In this post-Christmas/New Year week, digestive systems are slowly returning back to normal. If you’ve spent the holidays in Portugal, you know of what I speak!
There was a big feast at my in-laws’ for Christmas Eve, which is traditionally when everyone stays up late and exchanges gifts. On Christmas Day there was another round of food, and then it was off to the airport. We flew back on New Year’s Eve, returning to this table as though we hadn’t left it at all, let alone visited another country in the meantime. More eating, New Year’s, and then we returned some hours later and repeated it one more time.
It’s All About The Sugar
The 24th, 25th, 31st, and 1st all blurred together into one long gastronomic event, so I’ve chosen not put the pictures in any real order — I’ve just added captions. On Christmas Day I didn’t even photograph the main dishes (chicken and kid/goat) except the bacalhau. Most of the pictures are of the baked goods, but this is a pretty accurate proportion of what Portuguese like to eat at Christmas: the sweet stuff, versus the savoury. The codfish and meat dishes are part of the seasonal tradition, but they play second fiddle and vegetables a distant third. (The only mainstay vegetables I can recall are the accompanying cabbage and potatoes with the bacalhau.)
(3) Photos Without Sugar
This is what started off Christmas Eve: bacalhau, what I’ve described in previous years as codfish in its least-appealing form, which is boiled. Not shown: a dish of raw, chopped garlic, flasks of white vinegar and olive oil for the bacalhau.
Christmas Eve bacalhau, with cabbage and potatoes
Christmas Eve arroz de polvo (octopus rice)
Christmas Day roupa velha, “old clothes” (leftover bacalhau from Christmas Eve, mixed with the vegetables and boiled egg)
Sugary Traditions
sonhos (a soft dough, fried)
filhós (a dry dough with sugar and cinnamon)
bolo rei (King Cake)
ovos moles, a specialty confection from Aveiro
papos de anjo (angel’s bellies or chins, depending on who you ask)
rabanadas (similar to French toast, except the bread is soaked in tea)
pão de ló (sponge cake)
a smaller pão de ló (sponge cake)
And then, the rest…
photo by Paulo
our Christmas tradition: a begging dog
More Christmas/New Year food posts:
Christmas 2013: the album
Christmastime Cozinha Da Casa Aguiar
Christmas Eve In Portugal, 2014 Edition
Christmas Day In Portugal, 2014 Edition
New Year’s Day 2015 Lunch
December 24/25/31, 2016
Album: Portugal [Winter 2016/2017]
