Food of Portugal

Additional Details

Description: It is amazing but true that there remains one country in Western Europe with a cuisine Americans know almost nothing about. This book is literally a first -- the only major cookbook in English ever published on the food of Portugal. 

The cooking proves to be not only fascinating and unusual but also useful and practical. Since Portuguese culinary traditions are based on provincial home cooking, the ingredients are readily available, the methods forthright. Contrary to popular belief, Portuguese cooking is not at all like that of Spain; rather, it is a lusty, sometimes spicy cooking that changes dramatically from region to region. If it has one constant characteristic, it is the element of surprise -- a dish that combines clams and sausages; "dry soups" made with the wonderful Portuguese breads; a touch of curry where one would least expect it; egg, almond, and fig sweets of Moorish ancestry. 

And this is more than a cookbook by far. Throughout there are Jean Anderson's notes on her travels in Portugal, on the origins of the recipes and the lore of the country. Her chapter "The Language of Portuguese Food, Drink and Dining" is a long and intriguing bilingual glossary of food, cooking, and restaurant terms that orients the traveler to Portugal as well as the cook at home. Here you learn in detail about Portugal's specialties -- the cheeses, seafoods, hams and sausages, bacalhau, acordas and migas, sweets, coffees, spices, olive oils -- and in another chapter, about her wines. 

To read this book will almost make you feel you have been to Portugal and will certainly make you want to go there. But first you must cook from it. The Food of Portugal is truly a new discovery. 

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Condition: Good condition. Jacket has minor wear.