Groceries

This is what my grocery receipts look like. The conversion here is 8 patacas to 1 dollar, so this bill of almost $1000 was about $125. I think groceries are about 30% higher here than in Utah. Luckily the grocery stores take credit cards if you spend over 100 mop (patacas) or so. Most other stores set their limits at over 200 mop so you always have to have cash on hand here.

There are a lot of things at the grocery stores that I recognize and some things I don't. They have tomatoes, grapes (pricey), broccoli, strawberries (super pricey), corn on the cob sometimes, green peppers, mangoes, bananas, apples (we love fuji and they're delicious here!). They also have tons of varieties of mushrooms, small mangoes, dragon fruit, dorian fruit, and other stuff I don't know the name of. As far as meats it's hard to find ground hamburger I think - lots of fish and pork and chicken feet. Someone from the Cantonese Branch came over yesterday and we walked through a nearby store while she told me about some of the fruit and meats I didn't recognize and about how she would cook things. Really informative! A lot of it is fried together or steamed. There are some frozen balls of red bean paste with breading on the outside that she likes to steam and eat for breakfast. I want to give it a try.

Mostly we rely on lots of American stuff, which is pricey but great to have! Some of it isn't that great, I think because it had to be shipped over - like the tortillas are super stuck together maybe from being frozen for a long time. But yeah, we have tortillas, refried beans, Pringles, Doritos (though super expensive), peanut butter, shredded cheese, American sliced cheese (pricey $4 for a pack of 16), cereal, yogurt (haven't found a great one yet though). I even found Tyson frozen chicken breasts, although the bag was $20. The milk isn't too bad. It comes in liter boxes (doesn't have to be refrigerated which is convenient) and is expensive (about $2 per liter so about $8 per gallon).

A lot of the grocery stores have at least a couple steps to get into them which isn't great with a stroller but we're making do! It's so fun to learn so much here - I love learning about people and what they like to eat!