Reports

Real vegetables and fruits ... from Portugal

Do you know what is the tastiest thing in Portugal? This is not port or green wine. Not Belenskie cakes and not even an octopus salad. The most delicious in Portugal is vegetables. And not because they are sweeter than the sweetest cakes or softer than buttercream, created according to the secret recipe of the Hieronymite monks. It's just that everything is learned by comparison.

Having thrown off the chains of the peasant past, Russians have long forgotten what kind of taste the products should actually be. Children whose parents brought their grandmother to the village are surprised that after cow's milk they have to wash a glass, and eggs can be found right under the chicken, which is enough to lift by the tail. From the point of view of a modern city dweller, mashed potatoes are more and more often extracted from dry concentrate, cottage cheese - from syrniki, and meat - from dumplings.

One of the most charming features of Portugal is that the country has not lost its connection with the land, has not succumbed to technical innovations. There are still people here who stand up with the sun, plow the land, sow and huddle in order to sell the fruits of their labors to people, from potatoes and pumpkins to strawberries and bananas.

Potato... It would seem, what could be simpler? Starch, water and a complete lack of sophistication. However, if you are lucky enough to order French fries in Portugal, you will immediately notice the difference. And this is not the specificity of a restaurant, a secret shop with elite products or local McDonald's: wherever you buy Portuguese potatoes, they will invariably be truly delicious. And if you have already got to shops or small grocery stores, you can also choose the variety that is most suitable for future cooking: for cooking or frying, large or small - for every taste.

Summing up the song about potatoes, let's say briefly: do not hesitate to order it in a restaurant, it can become a real main dish.

Lemons, oranges, tangerines, clementines - all these types of citrus grow in Portugal in huge quantities and are extremely cheap. Mandarin can be picked on the streets of Lisbon, but no one does it - it is believed that these are decorative varieties, not as sweet as in stores. In fact, they are quite sweet, it happened in other countries to buy and sour.

Mango

Mango in Portugal, it is a typical and popular fruit like an apple or an orange. The most common flavor for juices, nectars or ice-tees is, of course, mango. And the fruit itself, which amazes with coniferous notes of taste and the ability to disappear from the table at a near-light speed, is quite inexpensive in Portugal - from one euro per kilo at the time of harvest to the unthinkable 2.5-3 euros at the time of winter lack of food.

Love pineapple? Forget about it! In Portugal, the ananás fruit is quite common, but it is better to choose abacaxi. The theory says that pineapple and abakashi are one and the same, but in fact the second is much sweeter and juicier, try it and see.

A pineapple

Perhaps it is worth talking about plums... The number of varieties that the Portuguese prefer to buy and eat is very large, but the special pride of the nation is the Rainha Cláudia variety. These are small green plums that can even be the size of a cherry, but are usually larger, about 4 cm in diameter.

If you come across such a fruit in a store, your eyes won't stop, but it's worth trying - and you're gone forever, because it's wildly delicious. The sweet, aromatic Rainha Cláudia plum is one of Portugal's secrets to share with everyone. You should definitely try this, tell your friends, and if there is room in your luggage - then take 2-3 kilograms home, friends and family will thank you many times, at least - for the number of small and green plums brought.

By August, as in Russia, massive sales begin in Portugal watermelons... They are not very similar to the Astrakhan or Kazakhstani, which arrived at the watermelon bazaars of Russian megacities.Most of all, the taste resembles a watermelon grown on its own melon: with a thin crust, sweet, juicy, addictive.

By the way, now the Portuguese are breeding, and by next year they promise to show the world a seedless watermelon. Agricultural scientists are already working on this, conducting the latest tests. You say: what is the novelty here, because seedless watermelons have long been sold by the Japanese and other fans of aggressive marketing? It's a matter of taste. If the Portuguese manage to preserve the taste of local products by removing the seeds, then lovers of tasty things run the risk of simply bursting from a watermelon overdose.

If you're lucky, buy from the store bananas from the island of Madeira. They are much smaller than ordinary ones, and this is their grief: the world banana lobby does not allow Maderian bananas to the wide market, arguing that they are too small and do not have the necessary bend. But they taste as rich and aromatic as baby-bananas, which are sold at exorbitant prices in Moscow supermarkets. When you are in Portugal, do not spare 1 euro per kilogram, try it.

Bananas

What is the secret of the taste of Portuguese vegetables and fruits? I will not hide the truth, but immediately stick the knife of truth into the filthy flesh of stereotypes. The secret is that the Portuguese are a very hardworking nation. They work like the damned on their land plots, from morning till night they huddle, water, transplant something, and then on Saturday or Sunday they can stand by the road all day to sell some tomatoes or melons or strawberries.

Those who talk about the laziness of the Portuguese simply did not see how these people work for themselves, and not for someone else's uncle. Come to Mulveyru Agricultural Market just once on Thursday. Here for 400 years people have been selling vegetables and fruits grown on their own land. Buy a hefty tray of strawberries for 3 euros and see how your change is counted with gnarled fingers that remember each berry of those 4-5 kilograms. These hands were clutching a shovel and a spade, these legs had been trampling on the stony ground since dawn so that the most delicious berry, or fruit, or lemon slice, which smells of life itself, appeared on the Portuguese table.

//www.euromag.ru

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