Showing posts with label Portugal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Portugal. Show all posts

Tuesday 17 October 2023

Eating the Algarve 2023

A Complete 2022 Re-write and Update of the 2011 Post of the Same Name with Many Additions and Improvements from 2023

Introduction


Portugal
For me food ranks high among the pleasures of travel. Eating local may involve endless mutton in Mongolia (there is no choice) or two kebabs a day in Iran (I hear menus have diversified since 2000) but also the multifarious delights of Thailand, China, Vietnam, India, Malaysia (this list could be much longer) and, closer to home, Portugal.

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). I admire the way the locals accept that, for a part of the year at least, they are a minority in their own town, yet deal calmly and honestly with the invading hordes. I love the October warmth, the sunshine sparkling on the sea, the colours of the bougainvillea trailing across freshly painted white villas, but most of all I love the food.

The Algarve (Carvoeiro underlined) and its position in the Iberian Peninsula (shaded red in inset)

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.

Warm and blue, but definitely the Atlantic Ocean, not the Mediterranean Sea

The Algarve is a tourist region and thus prey to foreign influences - tapas and sangria from Spain, salmon from northern Europe and (2022’s fashion) ceviche from South America. Carvoeiro, our Algarve base for the last 18 years, also offers Chinese, Indian, Thai and Nepalese cuisine – and all-day English Breakfast should that be the limit of your horizons. There are an increasing number of tapas, Italian and ‘Mediterranean’ restaurants, but the majority could still be described as tipico, where fresh, local ingredients are treated with respect.

Carvoeiro

I have nothing against Indian restaurants or ceviche, but this post is about Portuguese food, mostly with a distinct Algarve accent. It is not fine dining (though the Algarve has its Michelin starred restaurants), nor exclusively about restaurant food, it is about good food at everyday prices – something Portugal does supremely well.

Breakfast

We do not go out for breakfast, and there is nothing special about a Portuguese breakfast, but I must crowbar in a mention of presunto. Portuguese has two words for ham, fiambre is wet cured ham, pink, flaccid and forgettable while presunto is air cured – very like the Spanish Serrano Ham. Of the many ways to enjoy presunto, none is better than smeared with a warm, runny egg-yolk.

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 coffee with a pastel de nata, my absolute favourite.

Cafe con leite and a pastel de nata

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

As will become obvious in the 'main courses' section, we do occasionally go out for lunch, but not for a 'light lunch' - keeping it 'light' would be nigh on impossible. But to control a regime noticeably leaning towards over-indulgence, light lunches are a necessity. We need salad - lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, a sprinkle of herbs, a dash of vinegar and a drizzle (or downpour) of olive oil - and in the Algarve what better accompaniment than sardine paté.

Salad and sardine paté

Or a few slices of chouriço

Chouriço Piquante da Beira (spicy sausage from the Beira region)

…or maybe some cheese, though cheese is often eaten at the start of a meal. Portuguese cheeses can look similar, most are semi-hard but some are mild and some are not. Cow, goat and sheep milk are used and generate a spectrum of cheesy flavours. The biggest problem is to know what you are buying. Most comes from Alentejo, the next district to the north or from the Azores, 1,000km out in the Atlantic.

Two cheeses

On the left is an Alentejo sheep cheese. It is close textured with a gentle flavour, but a pleasing tang in the finish. 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.

Main Courses

Fish and Other Denizens of the Deep

Some 100km West to East and 50km North to South, the Algarve is a roughly rectangular with the Atlantic Ocean on two sides. Unsurprisingly, it is blessed with the freshest of fish.

Dourada e Robalo. Sea Bream and Sea Bass are ubiquitous. The tourist-driven fashion of late is to fillet them, but they used to be plated whole....

Robalo, Casa Palmeira, Carvoeiro 2023

....and still are at Casa Palmeira in Carvoeiro.

Dourado, Casa Palmeira, Carvoeiro 2023

...while at the Restaurante Atlântida on the beach at Alvor, Lynne’s Dourada was filleted at the table by the waiter.

Dourada, Restaurante Atlântida, Alvor 2022

Sardinha. Sardines are available in (almost) every restaurant in the Algarve and are often the cheapest main course.

