The Portuguese are famous for their love of fish - especially cod or bacalhau. Some say that there are 365 different ways to cook cod - one recipe for each day of the year! The most popular ways to serve cod - and the ones you must try on your trip - are Bacalhau a Gomes de Sa, Pastéis de Bacalhau and Bacalhau a Bras.
Partial to Pastry
The fine skill of pastry making is taken to new levels in Portugal. The rich tradition of pastry making has been handed down through the generations and across the country. Even today, Portugal's favourite desserts are known far and wide. The delectable Portuguese custard tart from Lisbon, the Pastéis de Nata, comes delicately flavoured with a sprinkling of cinnamon and icing sugar and melts in the mouth when eaten along with a hot cup of strong coffee. The custard-based Ovos-Moles is a great tea-time treat.
Fast food - Portuguese Style!
The Portuguese have their very own fast food inventions and here's a look at some of the best!
Francesinha - The Portuguese answer to croque monsieur, this meaty cheesy snack comes dunked in a thick tomato sauce - the secret ingredient is the beer! Grab yours with a side order of fries or an egg for a hearty meal.
Feijoada - This hearty bean and meat stew is salty, spicy and tastes great with a plate of steaming hot rice and refried greens. Some places serve it up with deep fried cassava or bananas with some pepper sauce on the side. This goes well with beer!
Cozido a Portuguesa - A boiled dish of meats, potatoes, vegetables and rice, this is an all in one meal that's great to eat any time of day!
Espetadas - Portugal does its own version of the Middle Eastern kebab, with these garlicky grilled beef treats. You'll enjoy a snack of this skewered meat with onions and bell peppers after a long, hard day of sightseeing or between stops.
Costa Verde Cuisine
Costa Verde or the green coast has some great regional cuisine (though you will still find the delicacies of Northern Portugal like cod, rojoes (pork) or rice and duck in most restaurants.
With the coastline and the ocean nearby, it isn't hard to imagine why seafood is such a big part of the food of the people of this region. The octopus cooked the Margarida da Praca way and the cod served with rice are must-try dishes while you're in Viana do Castelo. Meanwhile, in Caminha you'll find even more treasures from the sea - the unusual steamed eel (conger) is great, but with the bream and whiting jostling for space on your plate, you may find it hard to pick. Give the Miquelina codfish a try in Paredes de Couro.
For travellers looking for a change from seafood, the Moncao roast kid and the smoked hams of Melgaco will offer delicious respite. The adventurous could attempt a meal of the renowned Oporto tripe.
Top off a meal on the Costa Verde with a platter of the region's pastries. Interestingly, the tradition of baking and eating the rather sinful pastries comes from the nuns of the region, who have baked these treats for years. Even the simple egg and almond Pao de Lo is scrumptious, though you'd do well to try the more exotic rice-based arroz doce or the dumpling-like mexidos. Other tempting tea time delights are abanadas, S. Goncalo, sonhos, papos de anjo and doce de travessa.
No meal in the region is complete without a glass of port or the Vinhos Cerde.
Costa De Prata Cuisine
The silver coast is a seafood lover's paradise, with some of the freshest and most delectable shellfish, sardines and eel in the country. There really is no better showcase of this seafood than the caldeirada, but the clams and cockles (caught fresh from Lagoa de Obidos), the eel (from Aveiro) and the fish (from Peniche) go down well almost any way the Portuguese cook them.
If you're a meat eater, the grilled pork kebab in Barraida will have you coming back for more. And if that doesn't do it for you - then the Coimbran chanfana (kid) or the Alcobaca chicken stew sure will!
Any visitor to Costa De Prata will tell you that their mouth-watering desserts are the thing of dreams! The Alfeizerao and Ovar Pao de lo is said to be the best in the region, Caldas da Rainha's trouxas de ovos, cookies (cavacas) and TentugaI do well on the sweet meter as do Coimbran or Aveiro arrufadas. The Aljuborrota pie, Arouca almond paste, bean paste cakes pastéis de feijao and even the S. Bernardo bread all make great picnic basket snacks. Team them up with some locally produced preserves and rich, flavourful Alcoboca dried fruits for a perfect tea by the sea.
The liquors of the silver coast are legendary and the choices will have you reeling! The Alcobaca cherry liquor, also called ginginha, and the sparkling wines from Bairrada are among the best. Do try and fit in a taste of the bucaco wine and Obidos, Cantanhede, Torres Vedras and Rio Maior bottles as well if you can!
Montanhas Cuisine
The cuisine of Montanhas is distinctive and full of flavour. The hearty Vila Real stew is a meal in itself, the alheiras or veal sausages native to Braganca are made extra wholesome with the addition of spices and bread, Lambego serves up a great meaty bread dish called the bola de carne and the feijoada a transmontana is nearly as famous.
For a walk on the wild side, give the local partridge meat a try. This Pinhel favourite is made from young partridge. Smoked hams are pretty popular with locals and tourists alike as are the Sabuqal trout and eel.
The most special meal of all that you may have in Portugal is likely to be in mountains of the south. The local morceIas or blood sausages may sound dreadful, but taste amazingly good. If you're queasy, then on a cold evening there's nothing more satisfying than a plateful of steaming rice doused in a meaty gravy from an oven-roasted kid.
Serta, on the other hand, is better known for its chicken dishes. The maranhos, made from lamb or chicken giblets and served with the ever popular Portuguese staple - rice, are the defining cuisine of the place.
