Portuguese Cuisine: From Bacalhau to Piri-Piri to Francesinha

It was more than three years ago when I opened a white carton box, still warm from the bottom, and took out my first ever, pastel de nata. I was working in an international kindergarten where kids from different countries constantly surrounded me. Being with children of different nationalities on their birthday’s means being able to sample some of their traditional food, too… Oh well, some jobs can really spoil you.

When I had my first bite into a warm yellow custard tart, I was sold. In fact, a couple of years later I asked Amalia’s mother, who is responsible for my “initiation” into Portuguese cuisine, which places she would recommend visiting in Portugal.

There were a few things we wanted to see/do when planning our travels to Portugal: Lisbon, Porto, Alentejo, The Azores islands, some hiking and satisfying our craving for pastel de nata. (Ehm, my craving.) Speaking of the Portuguese cuisine, we wanted to learn more about national dishes so we started to order in taskas (small restaurants) straight upon our arrival in the country.

Apart from sampling some new dishes every day from the menus starting in the south of Portugal, in Tavira all the way north to Porto, we were invited to join a food tour and get a broader picture of Portuguese food culture in Lisbon.

We were able to get to know the city and the country better by walking through the well-known parts of the city, but also via off-beat squares, stopping at local food vendors, trying combinations of ingredients that locals eat, listening to stories of how sweets were invented, learning some local food related idioms, and sampling South African dishes that are part of the Lisbon cuisine as well.

Voyages and new flavours

The flavours of Portuguese cuisine are as variable and exotic as the country’s colonial history.  The abundance of aromatic green olive oil, chopped garlic, and different fish in Portuguese dishes, is what reminds you of Mediterranean cuisine; while flavours of cinnamon, piri-piri red chillies and black pepper will bring you to the Far East.

It’s no surprise that Portuguese sailors came back from their numerous voyages to Africa and Asia not only with more conquered lands, but also with some of the finest spices in the world, which made the Portuguese Empire a pioneer among other European empires able to grow from the spice trade.

The combination of the familiar and the exotic is the core of a Portuguese meal. (At least, this is what our palates could identify during our three-week adventure around the country.) This isn’t enough to taste all of the national and local specialties, but we’ll gladly give you some tips on dishes not to be missed while in Portugal.

Some quintessential Portuguese dishes

365; this is how many ways that you can prepare a codfish in Portugal, our tour guide Filipa told us. Learn all the recipes, and you’ll have no trouble deciding what to cook for dinner for the whole year!

The cod used for Portuguese traditional bacalhau comes from Norway and Iceland. Not only is the fish served in restaurants all year long, but you’ll find boiled codfish with potatoes and hard-boiled eggs at Christmas dinner, too.

Portuguese cuisine
Bacalhau from Iceland.

I don’t know if there’s any country that we’ve visited so far that combines some of our most favourite food in one dish. I’m an obsessive potatoes lover (blame my Eastern European roots) and to Gianni, fish is something he would never be able to omit from his diet. Well, looks like the Portuguese invented something that keeps us both happy while eating the same dish: bacalhau à brás!

Portuguese cuisine
For all potatoes & fish lovers.

A salty cod stew with chopped onions, fried potatoes, scrambled eggs, fresh parsley, and black olives on top. It is super filling, as you can imagine, and if the chef is too generous with oil, you might want to have some salad for your next meal.

Another delicious cod variation is bacalhau with chickpeas and hard-boiled eggs on the side (and stay tuned for the other 363 cod recipes…)

Portuguese cuisine
Bacalhau with chickpeas and hard boiled egg in Tavira.

One of the most unimaginable codfish recipes to try is Mil Folhas; codfish layered in-between thin slices of bread, black pork presunto, arugula and egg.

Portuguese cuisine
Bacalhau extravaganza in Estremoz.

