Originally posted in 2011, Eating the Algarve had a major rewrite in 2022 and has since been updated annually
Part 2: Food not from the Sea
2026 Explanation
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| Portugal |
Eating in the Algarve
For me food ranks high among the pleasures of travel and 'eating local' is important. In a very few countries eating local is a chore, endless mutton in Mongolia (there was no choice) or two kebabs a day in Iran (I hear menus have diversified since 2000) leap to mind, but I have a much longer list of lands, from China in the east to Cuba in the west where dinner is a delight. Portugal ranks highly amongst them.
We first visited the Algarve, Portugal’s southernmost region, in 1982, returned several times in the 1990s and have not missed a year this century (except 2020, the Baleful Year of Covid). From 2005-25 we based ourselves at Carvoeiro, east of the city of Portimão. This year we relocated to Alvor 12km further west, just the other side of Portimão. The reason? We are getting older and were finding Carvoeiro's steep, hilly terrain increasing hard work; Alvor is flatter. Both are smaller resorts and I admire the way the locals accept that, for a large part of the year, they are a minority in their own towns, yet deal calmly and honestly with the invading hordes. I love the October warmth, the sunshine sparkling on the sea, the bougainvillea trailing across freshly painted white villas, and. of course, I love the food.
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| Algarve featuring Carvoeiro and Alvor |
Portugal is often thought of as a Mediterranean country. Portuguese is a Latin language, the climate, particularly in the Algarve, is Mediterranean, as is the food. Tomatoes, garlic and peppers are important while olive oil is the essential cooking medium, condiment and salad dressing. All it lacks is a Mediterranean coast.
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| Warm(ish) and blue, but definitely the Atlantic Ocean, not the Mediterranean Sea |
Breakfast
For the Portuguese, breakfast is little more than coffee, bread and jam. Much as I attempt to eat local, I need more than that in the morning, which gives me an opportunity
to crowbar in a mention of presunto, despite it not coming from the Algarve. Portuguese has two words for ham,
fiambre is wet cured ham, pink, flaccid and forgettable while presunto
is air cured – most like Spanish Serrano ham. Of the many ways to enjoy presunto,
none is better than smeared with a warm, runny egg-yolk.
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| Presunto, a sadly broken fried egg and an over-large breakfast |
Although we eat presunto for breakfast regularly, this is not a regular breakfast, this is the final day, 'clear the fridge' breakfast - well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
Morning Snacks
Coffee and cake! A section of I Don’t have a Sweet Tooth but… is dedicated to Portuguese coffee and cake. I shall not repeat myself here, but I cannot resist a picture of café com leite with a pastel de nata, my absolute favourite.
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| What eleven o'clock is for |
It does not look much, but melts away leaving a legacy of lovely, lingering flavours. It’s like Portugal, not always showy but full of depth and richness.
Light Lunch
We sometimes go out for lunch, but rarely for a 'light lunch' - keeping it 'light' is too difficult. But to control a regime noticeably leaning towards over-indulgence, light lunches are a necessity. This is salad time - lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, a sprinkle of herbs, a dash of vinegar and a drizzle downpour of olive oil - accompanied by whatever seems appropriate. Locally produced sardine paté (see Part 1) can be particularly appropriate.
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| Salad and sardine paté |
Or maybe some cheese. The Portuguese tend to eat cheese at the start of a meal, but visitors can do as they please. The Algarve produces a little, but most eaten in the region comes from the Alentejo, the next district to the north, or from the Azores, 1,000km out in the Atlantic.
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| Two cheeses |
On the left is an Alentejo sheep cheese. It is close textured with a gentle flavour, but a pleasing tang at the finish. (For more on Alentejo cheese see Eating and Drinking the Alentejo). On the right an Azores cheese made with mixed cow, goat and sheep milk – I don’t know of anywhere
else that mixes milks. It is soft and creamy with a delicate flavour but a
sumptuous texture.
Dining (or Lunching) Out
Couvert
Either Portuguese portion sizes have increased, or - more likely - we are just getting old, but we no longer eat three course meals. Starters are pleasures of the past while desserts, if we bother at all often involve two spoons but only one dessert. We do however maintain the Portuguese tradition of a couvert.
