50 free Portuguese Food trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Portugal eats more fish per head than any other country in Europe, yet its favourite fish is one it never eats fresh. That contradiction is Portuguese food in a nutshell: salt cod from the Grand Banks, chillies from Africa, sugar and cinnamon from the spice routes, and a pastry tradition built by nuns who had egg yolks to spare. These 50 questions cover the whole table. Bacalhau and its 365 recipes, caldo verde, cozido à portuguesa, leitão à Bairrada, carne de porco à alentejana, tripe from Porto and the francesinha invented there in 1953, the alheira sausage created to fool the Inquisition, chouriço, farinheira and presunto from Chaves, queijo da Serra and São Jorge. From the pastelaria: pastéis de Belém and their secret room, doçaria conventual, fios de ovos and the bola de Berlim. From the glass: bica, vinho verde, port, Madeira and medronho. And Portugal's exports: piri-piri, tempura and kasutera in Japan, malassadas in Hawaii and the papo-seco in Jersey. Easy questions stick to bacalhau and custard tarts; the hard tier asks about olive-oil acidity grades, the Abbot of Lamego and the 1820 revolution that put monks in the pastry business. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something either way.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is bacalhau?
Dried and salted cod
Fresh cod is bacalhau fresco and is rarely seen for sale in Portugal.
Q 02How many ways to cook bacalhau are there said to be in Portugal?
More than 365
One for every day of the year; others claim 1,001.
Q 03What affectionate nickname do the Portuguese give salt cod?
Fiel amigo
It means "loyal friend", earned when cod was a cheap protein staple.
Q 04From which fishermen did the Portuguese learn to salt-cure cod off Newfoundland?
Basque
Norman, Breton and English crews picked up the technique near the Grand Banks at the same time, by the late 1500s.
Q 05Which countries became Portugal's main suppliers of salt cod in the 1900s?
Iceland and Norway
Better freezing and transport ended the North American trade that had fed Portugal for centuries.
Q 06Portugal has the highest per-capita consumption of what in Europe?
Fish
It ranks among the top four in the world for the same measure.
Q 07What is caldo verde?
A potato and collard-green soup
Slices of chouriço are often added, but leave them out and the soup is fully vegan.
Q 08What is the name of the small espresso Portuguese order after lunch?
Bica
It is named after the spout of the coffee machine; in Porto it is a cimbalino, after the La Cimbali machine.
Q 09What is the oldest known book on Portuguese cuisine?
Livro de Cozinha da Infanta D. Maria
The 16th-century manuscript describes dishes of meat, fish and poultry; Olleboma's Culinária Portuguesa came in 1936.
Q 10Portuguese olive oil is graded by what measure?
Acidity in degrees
1.5 degrees is for cooking only; anything under 1 degree is for dousing fish and potatoes.
Q 11Which Portuguese stew parallels the French pot-au-feu?
Cozido à portuguesa
Mainly a winter dish, it can include beef, pork, salt pork and several kinds of charcuterie.
Q 12What is caldeirada?
A fish stew like bouillabaisse
Turbot, monkfish, hake and mussels go in with potatoes, tomatoes and peppers, often in a clay pot.
Q 13Which city's tripe dish is said to date from a 14th-century siege of Lisbon?
Porto
Tripas à moda do Porto pairs tripe with white beans; the city is also home to the francesinha.
Q 21What is a bifana?
A pork steak in a roll
The beef version is a prego; both are beer-hall snacks that can stand in for lunch.
Q 22What were iscas, a favourite of old Lisbon taverns?
Fried liver
"Iscas com elas" meant liver with sautéed potatoes.
Q 23Espetada, meat on a skewer, is especially popular on which island?
Madeira
Terceira in the Azores is known instead for alcatra, beef roasted in a clay pot with wine and cloves.
Q 24Which sausage was created so that Jewish converts could appear to eat pork?
Q 14What does "francesinha" literally mean?
Little French girl
Daniel David de Silva adapted the croque monsieur after working in France and Belgium.
Q 15In which year was the francesinha introduced at A Regaleira in Porto?
1953
The restaurant on Rua do Bonjardim served it with local meats and a beer-and-tomato sauce.
Q 16What is the one ingredient every francesinha sauce has in common?
Beer
Most sauces are tomato-based too, but the beer is non-negotiable.
Q 17What is a pica-pau?
A breadless francesinha eaten with toothpicks
The name means woodpecker, because diners "peck" at the sauced steak pieces.
Q 18The Bairrada region is famous for which dish?
Roast suckling pig
Leitão à Bairrada is the local pride; nearby towns fight over chanfana, the goat dish.
Q 19Which two ingredients are combined in carne de porco à alentejana?
Pork and clams
Both are non-kosher, and the dish was reportedly used to test the faith of Jewish converts.
Q 20What is a bitoque?
A steak with a fried egg on top
The name suggests the meat "touches" the grill only twice; a bife com ovo a cavalo is the egg-topped steak "on horseback".
Alheira
The yellowish Trás-os-Montes sausage is traditionally served with fried potatoes and a fried egg.
Q 25Which Portuguese smoked sausage uses wheat flour as its base?
Farinheira
Borba, Estremoz and Portalegre farinheiras all carry EU protected status.
Q 26Which region produces Portugal's most famous presunto?
Chaves
Presunto de Barrancos and Presunto Bísaro de Vinhais are also protected under European law.
Q 27What is Queijo da Serra made from?
Sheep's milk and thistle rennet
It can be eaten soft or matured; Queijo São Jorge from the Azores is a spicy cow's-milk cheese.
Q 28Why is vinho verde called "green" wine?
It should be drunk young
It can be red, white or rosé and comes only from the Minho; most is slightly sparkling.
Q 29Roughly how many growers work in the Vinho Verde region?
About 19,000
Many once trained vines up trees and even telephone poles so they could grow vegetables beneath.
Q 30What gives port wine its sweetness and strength?
Fermentation halted with grape spirit
The neutral spirit halts fermentation early, leaving sugar and 19 to 22 percent alcohol.