Let's Talk About Food Eating in Portugal is a revelation, for two main reasons: First, the quality of the ingredients and second, the way meals are approached - the role that food plays in the culture. Ingredients come first because this is a place where food remembers where it comes from. Food is usually quite simply prepared. The taste and quality of the fresh ingredients shine in every dish. With more than 1,000 miles of Atlantic coastline, the country is justifiably famous for fish and seafood, typically grilled to perfection. But it also boasts pasture-fed beef, and succulent Iberian black pork that has gorged on acorns. Both fish and meat are typically accompanied by bright, hearty steamed or boiled vegetables, or simple green salads. The bread is rough, often baked in a wood oven, so good it is a feast on its own, but even better paired with a buttery, tangy local cheese, melt-in-your-mouth paté or salty presunto (Portuguese prosciutto). A meal may be finished off with a rich, traditional "convent sweet" pastry from recipes handed down through the centuries, but almost every restaurant, from hole-in-the-wall to the most refined, will also have seasonal and tropical fruit options on the dessert menu. Often there will also be a fresh home-made fruit salad. Ripe, juicy, colorful and bursting with flavor, this makes healthy eating no hardship. Any one of these deserves its own love letter, but probably the undisputed star in Portuguese cuisine is olive oil. Food here typically isn’t served swimming in rich sauces, butter or dressings; it has nothing to hide. Olive oil is ubiquitously used for cooking and finishing. It is regarded as having almost mystical health-giving properties. One needn’t go to a specialty or gourmet store; every hypermarket’s olive oil section is second only to the wine
Let’s Talk About Food Eating in Portugal is a revelation, for two main reasons: First, the quality of the ingredients and second, the way meals are approached – the role that food plays in the culture. Ingredients come first because this is a place where food remembers where it comes from. Food is usually quite
