Throughout our process of getting to Porto, it was often the little things I didn’t expect any issues with which caused gotchas. Since getting here that has continued to be the case.
I’ve been focusing on cooking more. There have been some things I didn’t expect to be a challenge to get that have been kind of elusive.
For some reason onion powder has been extremely hard to find. I also haven’t seen a lot of fresh cilantro in any form other than a plant you can buy to grow your own herbs. After looking around for onion powder quite a bit, I decided to go to a store that was recommended for spices. When I got there… nope.
Since I was not far from it, I decided to check out the Balhão Market to see if I could find any. The Balhão Market (Mercado do Bolhão) was originally built in 1914 and was a centrally located place where locals could do their food shopping in one place. Over the years, the building the market is in deteriorated to the point that in needed some major rehabilitation. After years of controversy and four years of rehabilitation work, the market reopened in 2022. While the things sold at the market are things that were originally sold there, the market is now geared toward tourists – which is reflected in the prices of many things and means locals probably don’t shop there that much.
For me the market was fruitful… I found my onion powder as well a nice bunch of cilantro. I got some fresh olives for the dish I was making in the evening too. I probably could have found cilantro elsewhere and it turns out you can get onion powder at the Lidl that is closest to us (maybe because Lidl is international?) but I’m still glad I went to the market and got a good sense of what’s available there.
Now if only I could find some Thai basil….