Since 1982 we have been making what has become a pilgrimage to the Algarve’s second city of Portimão to eat sardines. The scruffy trestle tables on the dock have long been tidied up, but ducking under an arch from where they used to be brings you to a small square where Dona Barca, an old-style restaurant with communal tables, grills fish in the open air. Since we discovered it with Brian and Hilary in 2001(ish) we have never felt the need to go anywhere else for our sardines.

Dona Barca 2022, with Brian and Hilary
Sardines, salad and boiled potatoes, so simple, so satisfying

It is a treat we have often shared with friends, usually Brian and Hilary. Dona Barca is inexpensive, the food is excellent (they have a full menu, it’s not just sardines) and it is one of very few restaurants we visit with as many Portuguese customers as tourists. Sadly, the long communal tables disappeared two years ago – more victims of Covid?

Espadarte. I like an occasional swordfish steak. At lunch at the Atlântida they offered an Espadarte Algarvia. There is no agreed definition of ‘Algarvia’ or ‘Algarve style’ but I expected something with tomatoes, peppers and garlic. What I got was different.

Swordfish with orange and almonds, Restaurante Atlântida, Alvor 2022

Oranges and almonds are important local products, but I was not prepared for a slab of fish to be doused in orange (juice and pulp) and sprinkled with toasted almonds. ‘Oranges and fish!' I thought, 'No! No! Thrice No!’ But, believe it or not, it was the best thing I ate all week. Like Lister’s triple fried egg, chilli, chutney sandwich it was all wrong, but perfect.

Perhaps there is a fashion growing here. This year (2023) I found a restaurant offering 'swordfish with coconut and passion fruit'. After discovering the pleasures of fish and passion fruit in Madeira earlier this year I thought I might try it, then I read the restaurant reviews and decided not to bother.

We lunched at the Atlântida at the suggestion of my (distant) cousin Ricky, long- time Algarve resident, fluent Portuguese speaker and now a Portuguese citizen. See Finding a Long Lost Cousin.

Ricky and me, Restaurante Atlântida, Alvor

Lula. Squid has long been a favourite of both of us. They were disappearing from menus a couple of years ago, but I am glad to see they are now making a strong recovery. This year’s squid (a portion of three) was, like, last year's eaten at the Bela Rosa in Carvoeiro.

Squid at the Bela Rosa, Carvoeiro, 2022

Perfecting squid is tricky. I am of the opinion that the very finest squid was served at Maria's, a breath of fresh air, proper Portugal and sensible pricing on the beach beyond Vale de Lobo/Quinta da Largo. After several decades of sterling service Maria sold up. The restaurant is still there, I believe the name is unchanged, but the new management is fully invested in the creeping Californication of the Algarve.

Lynne and a squid, Maria's, Quinta do Largo, 2011
Fish is always best eaten within sight of the sea

Polvo. We often ate  Octopus, more precisely, Polvo à lagareiro in Martins Grill in Carvoeiro, Sadly Jan (Martins) Zegers died some months before this photograph was taken and Martins's Grill is no more.

Polvo à lagareiro, Martin's Grill Carvoeiro 2019

Lagareiro is a style of cooking often applied to octopus, cod and more in which the grilled or roasted fish is brushed with olive oil.

Bacalhau. The Portuguese love affair with salt cod dates from the days before refrigeration. It was once the people’s major source of protein and there were, allegedly, 365 ways of cooking it, so it could be eaten every day. It remains popular, and has started to appear more often in tourist orientated restaurants. Sadly, Lynne was not delighted by her Bacalhau à Braga, the fish, she thought, was a little overcooked.

Lynne and Bacalhua à Braga, 2022

Arroz de Marisco. Seafood rice usually comes as a dish for two. A large earthenware bowl is placed on the table and, after the waiter has given it a judicious stir, you spoon out the contents, rice, langoustine, crabs, prawns, mussels and anything else that might have been in the market that day. Fingers are required to liberate tasty morsels from shells and it all gets wonderfully messy (bibs are normally provided).

