Eating like the Portuguese, the best traditional dishes
I guess it’s been a while since we met here to talk about food, a vital cultural constituent – often ignored, but impossible to avoid when traveling abroad. So today, we suggest eating like the Portuguese, the best traditional dishes being the subject of our discussion.
Apart from the local Indo-European cultures, Portugal has been vastly influenced by the Moorish conquest in the middle ages. This influence is present notably in architecture, but also in the local cuisine (especially in the region of Algarve); and it is both similar and dissimilar to the Mediterranean one. Fish is the main element, but the Far East innovated Portuguese cuisine by introducing spices and herbs, from pepper and ginger to saffron and coriander. From the Americas, the Portuguese conquistadors brought potatoes, rice, coffee and other now household foods, so these ingredients are also common.
Fig and almond sweets, popular in Portugal, also trace their origins back to Moorish times. Piri piri and vanilla are very common as well and since recent Portuguese history has seen the influence of the British, the breakfast here looks a lot like the English one: milk, bread, butter and jam.
In terms of original recipes, it is worth mentioning the fish dishes of “bacalhau” (cod fish salted and cooked in 365 manners), stuffed squid, “sardinhas assadas” (grilled sardines, so popular during fairs and celebrations), anchovies and a variety of shellfish (such as oysters, lobsters, clams and crabs).
If you wish to sip a soup, we recommend caldo verde (made up of mashed potatoes, Galician cabbage, olive oil and tora or slices of churico).
As for beverage, what else can we recommend but a glass of the sweet Port wine?
The Algarve is the best place to sample the cultural specific of Portuguese cuisine. Before your trip, you can book Faro airport transfers and your Lagos car hire online.