Where to get some:

For excellent codfish with chickpeas visit Cervejaria Caravela, Rua Poeta Emiliamo da Costa, Tavira
For some filling bacalhau à brás, go to Snack-Bar Restaurante Mariazinha, Rua São José 232, Lisbon
For Mil Folhas, check Gadanha Merceneria, Largo Dragões de Olivença 84 A, Estremoz

Sandwiches and bagels in Portugal

“We Portuguese are crazy about sandwiches and bagels,” says Filipa while sitting in a small taska near the vibrant center of Lisbon (this is also where hipsters stop by to get a chunky sandwich.) If you are a meat lover or burger addict, then you might be delighted to pick one of three national sandwiches in Portugal:

1. Prego: a beef delicacy served with mustard or piri-piri (hot chili sauce) sometimes with fries, egg or rice).
2. Bifana: a pork variation served the same way as prego.
3. Leitao: a suckling pig sandwich

Portuguese cuisine
Bifana delight in Lisbon.

Note: piri-piri sauce is kind of an unofficial condiment made of chilies originally brought to Portugal from Angola and Mozambique. The chilies are blended with other herbs and spices that give the sauce a fiery burning taste. Piri-piri is usually given to you upon a request. Don’t expect any date of production or expiration details. Piri-piri requires trust in the bistro/taska where you grab your lunch.

Where to get some in Lisbon: Zé Dos Cornos, Beco dos Surradores 5, Lisbon. These guys here know their jobs very well, or as they say in Portugal, “They’ve been turning chicken for years,” meaning they’re truly experts in what they do.

Presunto Ham from Alentejo

There will be always a dispute about the best olive oil producer, and additionally there will be the same “fight” for who makes dry cured ham best. Portuguese presunto has some great competitors among Italian prosciutto crudo and Spanish jamón and yet, it stands on the top of the dry cured ham category in all of Europe.

Portuguese cuisine
Twenty-four months cured Pata Negra ham.

Getting high quality presunto however, can become quite an expensive way to get know Portuguese cuisine… Sometimes the price for 65 months old aged ham can be around $400 USD per kilo. Presunto is made from Black Iberian Pig fed by acorn and bred in grasslands of the southwest area of Portugal.

Where to get some in Lisbon: Manteigaria Silva, Rua Dom Antão de Almada, 1C, Lisbon.

Cheeeeese!

Fragrant, cured, mild, spicy or sweet kicking! Some of them can be “challenging” even for experienced cheese lovers.

“Cheese and marmalade are like Romeo & Julia, they just go together,” explains Filipa, and we can only nod in agreement while stuffing our hungry stomachs with sheep & goat milk cheese that indeed matches with quince marmalade very well.

Portuguese cuisine
Portuguese “Romeo & Julia”.

Another cheesy surprise on our food tour in Lisbon was cured São Jorge cheese made of unpasteurised cow’s milk. This high quality delight originates on the island of São Jorge in Azores, where supposedly there are more cows than people.

Good news for goat cheese lovers! Portugal is a splendid place to get some queijo de cabra, and in some places you’ll be able to taste it with some extravagant combinations like pickled pear, honey and nuts. Oh, more of these food experiments please!

Portuguese cuisine
Best.goat.cheese.ever!

Where to get some:

Zé Dos Cornos, Beco dos Surradores 5, Lisbon
For cheese extravaganza, visit Gadanha Merceneria, Largo Dragões de Olivença 84 A, Estremoz

Bread, please!

In some countries like Ukraine, Italy and in the Middle Eastern cuisine it’s pretty common to eat bread with any dish at any time of the day. The same applies for Portuguese dining. There’s always a basket of fresh toasted, heavenly good bread on the table.
Good quality bread on the table in a restaurant=good quality restaurant.

In many restaurants you’ll pay extra for it, as well as for the butter, cheese and other condiments that they bring you while you’re studying the menu. In a few small local taskas however, they serve bread for free. As Filipa remarked, “There’s always a sauce to dip (it) in!”

Marinated Tremoços (Lupini beans)

This is one of the best street food delicacies in Portugal. It is often sold alongside the famous ginjinha liquor. Marinated in olive oil, garlic, black pepper, and parsley; the taste resembles broad beans mixed with chickpeas.

We got a fresh portion of them at the Santo Antonio festival in Lisbon from Karmelita, a hefty lady sitting at a small table selling ginjinha and lupini beans to tourists without speaking a word of English.
Note: For the recipe, check Jodi’s Ettenberg post on Portuguese lupini beans.

Snails in Portuguese cuisine

Honestly, I’m not a big fan of these tiny shells cooked in broth, but for Gianni who comes from the south of Italy; snails were a common homemade dish he would go outside and harvest them himself so his mother would prepare it.
Having seen how skillfully Filipa sucked it all out of the shell, I concluded that only people from the south could do this with such passion.

