Interesting Portuguese Food

[MiguelCardoso]

Seja muito bem-vindo, meu caro Doutor Steingarten!

I'm a Portuguese writer who recently started writing a weekly food column for the Diário de Notícias here in Lisbon and, as a great admirer of your writing and attitude (your two latest books were wolfed down in two greedy, too-short sittings, something that only happened previously with Elizabeth David), I was wondering what you found interesting about Portuguese cooking and indigenous ingredients. You so often surprise me (for instance, I have never been able to enjoy a home-made pizza after I read about your heroic search for a hot-enough oven), I wouldn't put it past you to mention something I'd never heard of, or some take on a well-known dish or ingredient which had never occurred to us local food writers. So - what would you write about this week if you were here instead of me? Many thanks and all the very best to you, kind sir!

[tryska]

my roommate is portuguese....and i was just thumbing through a portuguese cookbook oh hers yesterday.

i think the foods i found most interesting are the dry soups and the egg desserts. It seems a common theme dessert-wise.

[Jeffrey Steingarten]

My books, or at least the first one, have been translated into Portuguese by a Brazilian publisher. It's possible that your opinion of me is due to a translation that is better than the original.

And the Portuguese-language editions may convey the mis-impression that I know something about Portuguese food. The truth is that I know nothing, absolutely nothing, about Portuguese food. It is one of the many gaping holes in my culinary self-education. Many people have encouraged me to correct this--and told me how wonderful the food is, though they disagree on whether it's better in the southeast, close to the Spanish border, or way in the north, where the seafood may be the best in the world. After I've taken care of my current list of gaping holes, I hope I'll be off to Portugal.

[Jeffrey Steingarten]

P.S. I neglected to thank you for your extravagant praise and expectations. And to wish you luck with your new website, which I may never be able to read.