Travel Means Trying New Foods

One of my favorite things to do while traveling is to sample the local flavors. I like to do that at home too, but while traveling I get a chance to try new preparations of old flavors or taste foods I've never even seen before. My recent cruise with my mom offered me just that experience.

Two of our cruise stops were in Portugal. I had always heard about grilled sardines as a specialty of Portugal and I was determined to try them. We stopped in Oporto, our very first stop, and I hit the jackpot. We had just finished cleaning out a little store of all their scarves (well, not really, but it felt like we bought out the whole store) and were hungry for lunch. Should we go back to the cruise ship where we knew we would get a fantstic meal, or should we try a local cafe and get the grilled sardines? It was no dilemma for me. I'll always go fo the local cuisine.

The cafe we chose was outdoors in the center of a large pedestrian promenade. Great for people watching, and as I soon discovered, great for eating. The picture menu made it easy to order, and I immediately saw just what I wanted. Grilled sardines, boiled potatoes, and a salad with several vegetables. All this for 8 euros. When my order arrived I was sorry we hadn't split the meal. Several large grilled sardines, potatoes and vegetables were a beautiful sight. Much more than I could ever finish, but I did my best. The sardines were sweet and tender and different than what I expected. After all, all I knew about sardines is that they came in a little tin and were packed in oil. Portugese sardines are a whole different breed. They were about 8 inches in length with bones that must be removed. The ones we get in the can are eaten whole. I loved my meal, but I wasn't done yet. Across the street from our cafe was a bakery, and we had to sample the local tarts that everyone was eating. It's a little tart shell filled with a custard like confection. It was very firm, with a burnt topping. Wonderful. I polished it off before we got halfway down the next block.

When you're on a cruise all your meals are included so you tend to want to go back to the ship for your meals, but you miss so much. I would never have had my sardines or my tart which to me, were so much a part of the trip. It's so interesting to see first hand how different countries take the same ingredients and turn them into something very different. I'll have to go back to Portugal someday to see what other deliciousness I can discover.