While many dishes stood out as extraordinary, there are also many typical examples of the Portuguese cuisine. Overall, the fair tends to be on simple dishes that highlight the natural taste of the food. There are few sauces, instead fish or meat is presented either baked or grilled with an accompaniment of potatoes with vegetables or rice with french fries. Typically, and always at small restaurants, the side dishes are chosen by the house without your input.
As the two above photos imply, meat tends to always have rice and fries, fish the potatoes and veggies. Don't ask me why. It could be a conclusion they reached as a group prior to our arrival, or just an expectation. Also, pork (and beef to a lesser extent) and fish dominate the food landscape. Meat, as you can see, is generally in smaller strips and was not served in stake cuts. Fish were sometimes filleted, but often had the head, eyes, skin, bones, etc. You quickly learn the mastery of getting the meat out or go hungry.
Salads as we know them are rare. They may or may not even have any lettuce in them. But any vegetables are fresh and tasty.
Appetizers appear at every table without provocation. Always there is bread, butter, cheese and olives; frequently there is also some kind of meat and fish as well.
The approach is very different, instead of leaving bread on the table gratis, every item is priced a la cart. Asking for them to be removed is likely to be the only surefire way of not being charged for any of them, but nominally its a "if you touch it you've bought it" situation. At better places, the selection doesn't appear until you sit at the table. But we frequently found ourselves asking how long they had been waiting for a taker.
Depending on the size of the establishment and who they cater to, some places do not have a set menu. One restaurant ate at managed the ordering process as such: "do you want meat or fish?" And then they simply tell you which meat and fish dishes are being served that night. Slightly larger places have a chalkboard.
Stew: a typical menu item are stews. Besides the migas style, fish and pork are a central theme to most stews. They are often not as heavy as one might expect, especially with seafood, the sauces tend to be a bit light focusing on seasonings and flavor.
Tuna: not being much of a fan of canned tuna, this was a surprising delight. Given our picnic lunches this was a mainstay of al fresco dinning. Packed in oil, it was bursting with flavor. It was well complemented with fresh tomato, cheese and bread.
Sausage: due to the historical prevalence of Jews in Portugal a kosher version of sausages have developed. The version shown here is wrapped in a leaf and had a similar texture to pate. It was comparable to black sausage, very fatty but amazing.
Fava Beans: Silence of The Lamb jokes aside, this is a very popular bean dish. Flavored with ham a, the beans tender, moist flavorful.
