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| Bife à portuguesa – The classic beefsteak dish served with ham and a fried egg. Good solid food! |
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| Often more likely to appear on the menu than lamb, kid is prepared in a range of recipes including the Algarve speciality of “cabrito estufado” – braised with onions, tomatoes and herbs – and roast kid. |
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| Possibly Portugal’s signature dish this tasty soup can be found in both fancy restaurants and humble family kitchens. Made with finely shredded “couve portuguesa”, better known as curly kale, this thick and filling soup also contains plenty of potato, garlic and “chouriço” sausage. |
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| Seen by many as a remedy to all ills, this chicken and rice broth makes a good start to any meal. |
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| Not everyone’s cup of tea perhaps but for connoisseurs a rare treat. Eaten between the months of May and July the snails are usually boiled and then flavoured with garlic and oregano. The best snails, it is said, are those picked from fennel plants. Look for a sign reading “Há caracois”, meaning snails are on the menu. |
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| The “serra” or upland parts of the Algarve are renowned for their fine spicy sausages (“chouriço”) and smoked hams “presunto” and places like Monchique and Querença even have annual festivals to prove this. |
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| Another classic but equally heavy dish, which is best eaten at lunchtime (to give you time to digest it!). A family favourite this dish contains a variety of meats, sausages, vegetables, rice, and beans, all cooked in a pressure cooker. A “cozido à algarvia” resembles its Portuguese cousin with one variation - sweet potatoes. |
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| A signature side dish for the region, the eggs are poached on top of the peas in the final stages of cooking. |
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| Served on a dangerous looking skewer this extravagant mixed meat kebab (beef, pork and lamb) is brought to your table where it precariously sways, threatening to impale more than just succulent meat! |
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| This traditional heavy stew is a popular Brazilian dish but has its origins in northern Portugal. Made primarily of dried beans and smoked meats, the dish often contains ingredients not suitable for a delicate palate - black pudding, pig’s ears, trotters, and snout! But even if you have to look the other way while you eat it “feijoada” has a rightful place on any visitor’s “must-eats”. Interestingly the Algarve has moulded this dish to it own needs and instead of pork there is also a variety of shellfish variations (whelks, octopus, or cuttle fish). |
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| The Algarve’s tribute to former Portuguese colony Mozambique chicken piri-piri is a spiced-up version of barbecued chicken. Prior to cooking the chicken is basted in a highly addictive spicy chilli oil, left to marinate, and then charcoal grilled to perfection |
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| This chicken dish stands out for a good reason – one of its main ingredients is chicken blood! Normally served with rice the Algarve version comes with potatoes. Something for an inquiring mind perhaps. |
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| Served primarily in the summer months in the Algarve and to the north in the Alentejo, this cold soup of tomatoes, cucumber, green pepper, onions and plenty of garlic differs from the better-known Spanish version in that half of the vegetables are left chopped and not pureed, giving the soup an a crunchier texture. |
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| For an authentic experience of traditional cooking at its best a spit-roasted suckling pig takes a lot of beating. |
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| Not quite up to Spanish “tapas” standards but Portuguese cafés and bars do offer their own variety of small portion snacks. Alongside the common “rissóis” (meat or fish rissoles), “bifanas” (pork steak sandwich), “pregos” (steak sandwich), “pastéis de bacalhau”(codfish fritters), and “empadas” (meat pasties), local varieties include “sandes de moreia frita” (fried eel sandwich), “salada de polvo” (octopus salad), snails and of course olives. |
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| The “serra” or upland parts of the Algarve are renowned for their smoked hams (“presunto”) and fine spicy sausages (“chouriço”), and places like Monchique and Querença even have annual festivals to prove this. |
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| Portugal produces some excellent and quite distinctive cheeses. Renowned for its ewe’s milk cheese, its goat’s cheese (including the “Queijo de Cabra do Algarve”), and cheeses made from a mixture of the two milks, like “Queijo Rabaçal”, the country can be equally proud of its cow’s milk cheeses. Especially those produced in the Azores, which bare a striking resemblance to their Dutch cousins, due in fact to emigrants from Flanders who colonised the islands in the 14th and 15th century |
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| The scrubland and forests of the Algarve’s hinterland are a great source for local hunters providing restaurants and households with the prime ingredients for some of the region’s most memorable dishes. Depending on availability and the hunting season you can enjoy dishes featuring partridge, pigeons, rabbit, hare, and wild boar. |
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