Portugal: Street Food Bite and Booze of the World Cup

It's time to sit down to another plate of the street food guide to the FIFA World Cup 2014! Portugal, like many cities in Spain, is no stranger to great eats. Today we're going to take a look at something on the sweeter side with some Portuguese custard cups and a banging port cocktail, the Portuguese Daisy!

Photo Credit: leitesculinaria.com

Pasteis de Nata I are delicious little flaky pastry cups filled with a sweet custard. These may take a decent amount of prep work, but they're perfect for snacking while your watching the match or entertaining for special occasions and holidays. Take a break from those freezer quiche things and try making something fresh!

Photo Credit: matadornetwork.com

The Portuguese Daisy highlights Portugal's most popular product: Port. If you've never had port, it's pretty sweet, smooth, and makes wine look like a bandwagon soccer fan who doesn't understand offsides. Port is awesome and this cocktail combines port, brandy, and little citrus to make one heck of a drink! Try it out and let me know what you think by leaving comment or telling me about it on the Facebook Page.

Portugal - The 2010 FIFA World Cup Bites and Boozes

Portugal

Portugal is one of the World Cup nations that I have actually been to so it's nice to be able to write about cuisine and beverages that I've actually consumed.  In the summer of 2006 I spent a week finding my way from Oporto (Porto) in the North all the way down to Faro on the South coast of Portugal.  The trip also included a little time in Coimbra, Lisboa (Lisbon), Cascais, and Fuseta along the way.  With a long Atlantic coastline, seafood clearly belonged as a major staple of Portuguese cuisine.  I recall eating grilled sardines that had just been pulled out of the ocean, among other fresh dishes.  Still, the food brings back the recurring dreams from my memory is the authentic Francesinha sandwich that I ate in Porto.  Oh, and don't forget the Port wine itself!

First, as an introduction to the famous Francesinha, I found this video to show you.  If it doesn't make your mouth water then perhaps you don't like sandwiches.  This is easily one of my top 10 sandwiches that I've ever had in my life and certainly belongs in the same discussion as the very best New Orleans Poboys and Darrell's Specials that I've eaten.

Our first Francesinha from Nando Cuca on Vimeo.

Francesinha (meaning Little Frenchie or simply Frenchie in Portuguese) is a Portuguese sandwich originally from Porto, made with bread, wet-cured ham, linguiça, fresh sausage like chipolata, steak or roast meat and covered with molten cheese and a hot thick tomato and beer sauce served with french fries.  Essentially it is a grilled sandwich that comes loaded with delicious meats and cheeses, then gets topped with more cheese that is melted all over it, and then smothered again with a house-specialty tomato-beer sauce.  It can also be topped with fried egg, just for that extra bit of ridiculousness.  I've seen very few more beautiful sights in the world.

I really had never tried Port until I visited Portugal.  After learning about the fortified wine, how the grapes are shipped down the Douro River to Porto, and how the caves serve has chambers for the wine before they are shipped, I decided that I should give it a try. Port is produced from grapes grown and processed in the demarcated Douro region. The wine produced is then fortified by the addition of a neutral grape spirit known as aguardente in order to stop the fermentation, leaving residual sugar in the wine, and to boost the alcohol content. The wine is then stored and aged, often in barrels stored in a cave before being bottled. The wine received its name, "Port", in the latter half of the 17th century from the seaport city of Porto at the mouth of the Douro River, where much of the product was brought to market or for export to other countries in Europe. The Douro valley where Port wine is produced was defined and established as a protected region, or appellation in 1756 — making it the third oldest defined and protected wine region in the world after Chianti (1716) and Tokaj (1730).

For some information on Portuguese beer, check the BR Beer Scene!

Thanks and Credits:

http://vimeo.com/9017753

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesinha

http://laseriedemivida.wordpress.com/2007/10/30/1x22-mi-francesinha/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_wine

http://quevedoportwine.com/wine/some-great-port-wine-treasures-kept-secretly-in-american-private-cellarsalguns-tesouros-de-vinho-do-porto-guardados-nas-garrafeiras-dos-americanos/

First Post

Top o' the morning friendly readers.  Well, actually it is late at night.  This being the first post, I thought I should give a little explanation about what I'm doing here.  The purpose of this blog is to chronicle the many adventures that I have with food and drink.  It will hopefully serve at least two purposes.  First, it will be an excellent way for me to keep up with, and remember, all the meals and beverages that I consume over time.  This will be good for recommending places to eat, thinking about what to cook, and recalling good times spent with good friends around a table or bar.  Secondly, it is meant to be a source for the readers to use to get ideas of their own.  Looking for a review on a restaurant?  Maybe I've been there... and I'll at least tell you what I thought about what I ate.  Most of the culinary and indulgent experiences will come from home, which is Baton Rouge, La.  However, I am a man of travel.  I have been to over 40 of the 50 states, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, and The Netherlands, with hopefully many, many more locations all around the world to come.  I hope you enjoy the blog.  Come hungry, start off with a drink to whet your palate, and when you wake up the next day and try to wipe something off your face, don't be surprised if it is the floor!