Portugal

[hullabaloo]

I was wondering if anyone had any tips and advice for the travelling vegan! Next week I am off to Albufeira in Portugal for a field course with my university. Being a new vegan of only a month or so I'm finding the prospect of what to eat quite daunting. From the sounds of it the apartments are a bit out of town and we'll have access to the restaurant there and also a small supermarket. I'm just going to paranoid about whether foods will be 'safe' and how to not appear to be a fussy sod when it comes to eating (i.e. don't want to socially exclude myself from say going to a restaurant etc)! Has anyone got any good advice on how to survive the week?:)

[prawnsize]

I live in Portugal. It's quite difficult eating out, I tend to end up with salad just to be easy going! Generally though the restaurants are quite happy to make something up for me if I ask nicely - I say that I'm allergic to dairy, meat, fish so that they don't think I'm just being fussy! In Albufeira there's not a lot of people that don't speak English (in my experience). If you can get to the big Continente store (algarve shopping), they have all the soya milk/meat and health foods etc that should get you by! The smaller shops don't seem to have that stuff but I obviously don't know about the one where you'll be!! Good luck and PM me if you want to ask me any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them if I can! :)

[Korn]

Hi, I've been to Portugal a couple of times, and found OK places to eat both in Lisbon and in Algarve....

Here are some Portuguese links:
http://www.happycow.net/europe/portugal/lisbon/
http://www.happycow.net/europe/portugal/albufeira/index.html
http://www.vegetarian-restaurants.net/Europe-Vegetarian-Cities/Lisbon-Vegetarian-Restaurants.htm
http://www.veggieheaven.com/europe/portugal/albufeira/1539/Eurasia+Restaurante+Vegetariano/

Traditional Portugese restaurants didn't seem to be a good choice (they seem to put meat in almost everything), so it might be a good idea to look for Mexican, Indian, Italian, Thai, Middle Eastern (etc) places...

[hullabaloo]

Thank you :) The good thing is I am living with in with 2 vegetarians so hopefully if we do decide to eat out I might be able to find somewhere willing to make something suitable. At least I know I won't be going to places with just people who eat meat, so it should make it a bit easier. I'll have a look at those links thanks.

[prawnsize]

Thanks Korn, I'll have a look at those links too! Yep defiantely hard to get meatless anything in the traditional restaurants - I once ordered a vegetable soup (and asked if it had only vegetables in it) and it came with a huge lump of chorizo sausage in it - yuk!

[fresquinho]

I second what Korn says, traditional portuguese restaurants (even if Idon't know how many of these survived the Britishisation of coastalAlgarve) are not the best places for vegans to go (especially those whohave pig legs dangling from the ceiling :()..I doubt you'll get any better than salad/vegetable soup/steamedvegetables/tomato rice. In Lisboa there are loads of veg*anrestaurants, but in Albufeira, besides from the one in Korn's link, youshould definitely try Indian restaurants (there should be some on thestreet) or, if you go to a mall, the Israeli one.

[Mr Flibble]

I'm off to portugal the week after next. I've pretty much decided not to try eating out at all, but to just cook my own stuff from basic ingredients.

Can anyone tell me which nationally sold in supermarket soya milk / margarine / bread is vegan?

Ta

[fresquinho]

You'll get soymilk from pretty much every supermarket, either expensive brand one or cheap generic one. I think all unbranded bread from major supermarkets is vegan, but I'm not sure; packaged "pão de forma" (pain de mie?) is non-vegan (but it's crap anyway). I think you'll get Alpro margarine in all major supermarkets too.

If there's anything else you want to know, please go ahead.

[Mr Flibble]

Many thanks.

I should have internet there, so expect a PM if after 24 hours I find myself starving ;)

[Mr Flibble]

So, having been vegan for 10 years I've decided after 36 hours that being vegetarian abroad is just too difficult. Doing so doesn't embrace local customs, shows no respect and as such I've just eaten a big steak.......

No, not really. I'm not one of *those* vegans ;)

Intermache seems well stocked, I found alpro marge and soya milk without difficulty. There's lots of packaging with English on.

I realise however that I forgot to ask the most important question before coming away: which of the cheap supermarket beers are vegan? I've so far been drinking peroni and westons, both of which cost about the same as in the UK. I was one of the few british people in the supermarket without a crate of cheap beer in their trolley.

Prices of food are rather shocking, Some things have clearly been imported for british people and whacked up, but other things seem portuguese yet really do cost like 7 euros for a jar of sauce! If id have known Id have packed some jars of sharwoods curry sauce in my suitcase and made a killing selling them to expats :)

Anyway, i'm rambling. Back to more important questions. It seems that companies making vegetarian food share the same fascination with putting egg products in their food like they do in the UK. Can anyone tell me which Cem Porcento products are vegan? I spotted egg in their burgers, but am not sure about their sausage type things. Are they OK? if so, what does one do with them? They seem to sell big blocks of seiten, but i've no idea what to do with them.

