Everything we ate during the week we spent in Lisbon and Porto. I liked the food better in Porto. My favorites were definitely the octopus and the squid, and it was a fraction of the price of what you would get in the States!
1. Pastel de Nata
Portuguese egg tart.
2. Bacalhau
Dried and salted codfish. This is the national dish of Portugal. There are various ways to cook it but popular methods include stews, braised, in fish cakes, and in salads. You’ll see bacalhau à brás on menus, which is shreds of salt cod, onions, and fried potatoes, bound together with eggs.
3. Sardines Assadas
Grilled sardines. These are popular in Portugal because they thrive in Portugal’s salty/oxygen-rich waters.
4. Octopus
The most popular way this is eaten seems to be grilled with some olive oil and lemon, and served with potatoes. Keeping it simple is really the best route. It’s some of the best octopus I have eaten because it’s so tender.
5. Percebes
Goose barnacles. These are expensive and considered a delicacy because in order to harvest them, fishermen work in dangerous conditions, navigating through caves and rocky waters in order to get them. These are traditionally just boiled in seawater and even then it was delicious. It really didn’t need anything on it. It tastes like the ocean.
6. Canilha (spiny dye murex snail)
These are served steamed and remind me of a mini version of conch.
7. Seafood in general
Because it’s surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, it’s no wonder that the seafood is so fresh, delicious, and inexpensive. We probably ate seafood for almost every meal. We had oysters, mussels, sea urchin, scallops, and the best squid (from Lisboa Tu & Eu) I’ve ever eaten in my life – it would just melt in your mouth.
8. Arroz de pato
Duck rice. Served with chorizo, this was like a Portuguese version of paella.
9. Bifanas
Roasted pork sandwich.
10. Cachorrinhos
Portuguese hot dogs. Pork sausage and cheese and nestled in crusty bread, then cut up into bite-sized pieces.
11. Francesinha
Sandwich made with steak, Portuguese sausage, or ham, topped with cheese, sometimes a fried egg, and a boiling tomato and beer sauce ladled on top, typically served with french fries. I didn’t care for this because it just made the whole sandwich soggy. It’s a very heavy meal. I would have preferred the sauce on the side as a dipping sauce. They say this sandwich is the cure to hangovers.
12. Prego
Garlic steak served on a crusty Portuguese roll.
13. Peri peri chicken
Chicken marinated with a piri piri sauce, and then roasted. Piri piri peppers are originally from South Africa. Angola and Mozambique were Portuguese colonies, so the peppers were imported to Portugal. The dish has a bit of a kick to it but if you want a little extra, it’s usually served with piri piri oil on the side.
14. Leitões
Roasted suckling pig. The skin is crispy and the meat is soft and tender.
15. Caldo Verde
Soup with shredded kale or collard greens, potatoes, onion, garlic, and linguica (Portuguese sausage).
16. Feijoada
Black bean stew, usually served with rice.
17. Croquettes
There are many variations but the more popular one is beef with potatoes.
18. Jamón Ibérico
Cured pork leg from Black Iberian pigs. This is also popular in Spain.
19. Cheese
I noticed a lot of the cheese is made from sheep’s milk. Manchego (even though it’s from Spain) was a prominent one featured on menus.
20. Travesseiro
From Sintra, this is a puff pastry filled with a cream made with almonds and egg yolks, then dusted with sugar. Casa Piriquita is known for these.
21. Confeitaria
This translates to a confectionary store but is really more like a bakery. They bake and serve all kinds of sweets, pastries, bread, and even sandwiches.
22. Ginjinha
Liqueur made by infusing Ginja berries (Morello cherries) in alcohol and sugar. It’s served as a shot but is meant to be sipped slowly.
23. Port Wine
A sweet, red dessert wine produce in the Douro Valley region of Northern Portugal.
24. Vinho Verde
This translates to ‘green wine’ but really means ‘young wine’ because the Portuguese grapes that are used are not aged. The result is a fruity, high acidity, low alcohol wine.
25. Conserveiras
Canned and preserved fish. Sardines are the most popular but you’ll find things like octopus, and squid as well. Prices vary depending on the brand but you can find them at the local supermarket for as cheap as €2. This is a good article about the history and which ones to buy.
26. Belcanto
This is a two Michelin-starred restaurant by José Avillez. We wanted to dine at a Michelin-rated restaurant because we figured it would be much cheaper than going to one in NYC. It was a cool (but long) experience, lasting almost three hours with some very interesting dishes. As a nod to the chef, they gave us a shirt sleeve to use as a napkin because they said as a kid, he used to use his sleeve to wipe his mouth after a meal, which I thought was pretty cute.
27. McDonald’s
The only items that really stood out were fish sticks, and the fact that they served pastel de natas. However, if you visit Porto, you should definitely check out the McDonald’s there on Praça da Liberdade. Even if you’re not a fan of the food, the building itself is worth visiting. It’s a historic building from the 30s and is the fanciest McDonald’s I’ve ever seen, complete with chandeliers.
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