Arroz con Marisco, Casa Palmeira, Carvoeiro, 2023

In 2022 we tried out the Marisqueira Portugal in Carvoeiro. It is, I think, new and is trying to be a touch more elegant and inventive than the opposition.

Marisqueira Portugal, Carvoeiro

They fiddled with a classic, the broth was not the usual tomato-based delight, apart from the clams and mussels the seafood was served separately and they used short-grained rice instead of long. They almost got away with it, the flavours were good, the crab legs were very fine indeed – and they helpfully provided crackers to provide easy access to the sweetest of meat in the spindly legs – but if you mess with a classic, you really have to nail it, not just be a bit different.

Lynne and a langoustine, Marisqueira Portugese, Carvoeiro

Ensopado de Enguia.The restaurants we use in Carvoeiro and along the coastal strip describe themselves as 'tipico' but their clientele is largely tourists and however tipico they want to be, they all have an eye on what will appeal to the north European palate.

This year (2023) my cousin Ricky (see above) took us to the restaurant in her village. She told us they feed local workers on weekday lunchtime and on Sundays (when we visited) people drive up from Portimão (the nearby city) for country food. Wherever the clientele came from they were overwhelmingly Portuguese

A Oficina, Mexilhoeira Grande

A Oficina gave us access to several dishes that do not make it onto the tourist menus and I could not resist trying ensopado de enguia, eel stew. Disks of perfectly cooked eel floated in a somewhat rustic sauce consisting largely of blitzed tomatoes strongly flavoured with coriander. It was accompanied by a plate of chips and fried bread, which would have been perfect if I spent my day labouring in the fields, but for an idle so-and-so like me, was more carbohydrate than I needed. The eel, though was delicious, the white, delicately flavoured flesh falling willingly from the spine.,

Eel stew, A Oficina, Mexilhoeira Grande, 2023

Amêijoas. Clams have always been important in Portugal but the last twenty years have seen serious over-fishing. Amêijoas à Bulhão Pato, clams in a garlicky broth, was once a cheap starter, it still appears on menus but now costs more than most main courses.

You can still find a bag of fresh clams at a reasonable price in a supermarket and cook them at home.

The former contents of a bag of clams

I have never essayed Amêijoas à Bulhão Pato, but I borrow from the French and do Amêijoas marinière (to mix languages and mess with a classic!). Using a big pot, I soften up some onion and plenty of garlic in olive oil, pour in a bottle or so of white wine and add salt and pepper and a handful of herbs. Using a quality wine is a waste, but I found this in the same supermarket…

Cheap wine!

… a tetra-brick of white wine from Badajoz across the border in Spain. It cost €0.95, was barely drinkable but perfect for clams.

Let the wine boil a little, throw in the clams, give them a shake and job is done.

Clams marinière frites
I messed with a classic, but I only had to please my resident food critic and she had no complaint.

A cataplana is a cooking vessel unique to the Algarve. It consists of a pair of hinged copper shells which enclose the ingredients sealing in all the moisture and all the flavour. It can also be put on the heat either way up. A fish cataplana, usually serving two, will contain several pieces of fish - whatever is available that day - and, typically, prawns and mussels. The smell when your cataplana is opened at the table is memorable.

Cataplana, Vimar, Carvoeiro 2011

The cataplana in the picture was expertly cooked, but among the fish is a slab of Scottish farmed salmon, and in front are New Zealand green-lipped mussels. Local produce is excellent and promoting it is even more important now than it was in 2011.

Another dish traditionally cooked in a cataplana is pork and clams, and in 2022 I enjoyed them in an individual cataplana at the Casa Algarvia in Carvoeiro. This apparently strange combination was made in the Algarve, but undoubtedly designed in heaven.

Pork and clams in a cataplana, Casa Algarvia, Carvoeiro. 2022

As that last cataplana involved pork, it is time for the meat.

Meat

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.

Lynne’s rack of lamb at the Casa Algarvia was top quality meat, perfectly cooked. It was marred, though, by a squirt of commercial mint sauce at the side of the plate, partly over some salad. I suspect unimaginative British tourists have for years been telling Portuguese restaurateurs that ‘we always eat lamb with mint sauce’ and this is the result. Mint sauce has its place in a British-style ‘roast dinner’, but it is just inappropriate here.

