Tag: traditional food

xarém

corn flour is used in the north of portugal to make “broa”, a heavy kind of bread that often accompanies countryside meals… but in the south, this bread is nowhere to be found. instead, they grind the corn coarsely to make xarém, a sort of soupy concoction resembling very watery polenta. corn being corn, it tastes mostly to the flavorings one adds to it, and so it’s incredibly versatile.

you can eat it with mussels and bacon, as is traditional in olhão:

or with octopus, as in this cooking demonstration in tavira:

the corn meal was cooked in the octopus’ cooking water, and turned an unappealing brown, but was actually way tastier than its yellow alternative. either way, it is super heavy as a meal, and best enjoyed in winter. i approve!

Post author By ana
Post date December 21, 2018
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foooood in canada

s’mores!

how many times have we seen people doing s’mores in movies, with sticks around a campfire? so naturally, this was on the list of things we wanted to try in toronto. :D

we got helpful tips from a friend’s teenager granddaughter on the proper way to do them, gathered the ingredients and off we went. the first step (if you don’t have a campfire nearby), is just to lay everything out in artistic piles, and then pop your creations in the oven to melt the chocolate + brown the marshmallows…

… which our oven did exceedingly well. :| sigh.

so after replacing all those burnt marshmallows, we tried again, this time keeping a careful eye on the whole thing. a minute or two was all it took for them to become golden, and then it was just a matter of topping them with another cracker to make a sandwich.

squishy goodness ensued! :D we discovered s’mores are delicious but extremely sweet, so we soon realized we’d been a bit ambitious with the quantity we made. oh well…

i’d still like to try them out in a campfire someday, but for now, i’m happy we succeeded at this quintessential north american experience.

Post author By ana
Post date August 17, 2018
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foooood in portugal

cerelac

i mentioned cerelac in my last post about powdered food, and then i thought: how come i haven’t written about something so portuguese?!

every country has its own way to feed babies, and for a while in portugal, the staple was a fortified, sweet cereal concoction that toddlers inevitably fell in love with. the texture and taste are so reminiscent of a certain period of our childhood that nowadays, i think it’s mostly consumed by nostalgic adults who can’t get its catchy jingle out of their heads… :P

the whole thing was brought to portugal by egas moniz, our medicine nobel. he was a big fan of nestlé’s ideas and got the licensing to produce this particular kind of baby food in his hometown of avanca, where years prior he had set up a milk powder plant. over the years, he adapted cerelac’s formula to the national tastes and started using milk from the azores.

over 80 years later, cerelac is still being made there and exported to lots of countries, delighting ~~children~~ grown-ups all around the world. :)

Post author By ana
Post date April 20, 2018
3 Comments on cerelac

foooood in portugal

the food list, 2

we spent almost a whole month in portugal, and once more, i decided to keep track of the special things we ate, so that we could make another food list. we’re quite predictable, as it turns out, and return mostly to the same staples: lots of bakery items and sentimental food our moms make. here are the highlights:

butter toast

octopus rice

cookies cake

pork à la alentejana

pork steaks with ‘shrooms

chocolate salami

palmier

mom’s marmelade

mom’s tomato jam

sweet bean tartelet

pão d’ul

P.’s mom meatballs

pumpkin’s smoked sausage

galão

punched potatoes

limiano cheese

natas

broa de mel

berlin ball (the real ones!)

codfish burger with açorda

burger with potatoes

fancy french pastry

another french pastry

strawberry-profiterole pie

grelos (broccoli rabe)

butter croissant

cheese/ham toast

croissants

butter toast

jesuíta

chocolate croissant

salmon with chestnuts

another berlin ball

pastel de nata

alheiras

meia de leite

my stomach is grumbling already!

when i make these lists, i get the feeling people might think we only eat crap… well, it isn’t true. what you see here is a glimpse, a condensed version of the more interesting things me and P eat. the other stuff, the plain omelettes, soups and other very mundane dishes are not that interesting, and are therefore omitted. believe it or not, all in all, we eat quite decently. :)

foooood in slovenia just life

i’m 28!

“it’s my party
and i’ll cry if i want to
cry if i want to
cry if i want to
you would cry too
if it happened to you!”

this song has been stuck in my head the whole day. it’s the same thing year after year: i only remember it on my birthday! :)

this sounds strange, but i’ve actually been telling people i’m 28 for a whole year already… my brain somehow didn’t get used to 27, and skipped ahead. i didn’t mind. 28 sounded better than 27, the way even numbers always seem to. very chinese, now that i think about it!

anyway, to do something different today, we drove to murska sobota and had gibanica, slovenia’s national cake, disguised as a birthday cake. it’s quite heavy, but i enjoy the mixture of flavours:

and as you can see, i got a drawing tablet from paulo as a bday present, and put it to good use already! :)

Post author By ana
Post date June 18, 2010
12 Comments on i’m 28!