Grocery Shopping in Brasil

There are things in life one can look at and cannot have. Many men, as they growing older, look at food when they travel. I'm one of them.

Eating out in Brazil is not exactly cheap. A fancy BBQ restaurant can easily cost US$40 person. An ordinary lunch for two can be over US$20. Even snacks and espresso at the highway restaurants can fetch US$10-15.

Eating in is much cheaper than in Vancouver. Here is a supermarket flyer http://enxuto.com.br/mostrajornal.php?id=1203 US$1=Real 1.67

As you can see,

2L pop is US$1.66 including tax;
500G grounded coffee is US$2.39--you pay C$18 plus tax at Starbucks;
carrots at US$0.35 a kilo;
one whole pineapple for US$1.18--C$4 at Costco Canada;
eggs US$1.18 a dozen;
cabbage US$0.35 per kilo;
rice US$5.97 5 kilo=11 lbs.;
whole chicken US$1.72 a kilo;
beef US$5.96 per kilo=US$2.98 each pound;
corn oil US$1.37 900 ml;

surviving is cheap here. Living in high standard is expensive. Electronics are about 50-100% more than N. America. Cars are mostly made here in Brazil but more expensive. An imported Kia Soul costs R$60,000. In Canada, the same Soul costs C$25,000.

Beer is cheap here. A can of beer 269ml costs US$0.59. Smirnoff Ice 350ml US$1.48.

I paid US$22 for one carton of Marlboro box.

Gasoline is US$1.50 a litre, but the price has stayed the same for the past years.

For Asian grocer, local supermarkets offer limited items such as soya sauce, vermicelli, rice noodle, instant noodles, tofu, dried mushrooms, canned mushrooms, wasabi, etc. In Sao Paulo, there is a Japanese district where one can find wide variety of Japanese and Chinese food items. There is even a Japanese style bakery similar to Hong Kong style.

I miss Chinese food in Vancouver!!