Local fish – the essence of Portuguese food

The best local grilled fishes are:

• Sardines (PT: Sardinhas)
• Seabream (Dourada)
• Seabass (Robalo)
• Squids (Lulas)
• Shrimps (Camarão)
• Octopus (Polvo), e.g. Polvo á Lagareiro – baked octopus with oil and garlic
• Other good fish dishes are Cataplana and Fish stew.

Shellfish of Portugal

• Amêijoa (Clams)
• Lingueirão (Razor clams)
• Conquilhas (Wedge clams)
• Berbigão (Cockle) – Cheapest clams
• Ostras (Oysters) – Best raw or opened in BBQ with lemon
• Usually, shellfish is served as a starter, in a sauce made of white wine+garlic+olive oil and coriander (pt: à bulhão de pato) and eaten with a piece of bread.
• Also, shellfish can be found in dishes like rice, cataplana, and stews.

Typical meat dishes

• Chouriço assado (Portuguese Roasted Sausage) – starter, served with a piece of bread.
• Carne à Alentejana (Alentejo´s style meat) – is a very tasty recipe of meat in small cubes with white wine & garlic sauce, pickles, and some clams.
• Carne à Portuguesa (Portuguese style meat) – is the recipe above but without clams.
• Any meat in Port wine sauce: is one of the traditional recipes to prepare meat in Portugal, very tasteful.
• In Portugal are plenty of restaurant with very good grilled chicken, as well as good grilled meat.

Local fruits and vegetables

Most of the local fruits are seasonal, meaning that you can buy them only in a specific time of the year. You can buy it matured in local markets usually on Saturdays or Sundays or every morning in Mercado Municipal of each town.

Portuguese local fruits & vegetables:

• Avocado: autumn & winter
• All citrus fruits
• Mango: summer & autumn
• Papaya: summer & autumn
• Peaches: summer & autumn
• Pomegranates: autumn
• Custard apple
• Maracuja: summer & autumn
• Figs: August & September
• Bananas from Madeira Island
• Pineapple from Azores Islands
• And all the common tasty vegetables

Other local specialities

[Wine] You barely do things wrong when buying wine in Portugal. The cheap wines are often as good as the expensive ones. Get a bottle of wine from Alentejo and you can´t be wrong. Often the younger wines are the better choice.

[Olive oil] How to choose a good one:

– Extra-virgin olive oil is the one extracted from cold pressing of the olives

– Virgin olive oil comes from the 2nd pressing;

– Just olive oil comes from the 3rd pressing.-

Good olive oil has very low acidity (0.80% or less)