[Sca-cooks] More Translations of Portuguese Food Stuff (long)

[Robert Downie]

I recently picked up a copy  of _À Mesa Com Luís Vaz de Camões _  o 
romance da cozinha no Portugal das Descobertas (At the Table With Luís 
Vaz de Camões - the romance of cuisine in Portugal during the Age of 
Discovery).  Since at this point we only know of the one extant medieval 
Portruguese cookbook (Livro de Cozinha da Infanta D. Maria), I though 
this book may provide other literary references for Portuguese food in 
the Renaissance period.  I was quickly skimmming through some of the 
chapters, and  this section dealing with food evolution through culural 
exchange caught my eye.  I have tried to translate it as directly as 
possible (and add explanatory comments where I could), my appologies in 
advance if the language sounds somewhat stilted as a result.

Faerisa/Fernanda

Excerpt from the beginning of Chapter XIII "O poema da barriga vazia" 
(the poem of the empty belly)

Comparisons between the novelties found, and those that were already 
known from the homeland or other destinations already visited, are 
always present in the descriptions of the travelers, whether Portuguese 
or foreign.  An example of this is illustrated in a letter written from 
Goa by Thomas Stevens:

"I have not yet seen here a tree similar to those I have seen in Europe, 
with the exception of grapevines, which here are useless, since all 
wines come from Portugal."

Also curious are the references of Álvaro Velho, witness to the arrival 
of Vasco da Gama to India.  In his Guide, "jacas" (jack-fruit?) are 
compared to melons <<except that outside they are crispy, but inside 
they are sweet>>, and bananas to figs, which <<taste very good>>.  To 
melons he also compares coconuts of Moçambique, <<the interior pulp is 
what is eaten and tastes like "junça aveladada" (the footnote says: 
there are those who disagree with this interpretation, nevertheless, the 
taste of junça avelanada, Cyperus esculentus, well know to the 
Portuguese of the time, and from which was made a whitish beverage, with 
a hazelnut-like flavour, appears to indicate this direction.)

[I looked up Cyperus esculentus.  It is modernly listed as yellow 
nutsedge, a North American problem weed, which doesn't sound right.  The 
footnote also refers to the making of an "orchata" with this plant, but 
it's definition is: 'a refreshing beverage made with seeds of cucurbita' 
or 'a drink made from a decoction of barley and ground sweet almonds', 
again implying this is a different modern definition of the plant in 
question.]

The "Soldado Prático" (practical soldier) by Diogo do Couto, says there 
he ate <<wild grapes, like the ones from Portugal, and melons like those 
from Abrantes>> and even a great sage of medicine, Garcia da Horta 
doesn't resist comparing  Indian products to national ones.  To him 
"assa-fétida" (a resinous syrup extracted from <celery?>) is/has an 
<<appetizing  bitterness, like that of  olives>> and cinnamon smells 
like oregano, <but with a milder scent>>.  To refer to the cooking of 
rice with coconut milk, (he) says that ths <<is like rice with goat's 
milk>>, and of bananas can affirm that that <<baked and placed in wine 
with cinnamon on top (they) taste like baked quinces, and much better.>>

>From comparison to comparison, the Lusitanian palate begins to get used 
to Asian tastes.  Raised with a taste for bread and meat, wine, sauces 
of olive oil and vinegar, the Portuguese of India do not immediately 
become accustomed to fish fried in butter and rice with special sauces 
from the natives. Gently they begin to blend, to make culinary 
symbioses.  They perfect and improvise (the dishes).

Their traditional delicacies mix with the local products.  Bastardised 
recipes, of "caldo-verde" with spinach and without olive oil, or stews 
[modernly caldeirada denotes a fish/seafood stew] with ginger and 
tamarind exist, still today, among the Goan peoples.  The very 
Lusitanian "cabidelas" of blood [stew of organ meats, necks, wings and 
blood of birds] added t with tamarind, ginger and "curcuma" [a member of 
the Zingiberaceae family, commercially referred to as 
'saffron-of-the-Indies' - based on this definition, I suspect this is 
galangal.]; "presunto" (ham), dried and salted, is seasoned with 
cinnamon; tripe appears adorned with "saffron-of-the-Indies" and 
tamarinds; simple "chouriços (sausages), so Christian, (now) use spices 
in the manner of the orient.  In the matter of sweets emerge delicate 
tidbits that are placed on par with pear pastes and traditional 
marmalades, with the use of new fruits in sugar preserves: are the mango 
or coconut pastes, often enhanced with eggs.  Of the confusion of those 
first times, in which familiar names were adapted to living realities, 
we have a similar sweet, made from bananas, which is, still today, 
called "figada" [figos are figs], prepared with "figos-da-India" 
(figs-of-India).

The inverse also occurs, the Portuguese transmitting some of their 
tastes to the natural inhabitants.  Still among sweet dishes, we may 
count the original "pão-de-ló", a "bolo podre" (name of a very sweet 
cake recipe- 'podre' means rotten), "pastiés de nata" (cream tarts), and 
"pasties de Sta. Clara" (pastries from the convent of Saint Clara), 
perhaps left by the nuns of St Monica, (who were) famous for their 
sweets.  Delicacies that remain for ever rooted between the populations 
of the Portuguese territories in India, demonstrating well the  ancient 
influence  of Lusiadian tastes in those distant lands.  "Vinha d'alhos" 
(a common Portuguese marinade) takes on the role of the primordial 
example of European tastes, spreading from Goa to China and to the 
Malasian Islands, finally being transported, in more recent times, to 
countries like England and America, where it is known as vindaloo.  
Extremely interesting is the saga of "Sarapatel" (dish of blood, liver, 
kidneys, meat and heart of pork or mutton, with broth) food of humble 
folk in Portugal, made with the economic organs of the animals that this 
people will introduce everywhere they travel.  Sarapateis exist in Goa, 
for many years supplemented with hot spices, of ginger, cinnamon and the 
oriental "curcuma", the-saffron-of-the Indies [galangal?] which here 
substitutes saffron of the flower.  But sarapateis are also present in 
the recipe collections of Cabo Verde, Angola, Moçambique, Brasil, and 
even in the more distant stops of Timor or Macau it appears, always with 
natural adaptations, convenient to the palate of each nation.  
Nevertheless, the most interesting (fact) is that that dish, which has 
also been called"sarrabulhada", "laburdo" or "bazulaque", has returned 
to our tables, now as a foreign curiosity, almost exclusively served as 
an exotic specialty in Goan restaurants.

Very important, in relation to the national culinary panorama, is also 
the story of one of the foods given to the sick in India, made of 
<<water from cooking rice with pepper and cumin (which they call 
'canje')>>, in the words of Garcia da Horta, or as he states farther 
along: <<sour milk mixed with  rice and shredded chicken in the water 
from this rice, (which they call 'canje')>>.  Ask any modern Portuguese 
person and he will swear that canja is one of the most genuine 
Portuguese foods.