Experiencing Portugal - Portuguese Cuisine [Financial Times]
Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 5:09 am
[21-10-2004] [ Bambi Harper, Financial Times (on-line) ] Experiencing Portugal
CENTURIES of cross-cultural exchanges have given Portuguese cuisine a broad spectrum of tastes and textures. What is offered at the Jeepney Coffee Shop of the InterCon Hotel is a collection of regional cuisines, cooking styles and mentalities rather than a singular blend.
Imagine something as earthy and rustic as Pig's Ears with Green Sauce! A group of us, gathered at the Jeepney Bar for lunch courtesy of Portuguese Ambassador Joao da Silva and his gracious wife, Ulrike, immediately thought Sisig!
We savored a good sampling of the Portuguese cuisine's manifold flavors under the guidance of guest chef Luis Miguel Marques Caseiro, who worked for a couple of years in Macao so he was not a stranger to the Orient.
The meal started with some marvelous appetizers like Cod Salad with vinaigrette and a meat pie from northern Portugal. I had blood sausages (morcilla to us) with a slice of pineapple but the gentleman to my right had the roast Portuguese sausage with fried rice because this is, after all, how we eat our longaniza.
365 ways with 'bacalao'
Especially familiar to Filipinos is the dried cod or bacalao (bacalhau in Portuguese) that we associate with Good Friday. But we were told the Portuguese had over 365 recipes for bacalhau, more than one for each day of the year!
Imagine, the Portuguese were fishing for cod in Newfoundland's Grand Banks more than 500 years ago.
The Jeepney Coffee Shop buffet offers, among others, chef Caseiro's Codfish Pie, Cod Salad with chickpeas, Codfish with Corn Bread, Codfish "Narcisa" style, and Cod "Bras" style.
Seafood medley
You haven't lived if you haven't tried the Cataplana, a dish that traces its origins to the early 8th to mid-13th century. Invented by the Arabs who occupied Portugal for nearly 500 years, the dish is a medley of sea food-fish, shellfish, clams and sometimes chicken depending on what is available or the whim of the cook.
The dish derives its name from the cataplana, a hinged metal pan-a kind of pressure cooker-shaped like a clam shell. The pan is set on high fire and, thus, the ingredients are steamed to succulent goodness.
One dish that caught our eye and taste buds was the vegetable soup with stone, which not only has a curious name but an even more curious history. It seems a priest had nothing to eat and went around with a stone knocking on people's doors saying, "All I've got is a stone to eat."
One kind soul gave him cabbage and another gave him a piece of ham, another potatoes. When he finished, he had enough ingredients for a fine and hearty winter soup. So, when you go to the coffee shop, make sure to order the soup with stone and any of the 20 desserts offered.
Mea culpa
I had five different puddings that day and the leche flan, too. Who could resist a flan of three egg yolks? (Our tocino del cielo has one, according to Claude Tayag who should know) The flavor, smooth texture and taste challenged my good intentions and I forgot about counting calories.
Savoring the desserts, you can taste the almonds, the oranges, the lemons and cinnamon, a reminder that globalization started a long time ago when Moluccas and Portugal traded with each other.
To eat is to absorb the essence of a place, culture and way of life all condensed in a special sensory experience. You can do just that with the Portuguese food fest at the InterCon's Jeepney Coffee Shop until Oct. 22.