Going abroad, you want to learn city sights, meet culture, traditions, household requirements. You can do this by not only visiting museums, architectural monuments, but walking the city and meeting local cuisine. Portuguese cuisine is full of historical tendencies, climate and geographical characteristics, cultural development of the country.
Thus, one of the most memorable and glorious features of Portuguese cuisine is seafood. Fish, shrinks, crabs are offered to try everywhere: baked, boiled, dried, as a main course dish and important component of salad, soup. It is recommended to try cataplana, fish-soup, and seafood cocktail.
Meat Dishes
Natives do not like meat dishes. As a rule, they are different by spicy and herbal taste. People prefer eating pork and beef. They use onion, pepper, and other spices. Restaurant menu boasts with juicy schnitzel, baked meat, and roast meat.
Garnishes
The most popular garnish is rice. It is served with meat, fish, and desserts. Rice is also used with different sorts of cheese, olives and pastes.
First Course Dishes
Portuguese people like first course hot dishes. Thus, they like light vegetable soups made of cabbage, broccoli, potatoes and pumpkin. They are not spicy, attractive for all occasions.
Desserts
People in Portuguese, especially in Faro, like desserts. The high preference desserts are: cakes, classic puddings, creams, pies. Local fruits are also used to make tasty desserts.
Drinks
Local drinks are worth saying. Do you think that Portuguese is nothing but Port wine? Of course, Portuguese is considered to be the motherland of good local wine. If you want to taste it, pay attention to green wine Vinho Verde, strawberry and cherry liqueur and local white and red sweet wines.
Popular Dishes
Seafood Soup
Seafood soup is the base of Mediterranean diet. It is light but rich. The soup is very healthy and cannot make you fat. This is the first course dish of many local restaurants. Mediterranean cuisine in Faro starts with seafood.
Arroz de Marisco
This is rice with seafood. It is called arroz de marisco. Do you think the dish is close to analogous Italian paella? They are different. It is no surprising that Portuguese is washes by the sea. So, it is clear enough to use fresh seafood for restaurant dishes. Besides, seafood is the base of healthy well-balanced diet.
Bacalhau a Bras
This is the most popular way to cook cod in Portuguese. It means that you have to make it in bacalhau way. Take code fish and fry the salty pieces of it with potato, eggs and onion.
Ameijoas a Bulhao Pato
Do you know about Portuguese poet Raimundo Antonio de Bulhao Pato? The most of people know this prominent person not only because of his poems, but for his food masterpiece – Ameijoas a Bulhao Pato. This is the dish of mussels – almeijoas. The taste of it is very poetic.
Salada de Polvo
Portuguese people like snack-salad made of octopus. It is usually served before meal. Salada de Polvo is not only balanced and healthy diet, but good way to have some snack before dinner. The dish is preferable with light beer or white wine.
Bacalhau
This is salty code. Actually, code fish is national Portuguese dish. Look around! The shops are full of interesting seafood, all sorts of fish, octopuses, shrinks, squids. There are also many slices of big salty fish. It looks uninviting. As a rule, this uninviting fish takes the leading position in the shop. The price of it is higher than the price for seafood. It is even higher than juicy salmon. This fish is dried code in bacalhau way. Try it.
Ovos Moles
The cuisine of Faro is rich and various. The fish and meat dishes, soups, desserts are popular. Portuguese people like eggs. They use eggs every time. It looks like dessert in Portuguese cuisine. One of the most interesting dishes is dessert Ovos moles. It means the soft eggs.
Creme de Marisco
Meet the seafood soup – creme de Marisco. This is the favorite dish for many natives and tourists. The base of it is shrinks, spices and garlic.
Cataplana
The name of this dish is cataplana. The name was taken from the name of the dish where it is served. Nevertheless, experts affirm that you can cook this dish in a usual pot. The dish appeared in Portuguese in the 8th-13th century as the result of Arabian wars.
Cozido a Portuguesa
National cuisine is a face of people. Portuguese cuisine is made of fish. The fish is cooked in different ways and technics. Nevertheless, this traditional meat dish masterfully competes with fish in taste and aroma.
Francesinha
This paragraph is about true Portuguese sandwich. It is called Francesinha. It tastes amazing! The sandwich looks like two pieces of white bread of square form with the slice of meat inside. The meat or beef is filled with olives and blood pudding. The dish is served with hot cheese. The secret of it is tomato paste. As you can see, the paste is made of beer and port wine. The top of it is Worcestershire sauce.
The sauce is made of different goods in different regions of Portuguese. The recipe is secret. It is not a problem as you can find industrial variant of this specific sauce in the supermarket. The sauce is very tasty and specific. So, the dish is also tasty and specific. Look at this juicy sandwich! It looks like caramel dessert but not a snack.
There is a worthy restaurant O Costa, placed close to the airport. It is lovely place for guests from all over the country. It is enough to hire a car in Faro airport and get to the restaurant in some minutes. The guests are attracted with friendly and hospitable atmosphere and good service. If you want to try the best Porto wine, you should visit national restaurant Pousada de Sao Bras. The restaurant boasts with the biggest wine factory in the country. The wine card includes all sorts of wine, attractive for any dish you order.