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. That abomination 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 other 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.

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 and recasting the whole cuisine of south-east Asian. Vindaloo, the ultimate test of British diner's machismo, originated in the Portugal's Indian colony of Goa, as an example Portuguese/Indian fusion.

They took the variety that would become piri-piri to Africa and it made its way to the Portuguese mainland from their colony of Mozambique. Chilli does not appear in traditional Portuguese cookery but sausages (chouriço piquante) 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 usually involve a large glossy folded card produced by a manufacturer of synthetic desserts and ice creams. Stuck somewhere on the card there will always be a small, sometimes hand-written, list of the grown-up desserts, many of them made in-house. 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.

Lynne and a pudim flan, Martin's Grill, Carvoeiro 2019

If you have a little more space left, there are bolos (cakes) and tartes (translation unnecessary) made from local produce including (but not limited to) almonds, figs…

Fig and almond roll, Atlântida, Alvor, 2022

… carobs, oranges…

An amazingly light yet full flavoured orange cake, and an affogato of sorts
O Barco, Carvoeira, 2022

and apples. The cakes are usually made with one egg more than would be normal elsewhere and are universally wonderful.

And there is always the mysterious little package known as Dom Rodrigo.

Dom Rodrigo, Marisqueirra Portugal, Carvoeiro, 2022
Very enjoyable, but rather small once you get in there

Extroduction

I have omitted nibbles and starters, and the mandatory eating of olives that precedes every meal, but I have already gone on too long and should stop now.

Bread, olives and white port - well why not?

*This is not an exhaustive list, I could have mention France, Italy, Laos, Moldova, Albania and many others.

Sunday 15 October 2023

The Alentejo: Eating and Drinking 2023

Good Food with Regional Character at Reasonable Prices


Portugal
Our first visit to the Alentejo in modern times (1980s camping trips don’t count) was to Évora in 2016. The resulting blogpost was overlong, so the pleasures of the local cuisine were hived off into a separate post called ‘Two Dinners in Évora’. Seven years, four more visits and several dinners later that post has morphed into this one, a companion to Eating the Algarve 2023.

The Alentejo: Where and What is it?


The modern districts
Alentejo Province
The Alentejo was one of Portugal’s traditional seven provinces and as the left-hand map suggest it was by some way the largest (and the most sparsely populated). In 1933 it was hacked in half, the northern Alto Alentejo with its capital at Évora and the southern Baixo Alentejo centred on Beja.

After the 1974 Carnation Revolution (the military coup from which Portugal emerged as a modern parliamentary democracy) the provinces were replaced by 18 districts (right-hand map). Beja district is the old Baixo Alentejo minus a coastal chunk (the Alentejo Litoral) which is now in Setubal Dsitrict, the Alto Alentejo is split between the  Évora District and Portalegre Districts. This post is based in meals eaten in Évora, Beja, MértolaCastro Verde and Serpa – I have marked and ringed these as precisely as I can. The Alentejo may no longer officially exist (except to the Comissão Vitivinícola Regional about whom more later) but the concept of the Alentejo remains strong and the word is in everyday use.

A Confession

Before getting on with the food, a confession: I have spent far more time in the Algarve than the Alentejo and my knowledge of the Alentejo cuisine, having progressed through infancy, has now reached the stroppy teenager stage. This post, then, is far from comprehensive – and may even, despite my best efforts, contain errors!

Meat

The Alentejo has only a small section of coastline and the districts of Portalegre, Évora and Beja are as far from the sea as Portugal can be, so meat is more important here than in the fish-eating Algarve. With that information, I will start with lamb and work my way up to pork, the most important meat in the region...

Lamb (Borrego)

Lamb in Portuguese is also called Cordeira. What the difference is, if any, remains a mystery. In Serpa, the Restaurante O Alentejano was recommended by the friendly staff at our hotel. We found their meat dishes a little heavy, but ate there twice, largely beacuse we could not find anywhere else open on the Wednesday.

