The stolid, hard working
Portuguese do not, like their Spanish neighbors, delay their eating times until
the tourist from another country develops the feeling that mealtime is just
never going to roll around. To the contrary, they eat only slightly later than
the northern countries, and with a regularity in their hours that would satisfy
the stickiest Swiss burgher.
To be specific, breakfast is
served starting at 7:30 in the hotels, though the Portuguese start as early as
7:00. A popular time for breakfast in the tourist resorts is 9:00, but the
hotels usually continue serving the coffee, rolls, butter and jelly that
constitute this meal up to 9.30 or even sometimes 10:00. Even if the hotel
claims to serve until this hour, however, it is not advisable to eat breakfast
at the last moment, as the waiters will have begun setting up for lunch and you
may feel some pressure to rush.
The afternoon meal is served
from 12:30 or 1:00 until about 2:30, and the usual time for eating is 1:30 when
the restaurants will be suddenly filled to overflowing. When you will want to
eat, within this range, depends on what you will have to do that afternoon and
when you will take your evening meal.
The evening meal can be had
in hotels as early as 7:30, and they continue serving until about 10:00.
The hours we have given
correspond to the usual Portuguese eating times and the times your hotel
restaurant serves the meal. If you intend to eat in restaurants, however, you
will be more flexible and, if you please, can almost continue in your English
or American style of eating times. The Portuguese still have not become so blaze
about tourists that they will refuse to serve you unless you come at their
times.
Though the Portuguese are
northern in the regularity and earliness of their schedule, they are entirely
Mediterranean in the length of their eating hour. which can drag on for two
hours, and in the tendency to eat the largest meal at the hour that northern
places use for wolfing down a quick, cold sandwich and getting back to the job.
There are also a few extra
eating and/or drinking times added to this schedule, a particularly considerate
development for the two‑week tourist who wonders how he is going to ever try
all the delicious things on the menu with his supposed limit of a piddling 28
real meals.
Rejoice. two‑week tourist Due
to the propitious vicissitudes of Portuguese tradition, you may indulge in a
midmorning drink, "matabicho", which you should use to sample the
local liqueur of for coffee and the local pastry. You can stop again at about
4:00 for what the English would call tea; but you can slyly exploit the
opportunity to finish off say, a plate of shrimp, or a few slices of that
delicious local sausage or smoked ham. The usual style would be to have coffee
or tea with a pastry or two or three Remember, you've done a lot of walking
today. touring those museums and sites. and you've got to refuel often.
Generally speaking. supper would be the last meal you'll feel justified in eating, but if you've
gone to the theater. or better yet, if you've won at the casino, you'll
certainly want to celebrate with a late‑night snack
For breakfast. as we've
stated, the Portuguese simply down a big pot of coffee. with lots of milk (hot)
and garnish it with various rolls, butter and jelly. You may. in some hotels.
be offered numerous choices. especially if the hotel is on the tourist circuit
of the Americans. Germans and English. Then you will be agile to start the day
with meat, eggs, cereal, toast, juice, fruit and all the other it eras that.
when. they see them being devoured so early in the morning, make the Portuguese
waiters eyes bug out.
We would advise, however,
that even if offered the choice, you do not indulge in the American' breakfast.
Why? First of all, it's part of the experience of a foreign vacation to get a
taste of how people are living in another country, and one of the easiest ways
to do this is to eat the way they do. Second. the cooks are not all that well
acquainted with the "American" breakfast, and are not very likely to
prepare it the way you would have liked it. Third, it's a very special service
for a Portuguese kitchen to start fiddling in the morning with foods they
generally are not set up to handle until the noon meal, and they will charge
you accordingly for the trouble.
After the breakfast, the next
eating time, not counting that optional mid‑morning drink, is lunch the main meal
of the day. With minor regional variations, here's how it goes. You begin with
the standard hors d'oeuvre of Portugal, little toasted croutons and rolls onto
which you put liver paste and/or butter. The spreads come in two little ceramic
or plastic containers, marked with the company name, and you will be served
this at nearly every good restaurant in Portugal, without being asked whether
you want them or not. In fact, even if you say you don't want them, they will
most likely be left on your table with the injunction, "If you don't eat
them, you don't have to pay for them".
