Kyle F. Says:
What’s the food like in Portugal?
IL Contributor Tricia Pimental Writes:
Portugal’s cuisine appears simple: There’s a heavy concentration on protein in the form of fish, meat, poultry, eggs, and cheese. Other than potatoes (technically a tuber), veggies are a bit scarce on the dinner plate. But it’s easy to find a salad of tomatoes, lettuce, and sliced raw onions on a menu, and veggies are present in the ubiquitous sopa de legumes.
They love bread and desserts—especially rice pudding and the caramel custardlike leite-creme—and make liberal use of virgin olive oil, olives, garlic, bay leaves, parsley, piri piri (a somewhat fiery red pepper powder or sauce), cinnamon, saffron, and vanilla. They’re famous for excellent inexpensive and high-quality wine and, of course, Port.
In many Portuguese restaurants, appetizers like bread, olives, and sometimes meat and cheese trays are brought out to tables without being requested. Note that these are not free and if touched can cost almost as much as an additional meal. It is perfectly acceptable and polite to turn down any items that are not wanted.
Those are the basics, but to stop there would be doing a grave injustice to the subject. Because the variety of fish and seafood, as well as the methods of preparing them, is impressive. And so are the cheeses, made from the milk of cows, sheep, and goats. A couple of the most famous are queijo da serra da estrela in the northeast, and from the Azores, the spicy queijo são jorge.
Read more about Portuguese cuisine in Chapter 10 of Escape to Portugal.
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