On the first evening I had leg of lamb, a dish with a single word Portuguese name, which was much lauded in Trip Advisor reviews. I cannot remember the name, nor can I now find the reviews, but I was disappointed. The lamb seemed to have been roasted, then cut up and dropped into a garlicky broth. The lamb was not the best, or had not been treated well, and the broth seemed underpowered.

Leg of Lamb, O Alentejano, Serpa 2023

On our second visit, Lynne had lamb cutlets. There was little to go wrong here, and the quantity of meat was enormous.

Lamb chops, O Alentejano, Serpa 2023 This was the quantity on the serving plate when Lynne paused for a second wind. 

The other two dishes involved were Porco Preto for Lynne and Carne de Porco à Alentejano for me. Both appear later at different restaurants.

Rabbit (Coelho)

Great Britain is an island hopping with rabbits, but despite this natural resource it is easier to find rabbit on a Michelin starred menu than in a supermarket. Lean and well-flavoured, it should be among the most popular and cheapest of meats, but it isn’t. Restaurant Migas in Mértola (photo: scroll down some way) has no pretentions, but in 2017 it offered Lynne a welcome opportunity to eat a well-cooked rabbit.

Wild Boar (Javila)

At the similarly unpretentious Tamuje, in the same small town, I enjoyed wild boar; the choicest morsels, simply cooked and moistened with the rich garlicky cooking broth and served with salad and potatoes.There was more chew than you get with a regular pig, and with a slightly different, slightly stronger flavour. I liked it very much.

Lynne's Porco Preto, my Javila (wild boar) and a bottle of Herdade dos Lagos, Tamuje, Mértola, 2017

Lynne, meanwhile, enjoyed porco preto cooked and served the same way, which introduces the most important beast in Alentejo cuisine...

Pork

The finest pork comes, indisputably, from From the Iberian black pig (porco preto).

Iberian black sow, from the 2019 post Pigs, Ham and Tapas (Andalusia)

Keen observers might notice the pig is not really black, the name comes from the glossy lacquer-like blackness of the trotters.

Iberian black pigs – believed to be a cross between domestic pigs introduced by the Phoenicians and wild boar - have been raised in central southern Spain and Portugal for millennia. They live a pampered life roaming in herds among the sparse oak forests feeding mainly on acorns.

Porco is Portuguese for ‘pig’, there is no word for ‘pork’, menus always refer to pig meat, Carne de Porco Preto. It is, of course, the pig that is black, or at least its trotters, not the meat which is normal pork colour.

The Spanish make a big fuss over their Jamón Iberico produced from these pigs, the finest of which fetches astronomical prices. We enjoyed three days in Andalusia in 2019 on an Iberian Ham extravaganza (three blogposts, for the first click here). The Portuguese produce ham, too, but this post concentrates more on the regular pork.

I first encountered Porco Preto in 2016 at Restaurant Malagueta in Évora and from the very first forkful I realised that there was something special on my plate.

Menu, Casa do Alentejo, Castro Verde, 2022

Migas is the usual accompaniment to porco preto, and is often named first, Migas de Espargos c/ Carne de Porco Preto as it says in the Casa Alentejo menu above. Migas is made from leftover bread (or sometimes potato) mashed and seasoned and mixed with garlic and olive oil and either tomato or asparagus. It is very heavy; the first time I ate migas and porco preto there were also chips on the plate and I dutifully scoffed the lot. I did not immediately realise how much I had overeaten, but 48-hours passed before I could face more food. This time I took a small portion from the slab on the serving plate – and was better for it.

Just a little migas with Carne de Porco Preto, Casa Alentejano, Castro Verde, 2022

The precise cuts of Porco Preto are important in Spain and Portugal, The menu tells me I had magro, abanico e cachaço (lean, fan and neck). I don’t know which was which but they were all excellent. Under Talho (Butcher) I could have chosen lagartos (lizards(?!)), secretos (secrets) presa (plunder) or plumas (feathers) wonderfully descriptive words even if I would not know one from another.

Bochechas de Porco em Vinho Tinto. Pork cheeks stewed in red wine may not be unique to the Alentejo, but they are very much at home here.

