The Portuguese Influence on culinary and cuisine
Because Columbus accidentally “found” the Americas while searching for a westward route to Asia, he gets the credit for sparking the Age of Discovery on behalf of Spain. Often overlooked today is the fact that Portugal was in the exploration game first, moving down and around the African coast in pursuit of gold, black pepper […]
The 18th century was the “golden age” for Madeira. The wine’s popularity extended from the American colonies and Brazil in the New World to Great Britain, Russia, and Northern Africa. The American colonies, in particular, were enthusiastic customers, consuming as much as a quarter of all wine produced on the island each year. Madeira was […]
Portugal formerly had a large empire and the cuisine has been influenced in both directions. A Portuguese influence is strongly evident in Brazilian cuisine, which features its own versions of Portuguese dishes such as feijoada and caldeirada (fish stew). Other Portuguese influences can be tasted in the Indian province of Goa, where Goan cuisine dishes […]
You’ve been eating and drinking them all your life without knowing the actual origins! We bet you never knew these Indian foods are not Indian at all but are a gift of foreign influences. 1. Samosa That delicious samosa you always munch on as a tea-time snack or when sudden hunger-pangs hit is not […]
The Portuguese established a colony in India at the beginning of the 16th century. Portuguese India was ruled first from Cochin, and then Goa. Over the next four centuries, Portuguese control spread to various parts of India, mostly along the west coast of the country, but also in the northeast in Bengal. During this time, the Portuguese […]
The Portuguese conquests of the 15th and 16th centuries are a remarkable chapter in the history of empire. Throughout the 16th century the Portuguese retained a dominant position in the maritime trade of the Indian Ocean and an important share of the trade east of the Strait of Malacca. At the heart of this mercantile […]
In 1492, when Christopher Columbus set off from Spain to find a westward route to Asia, he was looking to secure Europe’s kitchen, not change it. Europeans had used black pepper as a medicinal aid and to spice up their cooking since Greek and Roman times. The ingredient, imported from the Spice Islands of Asia, […]
Despite being relatively restricted to an Atlantic sustenance, Portuguese cuisine has many Mediterranean influences. The influence of Portugal’s former colonial possessionsis also notable, especially in the wide variety of spices used. These spices include piri piri (small, fiery chilli peppers) and black pepper, as well as cinnamon, vanilla and saffron. Olive oil is one of the […]
Castella has been a popular cake in Japan for a long time but it seems to be different from traditional Wagashi. It looks like a Western sponge cake, made of eggs, flour, sugar and starch syrup. In addition, it is more sweet than ordinary Wagashi. Castella is thought to have been brought by Portuguese merchants […]