50 Fun Facts About Portuguese Food

What is bacalhau?

Fresh cod is bacalhau fresco and is rarely seen for sale in Portugal.

How many ways to cook bacalhau are there said to be in Portugal?

One for every day of the year; others claim 1,001.

What affectionate nickname do the Portuguese give salt cod?

It means "loyal friend", earned when cod was a cheap protein staple.

From which fishermen did the Portuguese learn to salt-cure cod off Newfoundland?

Norman, Breton and English crews picked up the technique near the Grand Banks at the same time, by the late 1500s.

Which countries became Portugal's main suppliers of salt cod in the 1900s?

Better freezing and transport ended the North American trade that had fed Portugal for centuries.

Portugal has the highest per-capita consumption of what in Europe?

It ranks among the top four in the world for the same measure.

What is caldo verde?

Slices of chouriço are often added, but leave them out and the soup is fully vegan.

What is the name of the small espresso Portuguese order after lunch?

It is named after the spout of the coffee machine; in Porto it is a cimbalino, after the La Cimbali machine.

What is the oldest known book on Portuguese cuisine?

The 16th-century manuscript describes dishes of meat, fish and poultry; Olleboma's Culinária Portuguesa came in 1936.

Portuguese olive oil is graded by what measure?

1.5 degrees is for cooking only; anything under 1 degree is for dousing fish and potatoes.

Which Portuguese stew parallels the French pot-au-feu?

Mainly a winter dish, it can include beef, pork, salt pork and several kinds of charcuterie.

What is caldeirada?

Turbot, monkfish, hake and mussels go in with potatoes, tomatoes and peppers, often in a clay pot.

Which city's tripe dish is said to date from a 14th-century siege of Lisbon?

Tripas à moda do Porto pairs tripe with white beans; the city is also home to the francesinha.

What does "francesinha" literally mean?

Daniel David de Silva adapted the croque monsieur after working in France and Belgium.

In which year was the francesinha introduced at A Regaleira in Porto?

The restaurant on Rua do Bonjardim served it with local meats and a beer-and-tomato sauce.

What is the one ingredient every francesinha sauce has in common?

Most sauces are tomato-based too, but the beer is non-negotiable.

What is a pica-pau?

The name means woodpecker, because diners "peck" at the sauced steak pieces.

The Bairrada region is famous for which dish?

Leitão à Bairrada is the local pride; nearby towns fight over chanfana, the goat dish.

Which two ingredients are combined in carne de porco à alentejana?

Both are non-kosher, and the dish was reportedly used to test the faith of Jewish converts.

What is a bitoque?

The name suggests the meat "touches" the grill only twice; a bife com ovo a cavalo is the egg-topped steak "on horseback".

What is a bifana?

The beef version is a prego; both are beer-hall snacks that can stand in for lunch.

What were iscas, a favourite of old Lisbon taverns?

"Iscas com elas" meant liver with sautéed potatoes.

Espetada, meat on a skewer, is especially popular on which island?

Terceira in the Azores is known instead for alcatra, beef roasted in a clay pot with wine and cloves.

Which sausage was created so that Jewish converts could appear to eat pork?

The yellowish Trás-os-Montes sausage is traditionally served with fried potatoes and a fried egg.

Which Portuguese smoked sausage uses wheat flour as its base?

Borba, Estremoz and Portalegre farinheiras all carry EU protected status.

Which region produces Portugal's most famous presunto?

Presunto de Barrancos and Presunto Bísaro de Vinhais are also protected under European law.

What is Queijo da Serra made from?

It can be eaten soft or matured; Queijo São Jorge from the Azores is a spicy cow's-milk cheese.

Why is vinho verde called "green" wine?

It can be red, white or rosé and comes only from the Minho; most is slightly sparkling.

Roughly how many growers work in the Vinho Verde region?

Many once trained vines up trees and even telephone poles so they could grow vegetables beneath.

What gives port wine its sweetness and strength?

The neutral spirit halts fermentation early, leaving sugar and 19 to 22 percent alcohol.

Which 1703 agreement with England made port popular there?

Merchants could import it at a low duty while war with France cut off French wine.

Which churchman served two Liverpool merchants the fortified wine that started the port trade?

The Englishmen bought his entire lot in 1678 and shipped it home.

Along which river are the port vineyards planted?

Ferreira's Barca Velha, made since 1952, pioneered Douro table wine.

What are the two primary categories of red port?

Tawnies spend far longer in barrel and carry age statements in 10-year steps from 10 to 50.

A cargo of which wine triggered the seizure of John Hancock's sloop Liberty in 1768?

Customs officers took the ship after he unloaded 25 casks of Madeira, and riots followed.

What fruit is the Algarve spirit medronho distilled from?

Licor Beirão and the sour-cherry ginjinha are the country's other favourite tipples.

Monks of which Lisbon institution created the original pastéis de Belém?

Convents used egg whites to starch habits and baked the spare yolks into pastries.

What event pushed the monks into selling their custard tarts?

Religious orders were dissolved, the monastery closed in 1834 and the recipe went to a nearby sugar refinery.

In what year did the Fábrica de Pastéis de Belém open?

It sells over 20,000 pastéis a day and keeps the original recipe in a secret room.

Roughly how many pastéis does the Belém shop sell each day?

It stands a three-minute walk from the Jerónimos Monastery.

Which fast-food chain adopted the Macau version of the pastel de nata?

It is sold in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore and beyond.

What are fios de ovos?

Also called angel hair, they became keiran somen in Japan and foy tong in Thailand.

Which Japanese dish resembles peixinhos da horta and arrived with Lisbon's missionaries?

Portuguese ships reached Japan in 1543 bringing refined sugar; kasutera and konpeitō also descend from their sweets.

Malassadas and pão doce are everyday foods in which US state?

Linguiça and chouriço are eaten regularly in the islands too, and in parts of New England.

The papo-seco bread roll has become a café staple on which Channel Island?

The island has a substantial Portuguese community.

Piri-piri is a cultivar of which pepper species?

It was developed from the malagueta pepper in Portugal's southern African territories.

In which language does "pilipili" simply mean pepper?

Peri-peri is the South African spelling; Portugal and Mozambique write piri-piri.

Which restaurant chain made piri-piri sauce famous in the United Kingdom?

The South African chain built its menu on the chilli-and-garlic marinade.

Before potatoes arrived from the New World, what was Portugal's seasonal staple starch?

Chestnut dishes and desserts are enjoying a revival in the centre and north of the country.

Portuguese traders brought sweet oranges to Europe from where in the 15th century?

Some languages still name the orange after Portugal, once its main source.