I've not seen anything labelled vegano, but plenty of things that claim 100% vegetal. Does 100% vegetal infer vegan, or does it just mean 100% not meat?

Are there any good vegan friendly brands in supermarkets? Is it worth going to a particular supermarket chain or is intermarche about standard?

Is there anywhere a list of common animal ingredients in portuguese that i can download?

Many thanks :)

[fresquinho]

which of the cheap supermarket beers are vegan?
which Cem Porcento products are vegan?
Does 100% vegetal infer vegan, or does it just mean 100% not meat?
Are there any good vegan friendly brands in supermarkets?
Is it worth going to a particular supermarket chain or is intermarche about standard?
Is there anywhere a list of common animal ingredients in portuguese that i can download?


Mr Flibble, sorry for answering just now (no Internet at home) (and for providing so little useful information..), but here it goes:

Beers: I don't know which Portuguese beers, if any, are vegan; I never drink any of them, because Sagres sponsor bullfights and Super Bock have asshole-ish promotion campaigns.
As for supermarket chains, I don't know Intermarché that well so I can't really help you.
"100% vegetal" would mean it's vegan, yes. So for the Cem Porcento products and other ready meals, if they don't say "100% vegetal" you could check for "albumina", "ovo", "leite"...

[Mr Flibble]

That's great - thanks. no need to appologise, life moves slower when on holiday. 100% vegetal meaning vegan makes life a lot easier. :)

just been to modelo, which was a far more pleasant experience than intermarche. Intermarche is as I remember it in France in the 80s, where as modelo is really quite 1st world ;)

[Mr Flibble]

OK, so now I'm back, for the benefit of anyone travelling to Portugal from the UK for a week here's what I'd suggest:

a) Take tofu and if you like/use them then meat and cheese substitutes with you
b) Soya milk (Alpro), fresh soya cream, fresh yoghurts (Alpro) and icecream (Tofutti and various others) are all easy to find
c) Be prepared to pay extortionate amounts for various things, such as jars of sauce
d) Modelo is generally better than Intermarche

Other than that I can highly recommend the south of Portugal in October - 29 degrees, warm enough to swim outside and sit out till midnight :)

[nili]

My name is Alice, and I am a teacher of a discipline that I would translate to English as "Social Integration". It teaches students how to live in society by understanding concepts of democracy, philosophy, ethics, and so on.
My husband is a German environmentalist that that works in Portugal, and we have a kid 6 years old. Once my husband is not a vegan, not even vegetarian, but considering himself a Buddhist, I'm having serious problems at home and at school, where I have permanent conflicts with the biology teacher and the school board.
So I need lots of HELP.

[violet7]

Hi there!:)

I'll be probably going to Erasmus exchange to Porto next year ... Any piece of advice?;) I think i won't be eating out much since I don't have much money but maybe i'll try something if it is worth it. Otherwise i'll be happy of anything helpful, for example some good supermarket or vegan friendly corner, etc.
I see Portugal isn't famous for vegan friendliness, haha, but i'm not so worried, i think it's possible to be vegan practically anywhere, you just have to find some fruits and vegetables if nothing else:p...

thanks for your help and shine on;)

[Barry]

Just back from two weeks in Albufeira over the christmas. It was quite challenging at times, we found Intermarche to be a reasonably good supermarket, but if you're not self-catering options are extremely limited.

We ate a lot of cheeseless pizza (some of the reactions we got when we asked for no cheese/is there dairy in the base etc. were hilarious - total bewilderment!), and some really bad Chinese food, but, at the end of the first week we found an Indian that was extremely accommodating (as Indians so often are), and we had plenty of dhal, channa masala, and aloo gobi, which was lovely.

We found one place that did a properly veggie paella, but it was just ok. The weather was amazing though, first time my pasty white Irish face got a sun-tan at christmas!

[violet7]

i loved portugal:) fruit & veggies are great there so if a raw vegan you don't have to worry! also a lot of fruit lies on the ground or grows in wild (oranges!!!);) otherwise there was an amazing vegan restaurant in lisbon but i hear it's closed now which sucks:( in porto you one too which has cool mini pizzas, fresh juices etc and really cool stuff working there. just check out happycow. usual shops i'd say are not so good but it's possible to get things though nuts for example and dates are hard to find and so expensive comparing to slovenia. i really love that in portugal you can find local fruits on every corner and it's cheap and good!:P