Mediterranean cuisine at its best.

By OLIVIA MIWIL - January 19, 2017 @ 4:10pm
Drawing on its rich past, Portuguese cuisine combines local products and cooking traditions with an amazing array of exotic spices and ingredients, writes Olivia Miwil

TRAVEL guides (print and online) tell you where to look for good food at your holiday destinations. But locals show you the food they eat regularly and on special occasions. More than often, they give you more surprises and a better understanding of their culture.

We are lucky to have Pedro Pinto, the travel director for our eight-day Best of Portugal tour by Trafalgar Tours. More like a walking encyclopedia of everything Portuguese, Pedro persuades us to try dishes commonly found at home. Among them is vegetable soup, a must-have for lunch or dinner.

It is so important that, he says, even some fast food restaurants serve the soup as a way to lure grandparents to come with their young grandchildren. The soup, which has the consistency of puree, is a concoction of onions, carrots, potatoes, cabbages and others, which are boiled and blended.

Since the starter consists of starch from the potatoes, it is easily to feel full before moving on to the main course and dessert. But the Portuguese usually spend long hours during lunch or dinner which give them time to enjoy the whole course.

Portuguese food is Mediterranean cuisine at its best, filled with vegetables, fresh seafood, meat and desserts. The cuisine is influenced by Portugal’s past Roman and Moorish rulers, the power of the Roman Catholic Church, age of exploration in the 14th and 15th centuries where people travelled to Japan, Goa, Macau, Africa and South America.

Over time, the rich history and travels combine local products and cooking traditions with an amazing array of exotic spices, ingredients and cooking techniques, and this culinary evolution helped create a cuisine that is distinctly Portuguese.

And now as one of the producers of high quality olive oil, Portuguese cuisine has dashes of the oil either for cooking or flavouring.

PROTEIN OBSESSION

Being a country with a well-developed fishing industry, the Portuguese love salted codfish or bacalhao so much that it has been said there are hundreds of ways to cook it. One of them is to make them into balls.

Among the three famous codfish balls are bacalhau a Gomes de Sa from Porto (a mixture of salted cod fish, potatoes, onions, black olives, and hard-boiled eggs), Bacalhau com natas (salt cod fish cooked with cream and onion) and Bacalhau a bras from Estremadura (salted cod, potato, onion and scrambled eggs).

The fishing tradition developed before the invention of the refrigerator, thus the people have adapted to the taste of dried or salted codfish.

Nazare, a quaint fishing village not far from Lisbon, is one of the places for visitors to try other seafood products especially sardines.

Sardines, mackerel, tuna, sea bass, octopus, squid, anchovies, swordfish, sweet Portuguese clams, crabs, oysters, mussels, and lobsters can be grilled over charcoal; baked, pan-fried, roasted in an oven, cooked in a cataplana, or boiled. But just with a sprinkle of salt or herbs over the seafood,the freshness of the catch is enhanced.

If you miss out feasting seafood anywhere in Portugal, there are canned sardines at the Lisbon airport, souvenir shops and grocery stores.

CARBO LOADING

It is common to have rice either as a side or main dish such that the Portuguese are called the “Chinese in Europe”.

At the centre of every meal, bread and wine are two essential items on the dining table. There are hundreds of bread varieties in terms of texture, colour and taste depending on the region. They are either made of corn, rye or wheat.

For the Portuguese, bread is an all-day dining item — for breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner and even supper. It has to be there to accompany a meal whether as toast or even as dessert.

DRINK UP

It is famed for the young and refreshing vinho verde (literally, green wine but means young wine) available in white and red, which is named after the wine-making region in the north.

Its Port wine, a fortified wine commonly produced in Douro valley, has a distinct flavour as the fermentation is halted midway with brandy. I like to have it with dessert such as chocolate or cakes.

For coffee, do not expect to order them using the terms “long black, Americano, cappuccino, latte, or mocha” as the basic will be a small cup of coffee like an espresso. But do ask for milk to have your fix of latte or cappuccino.

Tea, or cha in Portuguese, gets the pronunciation of the drink in Cantonese, is usually taken plain or with sugar. Pedro says it is fine to ask for milk although it is uncommon for the locals.

Meanwhile for its drinking water, Portuguese consumers are willing to spend money on bottled water as they are considered to be tastier and healthier than tap water.

SWEET TOOTH

There are 200 types of pastries in Portugal. Most of these delicacies can be traced back to the time of the arrival of the Moors in Portugal who brought sugar cane with them.

Most of the sweet treats were created by the Catholic convents to supplement their incomes for charity during the Middle Ages.

Egg yolks, apples, almonds are among the common ingredients used in baking. The must-try treat is of course the world-famous Portuguese egg tart pastry or Pastel de Nata. One will definitely go for a second helping.

Another must-try is Boleima, a fusion of Jewish unleavened bread. This bread comes in two varieties —“rich” (with apple and cinnamon) and “poor” (only with sugar sprinkled on top).

Other popular sweet treats are egg custards, cinnamon laced treats and desserts made with nuts and citrus.