In days of old, when clams were bold (or at least, cheap) you had no sooner sat down but some bread would arrive at your table, followed by the obligatory olives, sardine paté, carrots, maybe a small cheese or an even smaller fish. These were presented as though they were gifts, but of course you paid for them in the end, under the heading couvert (cover charge). This seemed fine to me, I liked the element of surprise and the cost was small, but clearly it did not please everybody. In the interests of transparency, the various items must be listed and priced on the menu and you have to ask for them, though specials, like a fish paté freshly prepared in-house, are offered verbally. We regard bread and olives as an absolute minimum, indeed starting a Portuguese meal without first eating a bowl of olives is downright perverse, if not actually illegal. We also like the garlicky, gently spiced boiled carrots which, despite numerous attempts, I have never quite managed to reproduce at home.
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| Bread, olives and white port - well why not? |
Unlike the French, the Portuguese do not leave a specific time for an aperitif, but we like a white port while we are munching our olives. Sweet or dry it has just enough acidity to sharpen the appetite for whatever comes next.
Carne - Meat
(For fish and seafood dishes see Part 1)
Borrego. Throughout the Algarve there are patches of scrubby land with a few sheep and a shepherd. The shepherds are uniformly the sort of old men who
feel they still need to do something useful (an affliction I have never
suffered from). Lynne felt that as they went to so much effort it was rude not to
eat some lamb.
Her rack of lamb at the Casa Algarvia was top quality meat, perfectly cooked. Unfortunately it was marred by a squirt of sweet commercial mint sauce at the side of the plate, partly over some salad. I suspect helpful British tourists have for years been telling Portuguese restaurateurs that ‘we always eat lamb with mint sauce’ and this is the result. Not all restaurants do this, and mint sauce has its place in a British-style ‘roast
dinner’, but here it was just inappropriate.
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| Rack of lamb, Casa Algarvia, Carvoeiro, 2022 |
Frango Piri-piri. Chicken piri-piri was on (almost) every menu in the Algarve long before Nando’s existed. Nandos was co-founded in South
Africa by Fernando Duarte, a Portuguese Mozambiquan who gave the dish the fast-food
franchise treatment and aligned himself with the gastro-criminals of KFC,
MacDonalds and the rest. There are mercifully very few fast-food franchises in
Portugal (though there is a Burger King with a ludicrously large sign in Lagoa)
and chicken piri-piri is cooked individually by each restaurant in their own
style. It is traditionally our lunch on our last day in Portugal.
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| Chicken piri-piri, O Barco, Carvoeiro 2022 |
Portugal and the chilli: a small digression
The chilli pepper was first cultivated in Mexico some 10,000 years ago. Several millennia later It was taken to Asia by Portuguese traders, arriving in India in the late 16th century, recasting the whole cuisine of south-east Asian.
Vindaloo, the ultimate test of British diner's machismo, originated in Portugal's Indian colony of Goa, and is a Portuguese/Indian fusion.
The variety that would become piri-piri was taken to Africa and made its way to the Portuguese mainland from their colony of Mozambique. Chilli does not appear in traditional Portuguese cookery
but sausages (chouriço picante) and sardine paté with piri-piri are widely
available, as is piri-piri sauce, suggesting it is much used in home cookery.
Desserts
Dessert menus used to involve a large glossy folded card produced by a manufacturer of synthetic desserts and ice creams. Stuck somewhere on the card there would always be a small, sometimes hand-written, list of the grown-up desserts, many of them made in-house. Now, the diner is usually offered a normal dessert menu.
Pudim Flan. Almost ever present is pudim flan, a rich eggy caramel custard, which is perfect when you have too little room for anything heavier. Sometimes it is just perfect.
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| Lynne and a pudim flan, Martin's Grill, Carvoeiro 2019 |
Pudim (Pudding) entered the Portuguese language from English in the 19th century. Flan may derive from an Old Frankish word meaning a flat cake or disc, but now means a smooth, set custard made with eggs, milk and sugar, usually cooked in a caramel-lined mould. It is hardly unique to Portugal, but it is particularly popular here - and no one does it better.
Pudim de Mel I found Honey Pudding, on the menu at Capacho in Alvor this year. It is not as soft as pudim flan, has two distinct layers and a good honey flavour without being too sweet. I liked it a lot.
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| Pudim de Mel, Capacho, Alvor 2026 |
It is not entirely obvious what these two 'puddings' have in common, but I wounder if there are more Portuguese pudims to discover. I do hope so.