As we learned from our guide, the Portuguese drink more beer than wine (because the lower alcohol content is more bearable in hot weather) and snails are usually a good reason to grab a pint or two after work.

Mexilhões à Bulhão Pato or Portuguese style mussels

No need to be a master chef to prepare this meal. Just get some fresh mussels, add some garlic, white wine, lemon juice, coriander, parsley, onion, and olive oil. Mix it all in the pan, and the miracle is done! Once the meal is ready, spare the broth. It’ll be a precious base for some risotto that you can prepare later.

Portuguese cuisine
Simple and delicious mussels in Lisbon.

Where to get some in Lisbon: Moules & Gin, Mercado de Fusão, Martim Moniz, Lisbon

Francesinha

Okay, this is a bomb. A fat bomb from Porto. Now, I just wonder if the Portuguese idiom “Women and sardines; you want them to be small,” was invented before or after the Francesinha.

We’re unsure how it could be possible that Portuguese women get a portion of a sandwich made from layers of bread, wet-cured ham, dry cured linguiça sausage, fresh sausage, beef steak or roast meat, covered with melted cheese and floating in a hot thick tomato & beer sauce with some french fries on the side… and keep their “sardines shape?!”

Portuguese cuisine
The bomb.

Where to find some: Confeitaria Central, Pç. Carlos Alberto, 124, Porto

Portuguese sweets

Looking back at history, Portuguese sweets (or “sugary sins”) were always tolerated. Since the 17th century nuns and monks started using more sugar ( originally coming from Brazil and Madeira islands) instead of honey in the convent desserts, which resulted in hyper sweet Doces Conventuais; yellow sweets mostly made of sugar, egg yolks and almonds.

To justify their baking experiments, let’s just say they tried to use all products with minimum waste. Convents and monasteries used to use egg whites for starching and purifying wine. Now, can you imagine how much waste of yolks it would have been? Some of the wine producers fed the poor and pigs with yolks in the past, but apparently, nuns and monks came up with different use for it that has remained till now.

If you don’t mind a bit of raw yolk taste, go for encharcada, a kind of porridge with the texture of sugar, yolks, almonds, cinnamon and lemon zest.

Another scrumptious Portuguese dessert we got to try was Farófias with strawberries; sweet crispy balls in a vanilla custard.

You’ll find some more sugar also in Portuguese idioms. Our favourite one is “They do marmelade”, meaning, “they’re kissing.”

Where to get some:  For a strawberry covered appetizing dessert, go to Gadanha Merceneria, Largo Dragões de Olivença 84 A, Estremoz

Pastel de nata

Honestly, we got quite spoiled with these fantastic pastries in Portugal, from the day 1 until our last day in our Airbnb accommodation in Porto, where our host Louis brought us a fresh portion of hot egg tarts sprinkled with cinnamon every day.
Protip: make sure to buy only fresh pastries. Once pastel de nata gets cold, its taste is far from the one when it’s nicely warm.

Portuguese cuisine
Fresh are the best.

Where to get some: For pastel de nata and convent sweets, check Confeitaria Nacional, Praça da Figueira, 18B, Lisbon

Beyond Portuguese cuisine

In the 80’s and 90’s, Lisbon built a lot of supermarkets in Mouraria district with Asian food. Naturally, veggies and fruit markets are nowadays full of exotic non-European products because of the international community in town.

“We Portuguese might be shy and less confident than other western European countries, but we are respectful in welcoming people of different cultures, religions and political opinions,” points out Filipa before we head to a Mozambian restaurant – a perfect example of how well cultures mingle in Portugal.

Expats from Mozambique, once colonized by Portugal for over four centuries until 1975, create a large ethnic community in Lisbon. To get a taste of some non-Portuguese cuisine in Portugal, we highly recommend a restaurant run by Mozambicans since 1982.
Tip: Don’t miss the starter chamussa (a kind of Indian samosa, which is the example of influence of Indian cuisine, since natives from Goa once lived in the territory of Mozambique) with “bastard” hot sauce!

Where to get some in Lisbon: Cantinho do Aziz, Rua de São Lourenço 5.

