All things Portuguese

Having been in Portugal for three months now we have gradually got used the slow pace of life here, and I must say we find it most agreeable.  The people are very friendly and nothing seems too much trouble for them.  They are very willing to assist and try to speak English when we struggle with the Portuguese and even the Police are quite amicable. 

Here are one or two things that we have noticed:-

   1)     There are large piles of salt cod (Bacalhau) both in supermarkets and fish markets but we haven’t seen anyone buying it yet?

2)     Coffee shops, or Pastelaria’s as they are called here, have a large variety of lovely small cakes, most are regional but you will find these everwhere - Pastel de Nato (egg custard), Pastel de Feijao (bean mixture) and Pastel de Armendoa (almond mixture).  Not to mention the fig cake.  No wonder I have been putting on weight!

3)     During the winter the oranges have been fantastic, easy to peel, juicy and sweet nothing like those we get at home. They are sold by the roadside and little white vans arrive at the Aires frequently.  Come to think of it we don’t see Portuguese oranges at home at all!

4)     A sign at restaurants saying ‘Prato da Dia’ (usually hand-written and pinned to the outside window) literally means 'dish of the day', but can also mean a set menu to include soup, main course, dessert and a drink.  Having been caught out twice now we must remember to ask before we go in and hope they will speak some English. Funnily enough, ½ dose actually means a half portion and not any number of other meanings Les comes up with.  

5)     Every town of some size has it’s Chinese shop selling anything and everything none perishable and somehow we have found ourselves inside quite a few of them  ...... and actually coming out with purchases! Things like a mini soldering iron, a bucket, an iPad case, star Allen keys and an outside doormat .......yes! we have been there, and found them very useful for our travelling lifestyle.

6)  We have found the Portuguese Alentejano red wine to be rich and flavoursome and at about 2€ a bottle, very cheap too.  We have tried more expensive wines but with our limited wine expertise can’t really taste much difference.  The ‘vino verde’ white wine is slightly fizzy and we hope to be partaking more of this as we go north and hopefully the weather gets hotter.

7)  Cast your mind back to supermarket shopping in the UK just 3 or 4 years ago – yes, plastic bags were given out with all shopping weren’t they? – well that’s just how it is here and we are now having trouble remembering to take our Tesco ‘bags for life’ in with us! Not sure if they have cottoned on to the recycling idea quite yet.

8)  Another thing we have noticed in supermarkets is the loud banging and chopping sounds emanating from the meat counter.  Almost all meat is butchered in front of you, you ask for a whole chicken and it will be cut up into however many pieces you want, a piece of beef will be chopped up for goulash etc. and as they are big on pork here there are all sorts of strange, (to us) pork cuts being chopped and sliced for stews – hardly any meat  is pre-packed.

However, although it seems like we are a world away from England - never fear...... there's always the good old English breakfast to be had down on the tourist beaches! The local artist has obviously been at work on this board.

Unlike France it’s quite easy to get WiFi here, lots of cafés have it and we also have a Mifi mobile modem which works out at 1€ per hour of personal internet use, so we can use it in the van on the Vodafone mobile network. We will also be able to use it in other European countries we visit but we know it’s not that cheap in France, we will see when we get there.