Portuguese gourmet dining
2023-11-20 14:28:22
A country with centuries of tradition in just about every aspect of civilization would be rare if it didnt have a culinary tradition of serving up gastronomic products from the very ordinary dishes to the more exotic gourmet dining.
Portugal, nestled on the historic Iberian Peninsula has one such rich culinary heritage that matches its centuries-old history but reaps the bounties of its geographic location. The country enjoys the warm Mediterranean climate that grows olive groves, pine nuts and various vineyards all over the land while harvesting the abundant fishes and marine life of the Atlantic sea waters hemming the west and south sides of the country.
Today, the worlds gourmet dining experience is a lot richer with Portuguese haute cuisine that would take an entire cookbook to list and describe. Apart from its cooking traditions rooted on the finest and considered the healthiest cooking oil on the planet olive oil, Portugals gourmet delights can be found in some of the finest specialty restaurants in cosmopolitan cities around the world.
Portuguese Cheese
Swiss and Amsterdam chesses may be more wide sought after, but if you hae tasted the Queijo de Serra, a Portuguese cheese made from sheep milk, it can be difficult choosing a Brie cheese instead. The same goes with the Serpa, Cabereiro and the Azeitao chesses from goat milk processed in the same regions that cultivates the finest grapes varietals for its wine making industries.
Seafoods Paradise
Codfish meat take center stage in the Bacalhau, the countrys most popular seafood delicacy prepared only during festivals and special occasions and cooked as variedly as the many culinary traditions in the various coastal regions of Portugal so that no two Bacalhau dishes taste the same. Then there is the Portuguese Haddock, another native seafood entree using haddock as well as codfish fillets grilled in butter and spiced with onions and tomato soup.
Salmons (salmonete), sardines (sardinhas) and pilchards comprise the more common Portuguese dining traditions with occasional grilled swordfish (peixe espada), sole (Linguado) and eel (eiroz). Lets not forget about its tuna guacamole, lobsters, braised squid and its popular clams (cataplana) from the Algarve coast cooked with bacon and sausages with spicy herbs.
Fancy Meats and Fowl
After seafoods , pork meat has the widespread popularity. Their best known pork dishes are prepared from pigs fed with acorns and truffles in the wine producing Alentejo regions. Portugal is also known for its smoked pork sausages notably the paio and the salpicao. Other distinctly Portuguese gourmet dishes include the tripas a moda do Porto made of chicken tripe cooked with smoked ham and pork sausage (chourico).
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