Insiders tip on getting a special food experience:

Time your visit to Lisbon during the Santo Antonio festival, which is traditionally on the 12th and 13th of June each year. The city turns into a big festivity and of course, food is a major part of it. If you haven’t eaten enough sardines in Portugal by now, Santo Antonio festival is the right place to make it up!

Portuguese cuisine
Sardines and more sardines.

We were lucky enough to be in the capital the day before the festival started. It was that late evening when we were roaming around with a dear friend Emanuele, a great travel photographer who lead us through Alfama neighbourhood and we witnessed all of the preparation works in progress.

Smoke from the grilled sardines and sausages covered all the busy street vendors, and all possible courtyards turned into open air bistros, each with its own pop music blasting from behind the counter, competing with dramatic songs of fado coming from a nearby elegant restaurant.

A few more tips on dining in Portugal

Time
While being under British influence thirty years ago, the Portuguese took over some of their dining manners, too. For example, in the past, you could find a Portuguese family having a dinner already around 6-7pm, which would never happen nowadays.

When arranging a dinner with your Portuguese friends, expect to start eating no earlier than 8 pm, similarly to other Mediterranean countries, having your last meal of the day at 10 pm is pretty normal in Portugal.

Mind your budget
If you visit Portugal on budget, opt for prato do dia (a dish of the day) or menu do dia (menu of the day), which is considerably cheaper and quite tasty. In Lisbon, you can get a nice meal of the day for about $7 to $12 USD, depending on the area where you eat.

In smaller towns, or in a few places in Porto, the price will include also bread, coffee and a dessert, which you won’t find easily in Lisbon anymore.

Salt
If you don’t use much salt in your food like we do, then you might find some Portuguese dishes over salted. (Just a reminder before you put automatically some extra salt on your meal before tasting it.)
There is more than just the food that Portuguese are proud of, our guide Filipa told us. They have their three “Fs” that they admire a lot: 1. Fatima 2. Football 3. Fado. We say #4: Filipa! Because of her avid and cheery personality and distinguished knowledge of the history of Lisbon and Portugal and its cuisine!

Disclaimer: We were guests of Filipa from Taste of Lisboa food tour .

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24 thoughts on “Portuguese Cuisine: From Bacalhau to Piri-Piri to Francesinha”

  1. Steph (@ 20 Years Hence)

    Mmmm… this post has definitely given me a lot of food for thought (pun intended!) regarding Portugal. We, unfortunately, didn’t have a very good experience in Lisbon last summer, but that may have been due to our circumstances (the weather was bad and it was our last stop before heading home) and where we were staying (our AirBnB was in an unexpectedly dodgy neighborhood) more than the city itself. We didn’t feel very motivated to explore and were feeling kind of burned out and depressed, so we really didn’t dive into the country’s cuisine above and beyond chicken w/ piri piri sauce and the gorgeous egg tarts. We both said we’d like to return to Portugal some day and give it a second chance, and when we do, I definitely want to try more of the dishes that you listed here! That Francesinha sandwich looks like it might kill me, but I know I’ll have to try it anyway!

    1. Sarah (Jetsetting Fools)

      We love trying the local cuisine, but when we were in Portugal, we just couldn’t get into the cod dishes. I wanted to love it, but as much as I tried, I couldn’t. However, not to fear, we gorged ourselves on the ham, cheese and custard tarts…and washed it all down with the amazing wine. Wish I would have known about some of the other dishes you tried – they sound delicious!

      1. Ivana Greslikova

        Oh, such a shame for the bacalhau… We just couldn’t get enough of it. But you’re right, Sarah, there’s far more than dishes of cod fish in Portugal and they are super delicious, especially those tempting yellow creamy tarts!

    2. Ivana Greslikova

      Hi Steph, so nice to hear from you!
      Really sorry for a spoiled experience you had in Lisbon. I guess, it was a combination of all what you mentioned that left you uninspired. Well, you know Francesinha will wait for you in Porto and you certainly won’t get disappointed! Happy travels to both of you 🙂

    3. Hilda Andrade

      definitely, if the circumstances are not good, you are tired, on your way back, it can kind of bum out the end of a holiday. It’s a shame your time in Lisbon wasn’t so good. I recommend a hotel next time, something close to the Metro, and come back! Loved Lisbon. I spent 4 nights with a group in 2011, and have to go back.!

