Exploring Portugal through food

As a daughter of Goa, I was very excited to visit Portugal. While growing up, I often heard stories of Portugal and its influence on our culture, including the cuisine. So this was my opportunity to see whether there was any truth to these stories during my week-long trip to Lisboa. Perhaps, not surprisingly, it seemed that the Goan cuisine is more influenced by the Indian cuisine, rather than the Portuguese.


A platter of tapas

A Portuguese dinner typically started with loaves of bread (pao), and olive oil. Calamari, prawn rissois, samosas, and spanish tapas were offered as appetizers. The calamari were deep fried with a blend of spices, just like the Goan way. However, the calamari were cut into long wedges instead of cylindrical rings and not served with any sauce. The rissois were bland but still edible. While the crust resembled a Goan rissois, the bland mixture of cheese and whole shrimp was not what I would call mouth-watering. Among all the appetizers I tried, a platter of tapas served during a Fado was my favorite. The platter came with mini-portions of cheese, tuna and pork pate, olives, crackers, and bread. Mostly, a glass of Porto, helped compensate for the mediocre appetizers.

Grilled Fish

For the main course, I tried several types of grilled, or baked fish. The fish, although not particularly spicy, was very good. The option of having it with olive oil mixed with garlic and onion also helped to mitigate the blandness of the fish. The main courses were typically served with sides of veggies, mostly mashed potatoes or whole boiled potatoes and a salad. On another occasion, I had chicken with a slightly sweet brown sauce, served with an interesting combination of potato wedges and pineapple slices.

Chicken Curry

Finally, the Indian cuisine in Portugal was mediocre. Not sure whether I picked the right restaurants in the tourist hubs of Cascais, Sintra and downtown Lisboa. The Indian restaurants also served Italian food, perhaps to widen their customer base. I was somewhat disappointed by the fact that all restaurants served butter chicken but none served Chicken Xacuti despite Portugal's historical connection to Goa. Of the several entrees I tried, there was little variation in taste: most were cooked with a heavy tomato base and were very creamy.

Every meal ended with a dessert - mostly custard tarts. While not very sweet, these were very good.

Custard Tart with Espresso