Portuguese Culture

Food and Wine
Portugal has a rich food culture. As a seafaring nation, seafood is widely available and popular here. Fish and other seafood is served grilled, boiled, fried, stewed, roasted and even steamed. Bacalhau, or salted cod, is one of the most common components of Portuguese meals. It is used in a variety of dishes and might be baked into casseroles, grilled and served with rice or shredded and cooked with potatoes and eggs.

Other popular dishes include grilled sardines, chicken piri piri, bifanas (traditional pork sandwiches), porco preto (black pork), caldo verde (a soup made of dark green cabbage, potatoes and sausage) and pastel de natas (egg tarts).

Roughly 500,000 acres of Portuguese land is dedicated to the production of wines. Portugal’s temperate climate makes it an ideal location for grape growing and the country is one of the world’s largest wine producers. While there is a variety of wine variants produced here, including white, rose and red blends, Port wine is the main wine export. Port wines only come from the Douro Valley and have been produced here for over 2,000 years.

Art & Music
Portugal has a vibrant arts scene. Most cities have at least one art museum, and many of the larger cities such as Lisbon and Porto have numerous. Some of the most stunning Portuguese art is displayed on azulejos, ceramic hand-painted tiles that often depict scenes from the country's history.

Fado is a popular folk music genre in Portugal that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, but it probably has much earlier origins. Fado music is characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea, homesickness, longing and nostalgia. The most famous Fado singer was Amalia Rodrigues. After her death in 1999, the country declared three days of national mourning.

Sports
Futbol, or soccer, is easily the most popular sport in Portugal, and there are many club teams across the country. The oldest club, Boavista, named after a Porto neighborhood, was founded in 1903. There is also a national team. Cristiano Ronaldo is one of Portugal’s most famous soccer players.

Friendly People
Portuguese people are friendly and treat tourists with a good amount of courtesy. In larger metropolitan areas, most speak some English, while in smaller villages and the countryside, English is scarcer. Using a few Portuguese phrases will win you added favor and smiles.