Cuisines of Portuguese Encounters

by Cherie Y. Hamilton

Hippocrene Books, 378 pp., $24.95

Cuisines of Portuguese Encounters is one of those rare international cookbooks that manages to break new ground. It features the foods of Portugal as they were spread around the globe by the 16th-century Portuguese explorers and adopted by all of the lands they reached. Of course, the explorers both influenced and were influenced as they discovered new spices and food products that were imported back to the motherland.

The book includes recipes from exotic regions that are rarely written about, such as Madeira/Azores, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé, Principe, Angola, Mozambique, Goa, Brazil, Malacca, East Timor, Macao, and, of course, Portugal. In the 1500s, the Portuguese navigators established one of the largest empires in history and were instrumental in transporting many foodstuffs around the globe. These include peanuts, okra, corn, rice, sweet potatoes, piri piri peppers, coconut milk, cilantro, manioc root, bananas, dried fish, seafood, and meats, as well as a wide assortment of Asian, African, South American, and European spices and flavorings.

Hamilton, a cultural anthropologist by trade, has spent some 40 years traveling and investigating the foods of Portuguese influence around the globe. In the head notes to the recipes, she teases the reader with fascinating details of the background of the individual dishes. The recipes are written in an easily understood style, with any advanced preparation clearly distinguished, and the chef’s notes inform readers about possible substitutions.

We prepared several of the dishes for testing, including a delightful Cape Verde sweet potato pastry turnover filled with fresh tuna, tomatoes, and chiles. An incredible goat skewer from East Timor was richly flavored with tamarind and peanuts, and very simply made. West India Goa brought us a tart apple salad flavored with delicious spicy garlic dressing.

Hamilton leads the reader through Portuguese culinary influence with a fresh and fascinating approach, and any cook with an interest in international cuisine will find this book indispensable and comprehensive in scope.

This article appears in December 7 • 2001.

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Mick Vann is a retired Austin chef who is a food writer and restaurant critic, cookbook author, restaurant consultant, and recipe developer. He moonlights as a University of Texas horticulturist with a propensity for ethnic eats and international food, particularly of the Asian persuasion, but he also knows his way around a plate of soul food or barbecue.