour, Mercadona and Consúm have their own brands of yoghurt that are good. In addition, "own" Greek yoghurt that is completely acceptable. But the Greek yoghurt took time before we found it here, it made its first appearance (which we found anyway) at Lidl.
🙂
04 August 2015 - 11:38
admin says:
Frankie & Co, you are absolutely right. Of course it is nice to eat in a restaurant sometimes, but here in Italy the menus in most restaurants are the same. There are certainly extra charming and good places in the countryside etc, but especially on the tourist routes it becomes a bit monotonous. Almost more interesting to botanize in the shops then!
Ama de casa, haha that might be it! Yes, I think you are right about the yoghurt. In the end, we also found a vanilla yoghurt at Lidl that we liked. But we made many wrong purchases before we found the right one 😉.
04 August 2015 - 17:00
Anki says:
It's interesting to read about different food traditions... and food is so much fun to try when you come to a new country:
Well, I make my collages in the image editing programme PhotoScape... a good and easy-to-use free programme...
04 August 2015 - 20:48
admin says:
Anki, oh thank you! Then I will check it out! We recently looked, but had a hard time finding, so great info!
05 August 2015 - 8:53
Kia says:
Why the Portuguese buy rockfish in Norway is because they want cod when they make their Bacalao, and cod is not found in the sea outside Portugal. Bacalao is also quite common to eat here in Norway, but far more common in Portugal which eats an average of 10 kg per capita per year, the exporters here sell around 1.5 billion/year to the Portuguese alone. A little curiosity: It is said that a Portuguese girl must be able to prepare 365 rockfish dishes before she is ready to get married.
Kia
06 August 2015 - 0:18
admin says:
Kia, thank you for your comment and explanation! Interesting! But it is still a bit interesting that what has almost become a national dish is something that is imported from another country! I think I heard something about the local fish not being so plentiful and expensive, at least at some point, but I don't remember exactly how it was related....
06 August 2015 - 0:22
Inga M says:
What an interesting post comparing the food and food culture of the different countries you've passed through! Fish is of course abundant down here, that makes sense. But dairy products without refrigeration in such a hot climate I don't understand. How is that possible? And why? How is the milk treated beforehand since it has such a long shelf life? So is it basically preserved?
06 August 2015 - 5:38