If you haven't tried sheep cheese, you haven't tasted the real Montanhas cuisine. The stuff made at Serra do Estreia is worth a trip to the local dairy or perhaps just a neighbourhood store that retails the speciality. Beira Alta tortas also come highly recommended. Pair these wonderful cheeses with some Dao wines (from the southern reaches of the Douro river) or Oporto wine from the province of Alto Douro.
Lisbon Cuisine
Lisbon cuisine, like the city, is a great representation of Portugal and its diverse cuisines. Whether you make it to the countryside or not, Lisbon will take you on a culinary journey of the region! The sardines - grilled ever so lightly - will remind you of the silver coast, the clams cooked in the Bulhao Pato style will mesmerize and even the fishy soups (which are rather an acquired taste), will remind you of the places you've just visited. Cod, a real staple for the Portuguese, is cooked in so many different ways, you'll be hard pressed for time to try them all!
Here, you'll be able to sample fishy treats like Cabo do Roca or Ericeira's mussels, clam and oysters from Setubal, freshly caught cockles or bass, swordfish from Sesimbra or maybe even some shellfish all the way from charming Cascais.
The cheeses in Lisbon are something special. You can pick up both sheep and goat cheeses that come in from Azeitao and Sobral de Monte Agraco. Those with a sweet tooth won't be disappointed since Lisbon has some great custard pies from Belém, light Malveria pastries, the popular Lourdes pao de lo (that really seems blessed!), egg and nut sweets from Cascais, and cheese cakes in miniature, courtesy Sintra's queijadas.
You can get into high spirits - and maybe even a little tipsy - with the delicious melt in the mouth zimbros. These gin cakes are made in Sesimbra but will make you want to travel halfway around the world for more when you get home! Carcavelos, Colares, Bucelas and Setubal make the best wines in the region, but some Setubal moscatel wouldn't go amiss either!
Alentejo Cuisine
The sheer variety of food and styles of cooking in the Alantejo region is mind boggling! On the one hand there are earthy eel stews and shad soups - magnificent in their simplicity. Then there are the rustic sausages assembled Castelo de Vide style, Tagus lamprey, kid stews, red bean and hare stir fries, and rabbit with olive oil...the list is endless! The one thing that goes really well with whatever you order for your meal is the locally produced bread. It goes surprisingly well with the strongly flavoured sheep cheeses brought in from Nisa, Serpa or the Alandroal cheese made from goat milk.
Almeirim Imperial cakes, Santarém ceIestes, Abrantes palha and the Evora egg and almond paste cakes are all equally pleasing to any dessert lover's palate. There are even some ‘convent pastries', famous in Beja and Portalegre. For weight watchers, there's no better place to indulge in some fruit fiestas - the local Alpiarca and Almeirim melons are out of this world - fresh, juicy and luscious! The local grape growing regions of Vidigueira, Almeirim, Reguengos and Borba make some good wines, but it's the Cartaxo wine that is the piece de resistance!
Algarve Cuisine
The Algarve region is a tourist hub and that's amply reflected in the number of cafes and restaurants serving up a variety of international favourites. What you could easily miss amidst all the signage for oh-so-familiar foods is the fantastic local cuisine. There are the light but flavoursome seafood soups, clams cooked cataplana style, snails sautéed in oregano, the rather unusual Lagos grilled octopus that's made from dried octopus meat, calamari, cuttlefish and much more. Round off a meal with the local marzipan or fig pastry - the marzipan ones come in fun shapes and are popular with the kids. For a typically Portuguese finale to the meal, try the D. Rodrigo, morgado or perhaps an almond and caramel Tavira pastry. The wines from Lagoa are famous not just in Portugal, but just about everywhere in the wine drinking world - so get some of that while you're in Algarve.
Madeira Cuisine
You've probably heard of Madeira thanks to its famous wines, but the cuisine is something to write home about too! The veal kebabs or espetadas have a lovely garlicky flavour, the tuna fish just melts in your mouth and even the tropical yam inhame will have you reaching for seconds. Tropical fruits like avocado, bananas, mango, papaya and passion fruit make a refreshing change from the heavy desserts and pastries (although the local honey cake or bolo de mel is a must-try).
Acores Cuisine
The islands of Acores predictably have some great seafood that include some unique treasures like the unusually named holy Ghost soup, an alambique bass, octopus in wine, sausages with yams and the very special S. Miguel cozido that's simmered on the lava from Furnos.
The 9 island group has a good selection of cheeses - the pico goes nicely with maize bread. Verdelho wine, pineapple and pastries from the region offer visitors a pleasant way to end a sumptuous meal.
Raise a toast to Bacchus!
Portugal has been the legendary home of Bacchus (the Roman god of wine and feasting) since ancient Roman times and their exports of fine wines have continued down the ages. In more recent times, Portugal has won several accolades for its great home-grown varieties of wines and is well and truly on the wine lover's map.
Portuguese wines are certainly worth a try and Vinho Alvarinho, Vinho Verde, Vinho do Douro, Vinho do Dao, Vinho da Bairrada, and Vinho do Alentejo are some of the best. For those with a palate for something sweeter, the Moscatels and Madeira wine or port wine hit the spot. Portugal's biggest wine export is the Porto, with the increasingly popular Vinho Verde coming in a close second.