I have seen recipes that use porco preto, but after it has marinated in red wine for several hours and then stewed in the same wine for several more, I suspect a special pork – or a high-quality wine – would have lost its finesse. This is hearty, rustic food; the firm wine-dark slabs of porky loveliness need only a salad, maybe a few chips and a jarra de vinho tinto to be totally satisfying.

Rabbit (Lynne) and bochechas (me), Restaurant Migas, Mértola, 2017

Pousadas are relatively upmarket hotels that specialise in regional dishes. At the Beja Poussada the attempted elevation of the dish by adding a poached pear, cinnamoned close to inedibility, just seemed odd. Bochechas are fine as they are, leave ‘em alone. Lynne was eating asparagus migas with porco preto – they did not mess with that. Fortunately the slab of migas was modest in size.

Dinner at the Pousada Convento, Beja, 2018

Carne de Porco à Alentejano

As in the Algarve the link between meat and fish is provided by pork and clams, though the clams go unmentioned in the dish’s title. In the Algarve pork and clams are cooked in a cataplana, in the Alentejo the pork and potatoes are pan fried and then join the clams in a rich brown, garlicky sauce.

Carne de Porco à Alentejano, Casa Aletejano, 2022, Castro Verde

The dish is occasionally available in the Algarve, the finest I have ever eaten was at Dois Irmão in Faro. Lynne was disappointed with her Carne de Porco à Alentejano at the Casa Alentejano in Castro Verde, there were only seven clams, and four of those seemed to be cockles, a related but different animal. I did better in 2023 at the O Alentejano (there is a theme merging with these names!) in Serpa. I had 12 clams, and they were all clams.

Fish and Seafood

For centuries - or millennia, the districts of Beja, Évora and Portalegre were too far from the sea for fresh fish to be transported. There are no natural lakes and most rivers only run for a few months a year, so there was no tradition of fish eating - except for....

...Bacalhau.

'Bacalhau' is Portuguese for cod, but when used on its own means 'salt cod', fresh cod is always bacalhau fresco. Portuguese fisherman were catching cod on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland as early as the 1500s. To get the fish home in edible condition it was first landed and then salted in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia or, later, Iceland.

Salt cod was cheap, light and easy to transport across land or sea, and soon became the main source of protein for the Portuguese peasantry. Soaking is the first step to making it palatable and resourceful and imaginative people developed a range of recipes - there are said to be 365 - so they could eat bacalhau everyday but still enjoy variety. In time the wealthier classes realised they were missing something good and bacalhau soon became the national dish of all Portuguese people.

The Portuguese love affair with salt cod has continued. There is no longer any need to preserve cod in this way, but every corner shop and supermarket has rustling sheets of salt cod -  loose, not pre-packed - for shoppers to sort through and select what they want.

Pataniscas de Bacalhau.Theis year (2023) I ate pataniscas de Balcahau in Restaurante Molho Bico in Serpa.

Pataniscas de Bacalhau with rice and beans, Restaurante Molho Bico, Serpa, 2023

A patanisca is made by frying shredded bacalhau with onion in a wheat flour and egg batter. It was served with a bowl of rice and beans and a good salad (not photographed). This is comfort food, not haute cuisine, but like all great comfort food it is rich, savoury and very satisfying.

Other Fish and Seafood

The age of the refrigerated lorry arrived decades ago, so inland Portugal has all the fish it wants, though it can never be as fresh as it is beside the sea. In 2022 we both ate Polvo à Lagareiro (Octopus Lagareiro -see Eating the Algarve for more details) in the oddly named Planície Gastronomia Criativa (Plain Creative Gastronomy‽) in Castro Verde.

Chocos This year (2023) Lynne ate chocos (cuttlefish) while I was eating my Bacalhau. Like Polvo this is more of an Algarve speciality, though it rarely appears on tourist orientated menus. It is a favourite of Lynne's, but to me it looks like a yolkless fried egg.