  2. There are award winning tea plantations in Cornwall UK, and this year’s World’s best Tea, grown in Scotland. Just for info.

    1. Ivana Greslikova

      Thanks a lot for pointing that out, Rob! Lesson learnt: if two sources of information tell you the same thing, check the third one. I’m sure if I would have done a better research, the mention of other plantations would have popped out. I’ve already corrected it.

      1. Gail at Large

        Well, you did call Gorreana “The oldest remaining tea plantation plantation in Europe”, which is true: both Gorreana (1883) and Formosa (1920) in the Azores are older than the UK plantations (Cornwall 2005; Scotland 2012).

        1. Ivana Greslikova

          Hi Gail, Rob was referring to the fact that we’d mentioned the plantation in Azores as the only one in Europe. I corrected it already, as he suggested, that’s why the previous comment might sound confusing. Have you been to Gorreana one? I see you’re based in Portugal, right?

          1. Gail Aguiar (Gail at Large)

            Yes, I’ve been to both Gorreana and Formosa plantations while in São Miguel in 2013 (I got married on the island, in Vila Franca do Campo).

            I moved permanently to Porto from Toronto 3 months after getting married on São Miguel.

  3. One of the few foods that tempts me away from my vegan ways is the Portuguese custard tart (and I find the Chinese ones oh-so-tempting too). We were recently in Toronto, and those little Portuguese circles of delight seemed to be available on every street corner.

    I didn’t have one, but I was salivating the entire time!

    1. Ivana Greslikova

      Completely understand, Jane 🙂 Having seen how much meaty-fishy-eggy Portuguese cuisine is, it would be interesting to explore its vegan options. Although, I would be prolly drooling over their pastries all the time.

  4. Sophia Edwards

    mmm…I just read this and I am definitely salivating slightly! The food sounds amazing and I am even more excited to visit Portugal next summer now and sample all their delights!

    1. Ivana Greslikova

      You gonna love the food there, Sophia! We haven’t found any tea house there, but their coffee is amazing 🙂 With some pastel de nata, of course 😉

  5. It’s interesting to see how many foods in Portugal are the same as ones in Brazil. Romeo e Julieta is a very common dessert in Brazil, and there are cod dishes everywhere! I can’t wait to go to Portugal, and those custards might be my first treat to try there. They look delicious.

    1. Ivana Greslikova

      Thanks for reading, Jenna! Never been to Brazil, but if you say the food is very similar to Portuguese cuisine, then it’s one more reason for us to go there 🙂 You’ll love pastel de nata! Just make sure to get a warm/hot one. The cold one is totally different story…

  6. Hannah @GettingStamped

    I can’t look at this post anymore it’s making me hungry!!

    1. Ivana Greslikova

      Ahaha! The food in Portugal was just crazy delicious, indeed! Any plans to get there this year, Hannah?

  7. Planning my first trip to Portugal, so this post is super helpful. I intend to eat my way through this list. Thanks.

    1. Ivana Greslikova

      Cool! You gonna LOVE Portugal, Jeff! If you have any question, pls drop us a message 🙂

  8. Bacalhau isn’t for everyone. Only real foodies will appreciate it. But i would recomend bacalhau com natas for those who are daring enough to try it. Otherwise, arroz de marisco (seafood rice), chanfana de cabrito (roast goat), carne de porco à alentejana (alentejo style pork), cataplana de marisco (mixed seafood), bife à Portuguesa (Portuguese style steak and chips), salada de polvo (octopus salad), caldeirada de peixe (fish stew), camarão com piri piri (piri piri prawns) or just a frango no churasco (piri piri chicken) should please most palates. Bom proveito.

  9. The mainstay of Portuguese food is fish, and bacalhau (salt cod) is king. I suggest bacalhau com natas (with cream) or bacalhau à Gomes de sá (the Gomes de sá way) for the novices. For the meat lovers, bife à Portuguesa (steak the Portuguese way) is sure to please any palate. For the more adventurous, Chanfana de cabrito (roast goat in a stew) is a must try, just as the leitão à bairrada (roast suckling pig) or the carne de porco à alentejana (alentejo style pork with clams). For the health conscious, fresh coal grilled fish, piri piri chicken, salada de bacalhau ( cod salad) or salada de polvo (octopus salad) are sure to please.

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