The English word 'pudding' seems to have lost its way, covering a range of savoury pleasures from haggis ('Great chieftain of the pudding race' as Burns called it) to Yorkshire pudding, and sweet desserts from rice pudding to sticky toffee pudding. They appear to have little in common, and anyway 'pudding' is also colloquially used for anything eaten after the main course. In America 'pudding' is applied to soft, creamy, milk-based dessert, not far from pudim flan, but several miles from jam roly-poly.
If you have enough space left for more than a pudim, there are bolos, tortas, tartes and more, made from local produce including (but not limited to) almonds, figs, carobs and oranges.
Torta de Amendoa e Doce de Ovo Almonds are an important crop in the Algarve. Almond Roll (torta) is just one of the variations.
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| Almond Roll, Zé Morgandinho, Alvor, 2026 |
Soft in texture, though firmer than the pudims, it was gently sweet, largely smooth but nutty where it was required to be. It was perhaps a little more than I needed after my large sole at Zé Morgadinho, but I happily made the sacrifice.
Figo I presume people grow figs commercially in the Algarve, but fig trees also grow where they choose, whether intentionally planted or not. Figs can be used on their own, but at Atlântida in Alvor I enjoyed a fig and almond roll.
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| Fig and almond roll, Atlântida, Alvor, 2022 |
I have been slow to appreciate the pleasures of figs; too many pips, I thought, and not enough else. In Spain in 2019 for the first time in my life, I ate a fig straight from the tree. It was amazing,.Figs, I belatedly discovered, are delicious.
Bolo de Laranja Like almonds and olives, oranges are an important crop in the Algarve, and if you have abundant Oranges, then will make orange cakes.
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| An amazingly light yet full flavoured orange cake, and an affogato of sorts O Barco, Carvoeira, 2022 |
Portuguese cakes (bolos) are wonderfully light, and an orange cake has the flavour of freshly squeezed orange in every bite.
Tarte de Alfarroba Carobs are not as familiar in the UK as oranges and almonds, but carob products are always available in wholefood shops as a substitute for chocolate. In Portugal you do not see ranks of carob trees in commercial orchards as you do with oranges and olives, but they are common. You know you are standing under a carob tree when the ground is littered with their huge papery pods.
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| Carob trees (nearest camera) with large pods ready to fall, Mexilhoeira Grande |
In 2013 my 'long lost cousin' Ricky and her husband Zeka were, as a hobby rather than a necessity, small scale producers of carobs and olives. The trees in the photo above were theirs and below the 2013 carob harvest so far (early October). The price per tonne sounds quite encouraging, but you need an awful lot of carob pods to make a tonne. I doubt that relying on carobs for the entirety of your income would provide a good living
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| The first half (maybe0 of Ricky and Zeka's carob harvest |
My carob tart looked like this. Carob does taste a lot like chocolate, but in this quantity it soon cloys. When it became claggy, I put a spoonful of unflavoured Greek yoghurt on the top, the acidity was just what it needed.
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| Carob Tart |
I could do that because I was not eating in a restaurant. I bought the tart in Alvor's Sunday market, from a stall selling vegetables, olives and their home made Doces Regionais (regional desserts).
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| Where to buy regional desserts and more, Alvor Market |
Mousse de Chocolate And finally if you want something more familiar, even if it is not strictly regionais most Algarve restaurants should be able to serve up a good chocolate mousse.
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| Chocolate Mousse Zé Morgadinho, Alvor 2026 |
Extroduction
The end of a meal demands one of these.
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| Bica |
The Portuguese version of an expresso is maybe larger than the Italian, but although it is strong the flavour is less aggressive and more layered. It is known as a bica, a word which also means spout and, in some contexts, nipple, though I have no idea why. Decaf is available, should you deem it wiser in the evening.
When you ask for the bill, it will often be presented with a small glass of port, bagaçeira or almond liqueur. Once you have drunk up and paid up it is time to go.
The Algarve: Delights and Depredations (2010)
Mexilhoeira Grande and a Long Lost Cousin (2013)
The West Coast (2013)
Lagos (2014)
Castro Marim and Vila Real do Santo António (2015)
The Boxes of Carvoeiro (2016)
Mertola and Alcoutim: Strongholds by the Guadiana River (2017) - Also under Alentejo
Silves, Former Capital of the Algarve (2018)
Drinking the Algarve (2022)
Carvoeiro (2025)
Eating the Algarve Part 1: Food from the Sea (2026)
Eating the Algarve Part 2: Food not from the Sea (2026)
