Managing meals abroad – what challenges are expats facing?
Cooking at home vs eating at restaurants
Let me share some personal experience first.
Before I moved to China, I loved to cook. As a student with very limited disposable income, most of my meals came from my own kitchen. When I moved to China, I first tried to keep to the same strategy. But this quickly turned out to be a very difficult undertaking. First, I was now in a world of very different groceries — and even shopping at Walmart had me coming home with jars of bitter grass jelly and green tea-flavored sandwich bread, not the things I was used to back home.
And while cooking familiar meals felt complicated, going out to eat was not. Street food was everywhere, restaurants were cheap, and everything tasted great. There was no way I could recreate these new flavors at home, so I committed to dining out and, over time, pretty much lost all my cooking skills.
Sure, this doesn't happen to everyone. But for many expats in a country with relatively inexpensive restaurants and good "outside" food, the temptation is definitely there. As one expat notes on our Bulgaria forum: "Because my wife works and I'm retired and I don't really cook, we tend to eat out quite a bit. We are lucky that we have a counter service restaurant bar just a 2-minute walk from our front door, which is half the price of many other restaurants, serving a wide choice of freshly cooked foods. I eat out nearly every day... normally a shopska (Bulgarian salad) for starters and then some meat dish for mains. Normally washed down with whatever is on tap."
Now, expats in the United States seem to paint a different picture.
Some share concerns about the quality of food in restaurants. The general consensus is that there are a lot of processed ingredients, the dishes tend to be fatty, and the portions are huge.
As one expat notes in our USA forum shares: "In general, the food in USA restaurants, and again depending on the geography that you live in, is poison. If you are a healthy food fan regardless of the price of food, you should consider definitely preparing food at home, which in most cases I personally do."
And while this may sound a bit dramatic, the evidence actually supports our fellow expat's statement above. A national analysis of US chain restaurant meals revealed that over half of such meals did not meet the American Heart Association's (AHA) criteria for calories, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium. More than that, a recent report by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) states that ultra-processed foods make up more than half of Americans' calorie intake.
And this brings us to our next point.
Healthy food and food safety abroad
Cooking at home is often seen as a healthier alternative to eating at restaurants, especially abroad when you are not yet too familiar with local cuisine. This can come down to simple fear of the unknown. But in a lot of cases, expats may also have legitimate concerns about outside food.
Vietnam has recently seen a rise in food poisonings from eating street food, Brazil experienced a series of serious methanol intoxication cases in bars and restaurants, and in September of last year close to 200 people fell ill after eating dishes made with contaminated buckwheat flour during a festival in Delhi.
But the thing is that food safety issues are not limited to simply having a bad bowl of curry from a questionable street stand. In some countries, expats find that food safety concerns extend all the way to their grocery baskets.
For example, a recent food safety report in China has found that over 60,000 batches of food products tested nationwide exceeded the permitted levels of pesticide contamination, microbial contamination, and excessive food additives.
Expats in our Moroccan forum share concerns about food product safety as well: "Depending on where you are, it can be difficult to buy fresh products in complete safety. Pesticide standards are often not respected in Africa, so thorough cleaning with food-grade baking soda is necessary. As for meat, I have already discussed this in a post I wrote. The food safety agency here is basically nonexistent, just a name and an office. There have been cases of contamination, including deaths in Marrakech, linked to a snack bar using mayonnaise. More recently, some very well-known cheeses in France were found to contain harmful substances. These products are manufactured in Morocco under the same French brand names."
In other countries, expats may often run into the issues of the availability and price of healthy organic produce. Organic foods are generally sold at a premium compared to conventional foods — and expenses for cooking something you are used to with fresh products can really add up.
"When I first came to the US, I was actually surprised by how cheap some things were: bread, cheese, yogurt – these are expensive in China. But then I realized the quality was not good. The bread I bought never went bad…It was full of additives. Once I started shopping at Whole Foods, my daily expenses went really up", shares Lin, a Chinese expat in San Diego.
Another expat from Vietnam shares a tip: "I am used to eating things fresh. I can't stand packaged fruit and vegetables. So I buy everything at a Vietnamese market in my neighborhood. It's much cheaper, and everything tastes better, and I can get all the ingredients I need for my favorite dishes".
Now, some countries do seem easier to navigate when it comes to food than others. And a lot of these countries are in Europe. Access to fresh produce, strict food safety regulations, and generally very palatable cuisines play a big part in that. Following a Mediterranean diet in Italy and eating fresh seafood in Spain and Portugal would probably be a welcome transition for most expats. That said, you may still run into a challenge or two when looking for specific ingredients.
As one expat shares in our Portugal forum: "There were some challenges when we first came to Portugal in terms of ingredients or foods that we were not able to find in regular stores because the Portuguese apparently don't eat them. For example, we were surprised to discover that the Portuguese don't eat corn on the cob, boiled or roasted. I have previously lived in Romania, China, Hong Kong, Canada (both coasts), and in all those places people eat corn on the cob, so I expected to find it here too. But... no."
Dietary restrictions and food preferences
For expats with dietary restrictions (diabetic, lactose intolerance, food allergies, etc.) and specific food preferences (vegetarian, gluten-free, keto, etc.) things get even more complicated.
First, you may run into a simple matter of availability. For example, in some cuisines, you may have a harder time finding vegan or even vegetarian dishes. And in others, managing a diet that does not contain gluten can prove quite problematic. You may also run into the issue of proper product labeling. In some countries, labeling may be unclear or inconsistent, and asking detailed questions at restaurants may be difficult due to language barriers. In others, dietary restrictions may simply not be widely understood – or taken seriously.
Anna who follows a vegan diet, shares her experience of living in Japan:
“I'm vegan, and while Japanese food is amazing, it took me months to realize how many dishes contain hidden fish stock or meat-based broth. Even dishes that look vegetarian often turn out to be not. I ended up cooking way more than I expected – but did save some money because of it."
Eating familiar meals can get expensive
And yes, following the diet you want, using the ingredients you are familiar with and indulging in the sometimes so much needed comfort meals abroad can get expensive. This is particularly noticeable for expats living outside Europe or North America, in countries where Western products may be niche or luxury items.
Mike, a long-term expat in Thailand, notes: “Local food is incredibly cheap; 7/11s are great for quick snacks. But the moment you want cheese, olive oil, or proper bread, prices skyrocket. Cooking Western meals at home can easily cost more than eating out every day at a local restaurant. My advice: learn to love Thai food, it's pretty easy."
