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Portuguese Food and Cuisine
By Briony Stephenson


Personalised Baby Gifts
A beautiful bonnie baby is a sight for sore eyes and when new babies are brought into the world the family and friends of the happy couple will want to shower it with glorious gifts. There are many thoughtful presents that can be given to the baby and a fine collection of Personalised Baby Gifts are available for little boys and girls throughout the land. Within this charming collection are items like a personalised teddy basket that looks utterly delightful and contains many cracking treats. The pretty little white wicker basket is lined with a pastel floral print and the customer can order blue or pink check trim depending on if it`s for a baby boy or girl. Inside this exquisite basket is a white cotton bib that has gingham appliqué teddies in pink or blue. On its own it would make a fantastic present for a new baby but when you consider that it can be embroidered witth the baby`s name and date of birth, it transforms into one of the unique Personalised Baby Gifts. Every new baby needs to have their own teddy and one is carefully placed into the basket as well. This would make a comprehensive present as it was but also included are bootees, a soft brush and comb set and a silver plated first tooth box. Babies will be glad they have entered the World if they presented with Personalised Baby Gifts such as this.

Badges
The basics of pin Badges stem back over numerous years but the fact remains that Badges are still as popular today as they have always been. When used as promotional pieces Badges can be highly effective and anyone that is considering putting a promotional campaign together might like to use Badges as a means of advertising. How many times have you seen politicians on the ?party` bus using Badges as means of promoting their party? You`ll see pensioners and kids, adults and animals wearing all types of the Badges in very prominent positions. The reason why badges are still popular as promotional pieces is that these little advertising aids are fun. If you want to promote your message in a positive manner then badges can be the ideal solutions. Bands that need the right types of advertising aids can use a variety of badges to good effect. Because they are relatively inexpensive to have printed, a cool looking badge can be given away to help build a fan base. In fact, if you look at the prices of batches of badges you`ll find that these inexpensive items can be printed for less than you would imagine. If you have specific artwork in mind you`ll be able to download it to specialist badge making companies and they`ll be able to make you a brilliant batch of bold badges. The basics of pin badges have remained the same for many years and they are still as popular today as they always have been.


Briony Stephenson introduces the hidden delights of Portuguese cuisine.

Despite the lasting influence it has had on food in such far-away places as Macau and Goa, Portuguese cuisine is hugely underrepresented outside Portugal. Often confused with Spanish cooking, it is, in fact, quite distinct. At its best, Portuguese food is simple ingredients impeccably prepared. Based on regional produce, emphasising fish, meat, olive oil, tomato, and spices, it features hearty soups, homemade bread and cheeses, as well as unexpected combinations of meat and shellfish.

For a relatively small nation, Portugal has surprising gastronomic variety. The Estremadura region, which includes Lisbon, is famous for its seafood - the fish market at Cascais, just outside the capital, is one of the largest in the country - while the production of sausages and cheese elsewhere adds another dimension to the national cuisine. The Algarve, the last region of Portugal to achieve independence from the Moors, and situated on North Africa`s doorstep, contributes a centuries-old tradition of almond and fig sweets.

Traditional Portuguese food is typified by fish.Indeed, the Portuguese have a long history of absorbing culinary traditions from other peoples. The age of discovery was propelled by the desire for exotic spices and ever since Vasco da Gama discovered the sea route to India at the turn of the sixteenth century, they have proved enormously popular. Peri-peri, a Brazilian spice transplanted to the former African colonies is used to flavour chicken and shrimp. Curry spices from Goa are common seasonings. These spices are typically used very sparingly, adding subtle flavour and depth to dishes. It is these influences that have helped make Portuguese food so markedly different from that of other Mediterranean countries and in Lisbon today there are scores of restaurants specialising in the cuisines of the old empire as well as Brazilian-style juice bars, offering drinks and ice-cream made from exotic fruits.

