The city of Porto and the surrounding Douro Valley is slowly transforming into Portugal's new culinary capital
The food of Portugal is best described as hearty and comforting, with a focus on rich, bold flavours and local and seasonal ingredients. Mediterranean influences abound, in the form of seafood like octopus and prawns, olive oil, garlic, and spices like saffron, cinnamon, chilli and black pepper. You’ll also find plenty of preserved foods, from salt cod and tinned sardines to chourico, a type of pork sausage that’s similar to the Spanish chorizo.
Over the last several years, top Portuguese chefs have challenged themselves to turning these traditional and well-loved ingredients into stylishly modern dishes that taste as refined as they look, and yet are still distinctly Portuguese. They must be doing something right—at the end of 2016, Portugal bagged nine new Michelin stars in a total of 23.
But the country’s dining scene extends well beyond the capital, Lisbon. Foodies are now flocking to other parts of the country for exceptional dining experiences, particularly the wine producing region of Douro Valley and the city of Porto.
PORTUGAL'S WINE COUNTRY
The Douro Valley in northern Portugal is beautiful all year around. Even in winter, the historic wine producing region—24,000 hectares of it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001— looks scenic, with the terraced grape vines taking on a mysteriously dark hue and transforming the lush green valley. If you’re lucky, you might even chance upon some snow. The end of the year is also when the Douro Valley’s most full-bodied wines taste deeper and richer, making them the perfect companions to the season’s hearty and intensely flavoured dishes.
Bu hikaye WINE&DINE dergisinin November 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye WINE&DINE dergisinin November 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
New Blood
The next-generation is breathing new life into the forgotten art of spice-mixing, peppering the traditional trade with renewed ideas and fresh perspectives.
Sharing Is Caring
Compared to its flagship at Serene Centre, Fat Belly Social at Boon Tat Street is a classier and bolder affair, in more than one sense.
Nutmeg's Role In Singapore's History
From tales of it being used to ward off the plague in mid-1300s Europe to one of the ingredients in dessert, we have all known, tasted, or at least heard of nutmeg. But not many know of the spice’s role in Singapore’s history.
New And Improved
The ever-profound chef-owner Kenjiro ‘Hatch’ Hashida finds more room, three to be exact, to express a Ha Ri philosophy at Hashida Singapore’s new location at Amoy Street.
Pairing Spice-Driven Cuisines With Wine
Pairing spice-driven cuisines with wine has long been a challenge but with a little imagination, it doesn’t have to be.
Let Land Grow Wild
Niew Tai-Ran has worn many hats: aeronautical engineering major, investment banker, avid surfer, and, for the last 14 years, winemaker. Discover how this Malaysia-born, Singapore-native is championing the “do-nothing farming” philosophy at his vineyard in Oregon.
The South Asian Misnomer
Incredibly diverse and varied than most know, Indian food is far more intriguing than butter chicken or thosai. Here is a crash course on the extensive cuisine from region to region, recognisable for the seemingly infinite ways of using spices.
Keepers Of The Spice Trade
From its glory days along trade routes to pantry staples all over the world, spices have become so commonplace that we’ve taken them for granted. For these three trailblazers, however, spice is their livelihood and motivation: Langit Collective working with indigenous rural farming communities in Malaysia; IDH’s Sustainable Spice Initiative; and chef Nak’s one-woman mission to share forgotten Khmer cuisine.
Sugar, Spice And Everything Nice
Like food, spices bring vibrancy and variety to alcoholic beverages. Surfacing in unexpected ways on the palate, find everything from cumin to tamarind, cloves to cardamom enriching these drinks.
Building Blocks From The Archipelago
For the smorgasbord of dishes found in Indonesian cuisine, it is a little known secret that the modest bumbu, in all its variants, is the bedrock of such flavourful fare.
