Portugal

Alright, so there are a lot of really good foods in Portugal, but one of my absolute favorites, and one of the ones that's not really as well known, is something called the Francesinha. Francesinha. It's an amazing, amazing food. So basically what they do is they take two giant pieces of bread, like cut up sausage and meat and all this stuff, and just kind of lay that inside, and it's thick, like inch, inch and a half thick just of meat, and then they cover the whole thing with cheese, and then on top of, and then I think they melt that cheese on top of it, so you basically, and not just on the top, like all over. So this thing is just like cocooned in cheese, and then they pour this gravy that I think, I don't know what the taste is, but it's just this amazing, savory gravy. So that's one of the things that nobody really talks about, and it's not a very Portuguese dish. The Portuguese usually eat very healthily. I don't know where they came up with this, but it's definitely something you need to find. Francesinha. Don't miss out on it.

I think the best food I ate there was something called francesinha, which is like, it's a sandwich that's full of different meats and cheeses, and then they melt cheese on top of it, put an egg on the top of it, and then cover it in like a tomato sauce, and then they serve it with fries. And when you describe it, it sounds kind of weird, but when you try it, it's actually really good. So that's what I recommend to everyone if they ask what they should eat in Portugal.

The Pingo Dolls My Time Cereal. So there's chocolate one and Cinnamon, apple cinnamon one. So there are the phenomenal cereal in the world. So you guys should try it and You will love it. So don't get addicted to it. So it's so good

There's this one pastry called pastel de nata, and it is super cheap you can get it for like 30 cents, and it is so good

One of my favorite foods in Portugal is they have this one brand of cereal that is so magical. It's called Mai Time and I don't know, it was just so good and I've never seen it in the United States and it was just like there was a chocolate version and there was a fruit version and it was kind of like granola but just really delicious. So that was really good. Maybe more like Portuguese food? Hmm well, oh there were a lot of Brazilians there and they made the best food. They would make like these amazing desserts with like sweetened condensed milk and just really delicious meats that were so tender and flavorful. So I really loved all the Brazilian food and obviously like the Magnum chocolate bars, the ice cream that's like everywhere at every corner you can buy some. We ate that probably more than we probably should have.

A popular dish in Portugal is dried codfish with natas or cream, like heavy cream. And so codfish, it's called bacalhau com natas, like codfish with the whipped cream. And what it is, is just this, the dried fish and it's soaked and it's cooked with the whipped cream and it tastes weird but it's actually really delicious. And they serve it, I think it's like more of like a holiday food, kind of more of like a festive food. But yeah, it's one of the dishes of Portugal and it's great.

Like many others, francesinha, which literally means a little frenchy, is one of my favorite foods. So it was inspired by a Portuguese man living in France and he tried what's known as a croque madame, which is basically like a grilled cheese sandwich with egg. And he basically was like, hmm, how can I make this more Portuguese? So they added more meat, they coated the entire outside with cheese, surrounded it with fries, and added a spicy sauce on it.

So, the flagship food in Portugal is cod, basically. Their word for it is bacalhau. Funny thing about that, no matter how you pronounce it, how well you pronounce it, they just insist on this idea that foreigners cannot pronounce bacalhau, the word cod, Portuguese. But anyway, they have literally thousands of ways to prepare this dish, but by far the most popular one is bacalhau com natas, which is basically, literally translated means cod with cream. Sounds gross. It's essentially a casserole with cod kind of baked in little pieces, right? So, that was the weird thing. If you really don't like fish, you're probably not going to be a huge fan, but it's not something that is just going to overpower you with that kind of salty sea taste. And yeah, basically they just have potatoes in there. They have kind of a creamy sauce in there and just cod, and it's absolutely amazing. Like, I love it. A lot of other people love it, even if they're not huge fish fans. So, that's definitely something I'd recommend trying while you're there.