Unique Portuguese Delicacies

Europe has been home to one of the finest culinary delights in the world and Portuguese cuisine figures as one with the most flavorful and spicy in the continent. You can thank its history of exploring the world for spices in the early 15th century and bringing them back to Portugal. The rest of Europe would get to enjoy the introduction of saffron, paprika, ginger, curry, pepper and coriander from Portugal’s maritime exploits.
Portuguese Cheese
It’s not only the folks in Switzerland and Amsterdam that make great cheeses. Portugal is another and you just have to savor the most popular in the Queijo da Serra, a cheese made from sheep milk and pasteurized in the Serra de Estrela region where the highest elevation in the country is recorded. Its smooth texture and subtle flavor is reminiscent to the best Brie cheese.
Then there’s the cheese produced in Azeitao available only in the spring. And from the wine producing region of Alentejo comes the Serpa with its sweet flavor when young and gets to be drier when aged. There’s also the Cabereiro, a stronger flavored cheese produced from goat milk in the Azores islands and used in various local dishes grated like parmesan cheese.
A Seafood Paradise
You can expect a country facing the Atlantic to its west and south to have a rich culinary tradition for seafoods. Dried codfish figure in the country’s most popular seafood delicacy in the Bacalhau which has enjoyed various ways to prepare and cook depending on the region and this is why no two Portuguese restaurants have the same tasting Bacalhau dish.
Other dish specialties include the sole (Linguado), the red mullet (salmonete), swordfish (peixe espada) and the eel (eiroz). Then who can forget about sardines (sardinha), one of the country’s more popular seafood exports that rival the more popular Spanish Sardines. Lastly, we can’t forget about clams from Algarve, cooked in the native “cataplana” dish with bacon, sausage and herbs.
A Kingdom of Fancy Meats and Fowl
Next to seafoods, pork meat enjoys widespread popularity especially those raised in the cork oak groves in the wine producing Alentejo regions that have been fed with acorn and truffles that widely grow in the region and give pigs their distinct flavor when roasted. Succulent pork meats diced and marinated with red peppers and clams is a favorite dish called “carne de porco a alentejana.”
Portugal is also famous for its “smoked” sausages like the salpicao and the paio. One exotic dish gourmets should not miss is the “tripas a moda do Porto” a popular dish made of chicken tripe cooked with smoked pork sausage (chourico), smoked ham, dried beans, onions and spices.

(If you want to read about Portuguese topics in another language such as German you can visit Portugal Web correspondent translation).

Advertisement