On the Menu

Due to its many complexities, the Portuguese don’t really expect visitors to speak their language very well but are very engaging and fully appreciative when someone tries.

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Serra da Estrela Cheese

The undisputed queen of Portugal’s many first-rate cheeses is queijo da serra (serra cheese), made from the milk of ewes leisurely grazing in elevated pastures full of wild vegetation throughout the Estrela mountain region of central Portugal.

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Source of Life

Portugal is a land that has a very generous supply of different types of spring and mineral water – from north to south and east to west – each blessed with its own unique characteristics.

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The Taste of Summer

Like chestnuts being roasted in the streets of Portugal during winter, the sight of sardines sizzling on a charcoal grill throughout the hot summer months is always a feast for visitors’ eyes.

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The Dão Wine Region

Encircled by imposing mountains, the enchanting Dão wine-making region is a land of sprawling pine and eucalyptus forests stretched right across the northern parts of central Portugal between Aveiro on the Atlantic coast and Guarda near the Spanish border.

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The Wine Town of Azeitão

Nestling among vineyards and olive and cork trees, Azeitão is a pretty little town situated on the old road between Lisbon and the port city of Setúbal at the foot of the Arrábida mountains just 40 km south of the Portuguese capital.

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Bar Excellence

One of the most inspired drinking establishments in the heart of the Portuguese capital is undoubtedly Pavilhão Chinês, whose previous incarnations include a theatre and grocery store.

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A Fish for All Occasions

The versatility of the dried salted cod known as bacalhau has long-established it as the Portuguese national dish, with options such as bacalhau assado no forno (cod roasted in the oven) and bacalhau à bras (cod fried with egg, potatoes and onions) always popular choices … Read more

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Bread of Heaven

There’s a feeling in some parts of Portugal that bread is sacred – ‘pão é sagrado’, they say – and that it sustains life like the wafer taken at Communion.

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Cottage on Flores

This pretty stone cottage with its lovely garden is in fact a restaurant located in the idyllic seaside hamlet of Fajãzinha on the west coast of Flores Island in the Azores, right on the western edge of Europe.

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Port’s Past and Present

It seems that Portugal’s much-celebrated port wine was invented by chance. A shortage of French claret at the end of the 17th-century had wealthy wine connoisseurs searching for suitable alternatives.

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In the Pink

The year 1942 was a very turbulent one but it did spawn one of the world’s most iconic and popular table wines.

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Spirit of the Algarve

Distilled from the fruit of the arbutus tree (also known as the strawberry tree) which grows abundantly in the Monchique and Caldeirão mountains, aguardente de medronho – or simply medronho – is the firewater of choice for many people living in … Read more

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Liquid Gold

The Phoenicians first brought olive trees across the Mediterranean to Portugal and the Romans were successful in cultivating the groves and pressing the olives to attain the precious oil.

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