Next you will have soup or
any other pre‑meal item such as melon with ham or some such. The varieties of
soup are quite enormous in Portugal, and very tasty. Beware, however ! Some of
them, like the Alentejo Açorda, (bread soup in the Alentejo style) or the
Bouillabaisse (fish stew) of the coastal regions; are very filling. Not that
you shouldn't have them. To the contrary, but be certain you order light things
to follow, as unless you are a real champion trencher, you won't have much
space left afterwards. The fish soups are famous and worth trying in almost all
regions, but especially in Beira Littoral, Douro Littoral, Estremadura and
Algarve Provinces. The bread soups or Alentejo are also popular, and there is
one more very famous Portuguese soup ‑ Caldo Verde (green soup) ‑ which
originated in Minho Province but is today served all over the north, and even
in Lisbon in some places.
After the soup or appetizer,
you move on to the fish dish. The Portuguese eat the times more fish than meat,
always having fish at each meal, and if it is a festive occasion, or if they
are wealthy, adding a meat course. The varieties you will be offered are
innumerable. There may be up to twenty different types of fish on your menu,
though a more usual range is up to five. There are 200 varieties sold in the
markets of Portugal, and if you total the different ways in which they can each
be prepared, the result would certainly reach into the thousands.
The most frequently eaten
fish in the country, and one that you will see on every menu, usually with
three choices of ways of preparation, is bacalhau, the simple salted cod.
How important this food is to
the Portuguese ! Each Portuguese consumes an average of 100 pounds of cod per
year, which means he eats it roughly every second day. There are more than 300
different recipes for its preparation, and it is called "o fiel
amigo", the faithful friend. The sight of thousands of cod drying in special
racks along the shore can be seen in every seaside village in Portugal, and as
one walks the streets of the villages, towns and cities, one sees on every hand
the board‑like shapes that are the dried and salted end product.
Another popular fish that you'll
see often on the menu is "sardinhas assadas", grilled sardines. These
small fish grilling outside provide one of the sensual experiences that
distinctly mean Portugal to anyone who has smelled them. They are especially
associated with the poor, living in the Altama section of Lisbon or the slums
of Porto, who eat them daily.
There are a few regional fish
that you should not fail to try. The eels of Aveiro are so famous that they are
packed in special cans for you to take home with you. The way of preparing
small clams (ameijoas) south of Lisbon makes them a gourmet treat. In the
Algarve they are picturesquely made in a special copper pan with a cover for
steaming, together with pork, tomatoes, onions, etc., and in Alentejo they are
made in a special sauce with cubes of pork.
In certain towns of the
Minho, you can get lamprey either in rice or roasted on a spit. Delicious !
Octopus is another seafood specialty of the Minho. (For the best specialties
region by region, see the following section).
Finished with the fish, you
now move on to the meat course. Generally speaking, there is much less variety
and much less quality in this course than among fish dishes, and you may prefer
to skip it if you have had a particularly filling fish. If you want meat, however,
and the waiter will expect you to, read carefully our listing of regional
specialties. Each region does have something good, but, of course, you have to
know what it is or you may end up with undifferentiated, thin and overcooked
slices of sow meat everywhere you go. Steak, in other words, is among the worst
things to order in Portugal, unless you are in a top restaurant. If the
regional specialty is not on the menu, pork is usually all right, and calves'
or lamb liver also good. Game is usually prepared well, especially rabbit or
hare.
Now you've finished with the
meat course and the waiter is at your side again. What is he offering? He wants
to know if you want a salad. And after the salad, a little cheese. And after
the cheese, he will offer delicious, tree‑ripened fruit. And then one of many
semi‑miraculous sweets, the best you've ever tasted. Followed by coffee, of
course. And, well, you can't really have a meal like this without chasing it
down with a little brandy, or a "bagaceira". "Muito Bom",
the waiter will assure you. "It's very good. Try it". Then retire to
the lounge with a glass of vintage port and a large cigar, and you'll know for
sure that you're in a very different country where doing justice to the meal is
almost as much an art as cooking it.
The tea time, as we have
stated, is a beverage and a pastry, usually, but it's possible also to make a
larger snack, with a plate of shrimps or some such.
Supper is more or less the
same as lunch, though if you've eaten in the proportions described above you’ll
probably be content with an egg dish or perhaps just a plate of light fish.
A few tips before you sit
down to eat. If you order coffee with milk for breakfast, the waiter sometimes
begins by pouring in the hot milk. Be sure to tell him when to stop or he'll
nearly fill the cup with milk, afterwards pouring in a little coffee for
flavor. In many good restaurant, you also must tell the waiter when to stop on
each course, for it's good form for the waiter to give you as much as you want.
