Like most cultures, the Portuguese will tell you theirs is the finest cuisine in the world. Vegetarians won’t agree, though, because Portuguese meals are heavy on meat and seafood (especially grilled sardines or sardinhas assadas). What usually makes it onto your plate is local and seasonal food, though vegetables rarely do, unless they’re potatoes. It’s no exaggeration to say you’ll find potatoes with every meal.
Let’s talk about meat:
The Portuguese are big on sausages such as farinheira (breaded sausage), morcela (blood sausage) and alheira (sausage filled with a mixture of game and bread). They also like feijoada, a bean stew containing (what else?) beef and pork. Of course, there’s also roasted chicken (frango assado) or turkey (peru), hamburgers, and steak sandwiches (prego) or pork sandwiches (bifana.)
The Portuguese also love eggs, which are both a luxury and yet practical because so many people have chickens. So, you’ll see eggs in soups, on hamburgers, and added on top of cakes and pastries, like the well-known pastel de nata, a bite-size egg custard. Or pastel de Tentugal, a puff pastry with an eggy filling. There’s also francesinha sandwiches, originally come from Porto, which is made of pork, sausage and steak, covered in melted cheese, tomato sauce, and often a gooey fried egg.
As someone who prefers vegetarian food (and doesn’t like eggs, double woe is me), I am extremely limited when going out to eat. I think modern meat consumption in countries like Span and Portugal has a lot to do with cultural ideas of wealth. Especially among the older generations, who want to forget how poor they once were—so poor, they were forced to be….well, vegetarians—so that’s why meat is always on offer.
Let’s talk about veggies:
To be fair, Portuguese gardens are abundant, crowded with incredibly healthy-looking vegetables, soaking in that intense sunshine. If you go to local outdoor weekly market, you can buy aubergine, courgettes, carrots, red peppers, leeks, beets, turnips, mushrooms, cauliflower, or broccoli. But I have yet to see most of these turn up in a restaurant—remember, I’m talking about restaurants away from major cities. I’m sure you can find anything you want in Lisbon.
Aside from potatoes, the Portuguese love their cabbage and grow quite a lot of it, especially chard, with is tough and can withstand harsh weather conditions. It twists and grows into thick stalks that sometimes resemble a small tree. A lot of it ends up in caldo verde, cabbage and potato soup.
Even the famous Portuguese story Sopa da pedra (or ‘stone soup’ ) includes cabbage. There are many versions of this story, whose origins are unknown, but the Portuguese tell it this way: Once upon a time, a homeless and hungry monk started boiling a stone in water. As curious villagers passed, they felt sorry for him and started adding a few potatoes, some hunks of meat, and later, a bag of beans to his pot. Eventually the soup became an incredible medley of ingredients, shared with the group.
The best Portugal has to offer:
Portuguese cheese is surprisingly good. In the countryside, many farmers own goats and there’s always someone in the village who makes unpasteurised, handmade goat cheese. Pasteurised cheeses make it to the market, and can be sold legally but unpasteurised ones are so much better as they are fresh and soft, without the pungent goat flavour, and like the consistency of firm butter. There’s also the mountain cheese of Seia, big round cured cheeses that are not cheap but flavourful. What the Portuguese do is slice off the top of the cheese’s wax mould, and then spoon out the soft cheese inside.
Cheese, bread, vegetables, whatever…you’re likely to pour over some locally produced olive oil—everyone makes their own because olive trees are as common as weeds. It’s always delicious, dark green and with a rich flavour, unlike the poorer, light quality oil sold to supermarkets.
Of course, Portugal has great wines, such as its world-renowned Port, but the best wines are local ones produced small scale. You discover these wines unexpectedly, like when visiting someone, or getting lost and asking directions, then being invited in to their adega or wine cellar. Then you taste an amazing wine that someone learned how to make from his grandfather. So what you’re really tasting is the experience and knowhow of someone long gone and the unique set of grapes he once planted. We tried buying 10 bottles from someone once, who refused because it was too good, therefore not for sale.
Finally, the most positive aspect for those travelling to Portugal is the food here is damn cheap.
One time, Dennis, me and a friend ate a 3-course meal accompanied by coffee, wine, soft drinks, dessert and an extra salad, and only paid 21 euros. I’m not lying! I ordered a dish with fish and garbanzo beans and if anything, it hinted at fish, so I was less happy, but still. It was super cheap. Our favourite meal right now is at the local market in Serta, where we eat chicken slathered in spicy piri piri sauce with rice, salad and potatoes for…. 6 euros. Nice….
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