Portugal = food heaven

Welcome back foodies!

After adjusting to the Spanish meal schedule, we will get a chance to switch back to a more normal meal schedule before we head back to Paris (or wherever you may be headed post-Lisbon!). The Portugese eat a light breakfast whenever they wake up and breakfast consists of milky espresso and a roll, served with butter or jam. Lunch lasts for over an hour and is served from noon to around three, followed by a late dinner at 8pm. Usually, the main meals include soup.



I don't know about you, but I heart soup. It is probably one of the most comforting, most enjoyable foods on earth. Calo verde is a soup made of potato, shredded cabbage, and Portugese chorizo. Fish stew, or bacalhau, is also common. Though I doubt we will have the chance to sample it, cocido a portugesa is a fiery, hearty stew filled to the brim with whatever the chef can get his hands on. Beef, pork, chorizo, fish, chickpeas, carrots, turnips, cabbage ... you name it, it's in there. What will I eat, you ask? Feijoada is a thick, rich bean stew or acorda, which is a rich bread casserole flavoured with herbs and vegetables, or sometimes seafood.



The main dishes are hearty and flavourful. The beef lovers out there (I mean, we're from Alberta) will like the traditional dish alcatra, which is beef marinated in red wine, garlic, and herbs then roasted. Tripes a moda do porto is tripe with white beans; francescinha is a tripe sandwich; pork served with clams; rice flavoured with lamprey; alheira (yellow sausage) served with fried potatoes and a fried egg; and, not joking, resende is an entire ox roasted, encircled by roasted chickens. Despite their variety of meat dishes, the regional specialty is seafood. Cod is the most readily available fish and is served in a million different ways (think poutine at La Banquise in Montreal!), including fried, dried, salted, steamed, boiled, grilled, and even roasted! More exotic seafood will cater to adventurous foodies, including cuttlefish, spiny lobster, barnacles and goose barnacles, and periwinkles. Something to try? Piri piri is a small, hot red pepper and is dried, ground, and added to the marinades of many meat dishes. I have an inkling that piri piri chicken is likely extremely delicious and too good to be imitated by President's Choice (sorry PC - you're still my favourite :)



CHEESE. The cheese in Portugal is usually made from sheep or goat's milk and are flavoured with many different spices, herbs, fruit, and vegetables. Quiejo de Sao Jorge is a spicy cow's milk cheese while quiejo da Serra da Estrela is a fragrant, soft, sheep's milk cheese. Rarely is cheese incorporated into traditional cooking, so cheese is often eaten as an appetizer or with dessert.

SPEAKING OF DESSERT, the Portugese are known for their rich and creamy desserts that are too high in egg and sugar content. Leite-creme is a sweet egg custard, arroz doce is a popular rice pudding, aletria is a pudding made from vermicelli topped with a stenciled heart made of cinnamon, pudim flan is a custardy pudding, and pasteis de nata is the most famous dessert in the country and is a sweet egg custard tart flavoured with vanilla and cinnamon. Mmmm ... cinnamon ... this would be the country where you should purchase spices for your mothers. Just saying.



Finally, the drinks. Wine is a common drink in Portugal, just as in other parts of Europe, but here you should sample the Vinho Verde, or green wine. In actuality, the green wine is a rose, red, or white, but it comes specially from a province called Minho and is called green because the wine must only be imbibed when the wine is young. Another regional specialty is port wine, usually served with dessert. Vinho de Madeira comes only from Madeira and tastes like sherry. Ginjinha is cherry brandy and is also very popular in this country.



I gather that Portugal is very diverse in its cuisine. Traditional Portugese cuisine is available, but, if we grow tired of seafood by then, there is a more diverse array of cuisines from which to choose while dining in Portugal than any other country we are visiting, perhaps with the exception of France. Indeed, Lisbon houses some of the most impressive Indian and Thai restaurants in the world, as well as Japanese, Italian, and even Ukranian (!). We will most certainly not be at a loss here.

Mmmm ... pastries.

Chau!