Cuttlefish, Restaurante Molho Bico, Serpa, 2023

Cataplana Alentejano may not really be ‘a thing’, but it was on the menu at Mr Pickwicks in Évora. The cataplana is a traditional Algarve cooking vessel so this may be ‘cultural appropriation’ (which is, apparently ‘a thing’) but we ordered it anyway. It was opened at the table producing a waft of inviting odours. Inside were huge chunks of deeply flavoured stewed pork, tiger prawns (of Thai origin?), mussels, crab claws and, of course, clams. Everything was steeped in a broth of the usual Portuguese suspects, tomato, peppers, garlic and coriander with chunks of potato boiled in the broth.

Inside the cataplana, Mr Pickwick's, Évora, 2016

It was wonderfully messy – getting your hands in is the only way to deal with prawns and crabs - and in every way delightful. The clams had a yellowish shell with a distinctive black tip. In October we bought and cooked some identical clams and discovered they originated in Vietnam. In November we ate the same clams both in Hong Kong and Macau. Algarve clams have been over-exploited, these are good, cheap and (for the moment) plentiful.

Cheese

Portugal has eleven cheeses that have been awarded PDO (Product of Designated Origin), three of them (Évora, Serpa and Nisa) come from the Alentejo. I was unaware of Évora cheese when we visited in 2016, but Nisa is available in the Algarve and we visited Serpa this year (2023) partly with the cheese in mind.

Nisa & Serpa

Nisa is a small town in the Portalegre district, Serpa a small city in the Beja district. Both produce sheep’s milk cheese using unpasteurised milk curdled using an extract from the cardoon thistle.

Nisa is classified as 'semi-hard,' has a dense texture and is (usually) yellowish white with a subtle flavour and an acidic finish. My pictured example was not particularly yellow inside nor was an 'acidic finish' particularly obvious, but the relatively mild flavour was undoubtedly complex. The Wine Spectator cheese edition ranked Nisa among their 100 Great Cheeses.

Queijo de Nisa

Serpa looks quite similar but is softer and a little stronger than Nisa. Its style is known as amanteigado meaning buttery and Forever Cheese describe it as strong and complex with sheepy, sour and buttery notes. That seems about right to me.

Queijo de Serpa

Other Cheeses

Alentejo produces a large quantity of less exalted cheeses. The picture below shows another favourite Alentejo sheep’s cheese (left), I also like the paprika dusted version. The cheese on the right is from the Azores; the Portuguese Islands, 1000km out in the Atlantic, are a major producer for the mainland market.

An Alentejo sheep's cheese (left) and an Azores mixed milk cheese (right)

Although I have cut wedges from these cheeses, the usual Portuguese way is to slice across the cheese, see Serpa above. The rinds are, with rare exceptions, edible

Wine

Alentejo may no longer exist for purposes of local government, but the Comissão Vitivinícola Regional recognises an Alentejo Denominação de Origem Controlada that covers large parts of the Évora and Portalegre districts. Eight subregions (Borba, Évora, Granja-Amareleja, Moura, Portalegre, Redondo, Reguengos, and Vidigueira) can use their own name as well as ‘Alentejo’ on the label.

Borba Tinto

The reds are soft, juicy and easy drinking. Borba is the largest sub-region (by production) and I have always enjoyed the wines from the local co-operative which are inexpensive, widely available and guaranteed to bring a smile to the face.

Encostas de Serpa, Vinho Regional

The whites tend to be more austere. They don’t win prizes in blind tastings, but paired with the right food they have a way of opening out and complementing the flavours of the dish. This is what they were designed to do, and they are very good at it. The Reguengos we drank with the cataplana Alentejano in Évora and the Vidigueira with the polvo in Castro Verde were particularly satisfying.

There is much DOC Alentejo wine, but there is even more Vinho Regional Alentejano, a classification for more basic wines, or for winemakers reluctant to follow the strict rules of DOC. I tend to go by cost rather than precise appellation, at any price point up to €10-12 Alentejo, or Alentejano wines can be relied upon for excellent value

And Finally

Light lunches in small cafés are rarely gastronomic, and not always light. The toastie is universally popular, the word long ago incorporated into Portuguese. Sometimes a ‘sharing toastie’ can look….

It's a sandwich, Jim, but not as we know it, Café 7arte, Castro Verde 2022

….immense.