feel like a local

  Olive oil is omnipresent in Portuguese cooking. Most savory dishes in the country start with a refogado of onions and garlic sweated in olive oil. We toss our greens in the pan with it, we use it over boiled potatoes, grilled fish, to dress salads or on bread, as well as drizzled over a bowl of soup for…

When people imagine connecting with local culture in Lisbon or elsewhere in Portugal, they tend to picture the obvious things first. That could include learning a few words in Portuguese, eating traditional dishes, and maybe wandering into neighborhoods that feel less touristic. All of that matters, but the real connection tends to happen in other more ordinary ways as…

  Portugal’s culinary identity is full of references to Arabic cuisine. The presence of the Moors (the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb) in the Iberian Peninsula, between the 8th and the 14th centuries, influenced the way we live and eat in Portugal until today. You see this muslism influence from Northern Africa in the aesthetics…

  Bacalhau. Even though this word is Portuguese for cod the truth is that, when anyone says bacalhau here in Portugal, we are referring to salted cod, which for us is the default. The Portuguese love affair with salted cod has been going strong for over 500 years. Portuguese waters are abundant in fish, yet cod isn’t…