If there is one thing that typifies traditional Portuguese food, however, it is fish. From the common anchovy to swordfish, sole, sea bream, bass and salmon, markets and menus reveal the full extent of Portugal`s love affair with seafood. In Portugal, even a street-bought fish burger is filled with flavour. Bacalhau, salted cod, is the Portuguese fish and said to be the basis for some 365 recipes, one for each day of the year. Two dishes are particularly notable. Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá, essentially a casserole of cod, potatoes and onion, is an Oporto speciality and considered perhaps Portugal`s greatest bacalhau recipe. From Estremadura comes bacalhau á bràs, scrambled eggs with salted cod, potatoes and onions.

Shellfish, including clams (amêijoas) and mussels (mexilhões) are also of a high quality. Crab and squid are often stuffed, and lulas recheadas à lisbonense (stuffed squid Lisbon-style) is a great example of Portuguese seafood. Visitors to Lisbon can find traditional shops by the docks selling snails (caracóis).

There are plenty of options for the meat-lover too. Espetada, grilled skewers of beef with garlic, is popular, as is suckling pig (leitão). Cozido à portuguesa, a one-dish meal of beef, pork, sausage and vegetables, reflects the resourcefulness of traditional cooking. A rather more unusual combination is the pork and clams of porco à alentejana (pork Alentejo-style). Pork is also cooked with mussels na cataplana, with the wok-like cataplana sealing in the flavours. Meanwhile, the city of Oporto boasts tripa à moda do Porto (Oporto-style tripe), supposedly a legacy from the days of Prince Henry the Navigator, when the city was left with nothing but tripe after providing the Infante`s ships with food. To this day Oporto natives are known as tripeiros, or tripe-eaters.

Broiled chicken (frango grelhado), seasoned with peri-peri, garlic, and/or olive oil, is one of the few things that has made its mark outside Portugal, where it can be found in cities with a large Portuguese population. The highly aromatic peri-peri chicken is often served in specialist restaurants.

Portuguese food: a hidden treasure.Soups constitute an integral part of traditional cooking, with all manner of vegetables, fish and meat used to create a variety of soups, stews and chowders. Caldo verde (literally green broth), made from a soup of kale-like cabbage thickened with potato and containing a slice of salpicão or chouriço sausage, originated from the northern province of Minho but is now considered a national dish. Along with canja de galinha (chicken broth), caldo verde is a filling, comforting and ubiquitous favourite. For the more adventurous, caldeirada de lulas à madeirense (squid stew Madeira-style) features a characteristically Portuguese combination of seafood, curry and ginger. Another typical dish is the açorda where vegetables or shellfish are added to thick rustic bread to create a `dry` soup.

Those with a sweet tooth may be interested to learn that one of Portugal`s best-kept culinary secrets is its vast and distinctive range of desserts, cakes and pastries. A staple of restaurant menus is chocolate mousse - richer, denser and smoother than foreign versions, while other favourites include arroz doce, a lemon and cinnamon-flavoured rice pudding. The most famous sweets, however, are the rich egg-yolk and sugar-based cakes, influenced by Moorish cooking and perfected by Guimerães nuns in the sixteenth century. For a uniquely Portuguese experience, the visitor should head for a pasteleria (or confeitaria), where the many varieties of cakes and other confections, as well as savoury delicacies like bolinhas de bacalhau, cod balls, are served. The Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, where the legendary pastéis de nata, delicious custard-filled tarts, are baked, is a Lisbon highlight. Nearby Sintra has its own traditional pastry, queijadas de Sintra (a type of cheese tart), which street vendors sell in packs of six.

The Portuguese attitude to food is simple and imaginative, traditional and inventive. Above all, enjoying good food and the social aspects of eating out is an esteemed part of everyday life. From informal cafes to world-class restaurants, all budgets and occasions are catered for. Tiny cafes and tascas, often no more than holes in the wall, abound. The opportunity to sample this largely unknown cuisine in all its variety is one of the real rewards of visiting Portugal.

(c) http://www.portugalvisitor.com

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