It's also good form on your part to leave a little something on the serving
plate when he serves you. This practice descends from the aristocratic
tradition where the servant would bring out a large plate of fish, for example,
serve until the master said to stop, and then take the rest back to give to the
servants, in the kitchen. It would have been extremely rude for the master to
eat the whole thing. What happens to the food you leave over in the restaurant
today is still a mystery to us, but the Portuguese do not like to give up any
aristocratic traditions, and they’ll be very pleased if you will help them
maintain this illusion.
Try to adopt a Portuguese tolerant
about what is and what is not food, and be ready to experiment. You may be
forgiven if you pass up such delicacies as the Trás‑os‑Montes
"Azedos", a sausage of pig's head, trotters, stomach, offal and
blood, but do try some of the exotic regional specialties. Be heartened by the
thought that most of them come from the Portuguese countryside, where the women
carry huge loads all day on their heads, the men work from sunup to sunset in
the fields with primitive tools, and everyone looks as healthy as . . . well .
. . as healthy as a Portuguese peasant.
Restaurants that are rated in
Portugal are rated either L, 1a, 2a, or 3a, with L as De‑Luxe. These include all
the traditional eateries, with attention to decor, attentive waiters, and so
on.
Restaurants are the places to
go when you want a full, four or five course meal.
There are restaurants in
Portugal to vie with the best of most countries in the world. Many serve French
specialties, perfectly executed. Others have their own haute cuisine, such as
the world‑famous Escondidinho, in Porto. The decor can be extremely elegant. In
short, if you want to eat like a king, you can certainly do it in Portugal, and
every dollar spent will be repaid in dining pleasure.
Another type of
establishment, for a lighter meal or especially a meal of seafood, is the
Cervejaria (beer‑hall). These places are usually loud and crowded, with little
attention to decor and hurried, harried waiters. They often include a large bar
at which you can munch shellfish and down your beer or wine. They are, of
course, lese expensive than the restaurants.
The coffee shops serve
beverages of all kinds, alcoholic and otherwise, and a variety of pastries.
Some of them have seating outdoors, so you can watch the world go by as you
eat. Others have unusual decor, usually in the English Edwardian tradition, a
style that seems to have stuck in this country with its love of pomp and extravagant.
There are a few self‑service
places in Lisbon, which are not bad for light snacks and soft drinks when
you're in somewhat of a hurry. There are also snack bars which are not
Americanized, but simply serve the Portuguese equivalents of American quick
food. Smoked ham sandwiches rather than hamburgers. Beer and wine instead of
milkshakes. Also plates of spaghetti or sea food. Things like that.
Eating in your hotel in
Portugal is not such a bad idea as in some countries. It's true that you'll
rarely find the raunchier Portuguese specialties. There is some effort to
satisfy foreign tastes. But the food can often be superbly prepared and the prices
very reasonable for a four or five course meal. The choices on the fixed price
menus can be more extensive than in some of the restaurant, and since most of
the people eating in the hotels will be eating from the fixed price meals, more
attention is given to those dishes appearing there. The decor is often very
attractive in the hotel restaurants, though there is seldom any feeling of
intimacy, and the lighting is generally too bright.
One exception to all the
criticisms made about hotel restaurants is that of the Dom Carlos. Avenida
Duque de Loule, 121. This is one of the better restaurants in Lisbon, yet the prices
do not exceed six or seven dollars a meal, including a special wine.
The smaller, cheaper brother
of the hotel restaurants are those in the Pensaos. These are cheap boarding
establishments generally serving the guests sleeping there, but paying
customers are, of course, more than welcome. Usually there is very little
choice on the menu, and the cooking is very homey, perhaps with more oil than
you'd like. Prices are very reasonable and it's a chance to see how the
vacationing Portuguese are faring.
The Salão de Chá and the
Pastelaria are different versions of the coffee house, the former specializing
in tea and the sweets that go with it; the latter serving a greater and better
selection of pastries than the ordinary coffee houses.
When on the road you will
find two very good types of eating places, the Estalagems and the Pousadas. The
food at either of these categories of establishments is generally on a very
high level. Standards of cleanliness and service are formal and high. The decor
is often of antique Portuguesa, but can sometimes be very modern. Regional
specialties are generally served, and printed in red on the menu. The
estalagems are privately owned, while the pousadas are run by the government,
but they maintain similar standards. They are actually hotels, rather than
roadside restaurants, and are quite often set up in some of the more
picturesque Locations in the country.