It’s a typical gray morning when Marreiros steps into a small bakery in Helmond called Pastelaria Lusa (Molenstraat, Helmond). The pouring rain that has just washed over Brabant did not deter him from putting on a typical Portuguese shirt with red, ornate embroidery, which is worn only in the north of Portugal.

Marreiros orders a coffee and walks toward the shelves next to the counter. There, he shows us a bright orange box of Portuguese breakfast cereal. “I used to eat this for breakfast every morning in Portugal, for 18 years.” But he did not travel all the way to Helmond just for the cornflakes. “I come here every time I have a craving for Portuguese beer or cheese. They also sell the absolute best butter here, made only in the Azores. I don’t need to buy any now, because I still have plenty at home.”

Marreiros has been studying at TU/e since 2019. “I don’t have any Portuguese friends here and it took a while before I found this store. Now, I regularly hop on the train. It only takes me fifteen minutes to get here. It’s the only nearby store that sells Portuguese products made by Portuguese people. It really helps when I miss home.”

In addition to all the sweet treats, he also sometimes gets frozen meals at the bakery, which doubles as a kind of mini-supermarket. The Portuguese cuisine is known for its many meat and fish dishes. “They have a delicious cozido à portuguesa (stew) and bacalhau com natas (cod dish) here. Usually, it takes a lot of time and effort to make, but now all you have to do is heat it up.” However, Marreiros doesn’t buy these typical Portuguese dishes as often as he used to. “I try to eat vegetarian more often.”

Nowadays, Marreiros no longer goes to the bakery just for himself. “My Dutch friends always ask me to bring something for them. Especially since we visited Portugal together once,” he says, pointing to his bag with cheese and beer. “When people like the food from your homeland, you immediately feel more at home.” Marreiros plans to stay in the Netherlands after his studies. Even though he thinks Dutch food tends to be rather plain. “I do love a good stamppot or a kaassoufflé, but in Portugal, we dine for three hours accompanied by a good wine. I miss that sometimes.”

Kento Suzuki (21) is half Thai and half Japanese. He may be only 21, but he has already moved 17 times in his life due to his parents’ work. He spent a good part of his youth shuttling between California and Thailand, but he had never been to Europe before. That is why he decided to study here. “Because I grew up all over the place, I haven’t really been able to build a bond with one particular cuisine, or develop a specific taste of home.”

Still, he often craves Japanese food or feels like cooking Japanese food for his friends. He then goes to Amazing Oriental (Langdonkenstraat, Eindhoven) to get ingredients. “I usually stock up for a few weeks at a time. The Japanese ingredients there are much cheaper than those at Albert Heijn, if they even have them. That’s because Amazing Oriental sells them in much larger portions. And they are truly authentic products, the kind you can also buy in Japan. Not like the Japanese restaurants around here, because those dishes are adapted to cater to the Dutch taste.”

Suzuki particularly likes to get ingredients for a Japanese curry, like his parents used to make for him. “I get the base for the sauce there, a roux. They sell them in cubes, so all you have to do is throw them in the pot. And the marinade for the meat, of course. It’s more like a British curry than a Thai one, by the way, because it’s not that spicy. I often make it for friends or for my teammates from student team Ignite as well. We frequently share dishes and snacks from our traditional cuisines.”

In addition to the ingredients for the curry, Suzuki buys many more products at the store, such as Japanese mayonnaise (which is thicker and creamier), sake (Japanese rice wine, for cooking) and soy sauce. “And Japanese beer, of course.” Though he does enjoy Dutch and Belgian beer, too. “My favorite is Grolsch. The taste is closest to that of a Japanese beer. But I recently found out that the brewery was bought by a Japanese beverage company. So maybe that’s why,” he laughs.

It’s impossible for Suzuki to choose one specific cuisine; he enjoys nearly every type of food. “I love trying out all sorts of dishes. There’s very little I don’t like.” This is true for Dutch food as well. “People often say the food here is too bland, but with enough variation, it’s not that bad. For example, I love endive stew, I recently made sushi with herring and I tried boiling frikandellen (yes boiling, because boiling sausages is common in Japan). I actually eat more bread than rice.”