Back to our routine: Grocery Haul in Luanda 🇦🇴
We left the house by 7:42AM. We were back by 1PM. That is a typical Saturday morning for many households in Luanda: it's that time of the week we venture into several spots in town for grocery shopping. When you need something, you go to your local grocery store and you're done with all the items you wanted? Lucky you! We live a different reality when in Angola: we need to hop on and hop off several spots to find everything that is on our list. That grated cheese? Supermarket A. That potato that is perfect for roasting? Supermarket B. That juicy national pineapple? At the corner of that street with that cool lady that might give you a passion fruit with your bigger purchase.
Today Bruno and I tackled our grocery list like champions: we managed to find everything we wanted. Yes, even that Brie cheese for an afternoon charcuterie and cheese board we have in mind to do soon.
In Angola, a former war-torn country that has struggled with its national agriculture and industry, has made great strides to become a bit more produce-independent in the past decade. So our grocery stores are a mix of Angolan produce and processed dairy and other goods mostly from Portugal (via air or maritime) or South Africa (via land). You will see that mix of nationalities in the items we chose below.
Some friends - who love grocery hauls as much as me - have asked for me to show or film grocery shopping in Angola, so here is our haul for today. And even if it took us 4 hours around town and several spots to find everything, it might only last us about 7-10 days, so we might have to go back next week or so!
(nationality on the side)
Produce
- Limes 🇦🇴
- Fresh herbs for pasta (oregano, thyme and basil) 🇿🇦
- Soup veggie mix with white beans 🇦🇴
- Veggie mix for roasting 🇦🇴
- Watercress 🇦🇴
- Green beans 🇦🇴
- Shallots 🇵🇹
- Sweet potatoes 🇦🇴
- Butternut Squash 🇦🇴
- Pineapple (cut in front of us at the supermarket, great service!) 🇦🇴
- Half Cabbage 🇦🇴
- Red Onions 🇦🇴
- Carrot in Julienne strips 🇿🇦
- Tomatoes 🇦🇴
- Pattypans (mini zucchinis) 🇿🇦
Dairy
- Greek yoghurt (a kilo! Bruno is a big fan obviously) 🇵🇹
- Feta cheese 🇵🇹
- Brie cheese
- Milk 🇵🇹
Protein
(we bought grouper and white grouper fish last week so no fish to purchase this week)
- Minced chicken (to make the juiciest burgers) 🇦🇴
- Chicken breasts 🇦🇴
Preserves and others dried goods
- White bread 🇦🇴 (for our maid, we have tried to entice her to eat a more nutritious breakfast, to no avail. White bread is her favourite, by the pair, every morning)
- Steel cut oats 🇵🇹
- A dried mushroom risotto 🇵🇹
- White Quinoa 🇵🇹
- Oat milk 🇪🇸
- Apple, ginger and cinnamon jam (with no added sugar) 🇵🇹
- 70% chocolate chips 🇦🇴
- Whole wheat noodles 🇵🇹
- Green and black pitted olives 🇦🇴
- Agave syrup (I was so happy to find it as I forgot to bring from Portugal and ecstatically realised I didn't need to!) 🇵🇹
We also bought other cleaning and hygiene products which will go unpictured. You're welcome!
Which stores did we go to and how much we spent?
please login to read the rest of this article
