For The Love Of Port

[deleted by user - now irrelevant post - how do we delete our posts is another question]

Love kale soup--and kale is a great, healthy vegetable. Lots of Portuguese on Cape Cad and many places have it there but most use Linguica, not Chorico (not sure if the same thing or different). We make it at home, too.

I always thought that this was odd, the article says: "Today, naturally, Portuguese cuisine varies from region to region, but fresh fish and shellfish are found on virtually every menu. The national dish is 'bacalhau,' dried, salted cod."

My favorite restaurant in the area where my wife is from is at a beach called Evaristo - the restaurant has no menus. When you go inside, fish caught that day are on ice and you pick the one you want to eat. And in the Algarve they tend to use little-to-no sauces, so you are tasting the fish with just a little salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon and maybe one or two other spices - no ingredient is overused.

John M. The other article Roy posted on the 3 grandmothers contained links to a few other articles written by the same person. There was one on chourico. I have read before, and it was also in this article, that there is little to no difference between chourico and linguica. This article said linguica is skinnier, but no other real difference. I have no idea, but I think a lot of people use them interchangeably. The debate rages on...

As to the caldo verde, in Newark, you can buy the kale already shredded. My wife mixes in some chicken stock to the recipe for some extra flavor. But I don't think there are too many versions of this soup that deviate too much from the one given in this article. The bread they are talking about in this article ("...some people also serve it with corn or rye bread, especially in the North") is probably "broa" - a thick cornbread (but not what we think of as "cornbread"). Again, you can find this pretty easily at Seabra's or some of the corner bodegas in Newark. (John M., there is also Seabra's in Union - right near "5 corners" and another at the Roselle-Linden border, just off Wood Ave, at the intersection with Raritan.)

mmmm.... I'm getting hungry now.