Fado, food and wine, told by the people who make the nights.
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History, fadistas, styles and what a night actually looks like. The answers to the questions everyone asks before walking into a fado house.
Where it comes from, how it is made, who sings it and what happens in a room when the lights go down. The starting point for a first night of fado.
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Two neighbourhoods, two ways to spend the evening. Which to choose, depending on who you are bringing and when you want to eat.
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When to clap, when to stay quiet, whether you can take photos, and what happens if a phone rings in the middle of a fado.
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June puts Alfama out on the street for a month. What that has to do with fado, and what changes inside the fado houses.
Read the articleDishes people have always eaten, how fado and food ended up at the same table, what is in season and what is worth eating in Lisbon.
What to order, in what order, and what arrives without being asked for. A guide from the people who serve these tables every night.
Read the articleA fish that is not Portuguese, salted on the other side of the Atlantic, and that still became the backbone of the country’s cooking.
Read the articleFour ingredients, one technique, and an argument that never ends about how finely the cabbage should be cut.
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No Coca-Cola, the whisky comes from Alpiarça and the wine list covers eleven Portuguese regions. Why, and what it changes at the table.
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Why they are eaten in June, how to pick them, and why they are served on a slice of bread rather than on a plate.
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Pork, bread and a sauce every house keeps to itself. The sandwich that explains the country as well as bacalhau does.
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The difference between a pastel de Belém and a pastel de nata, and the right order of cinnamon, sugar and coffee.
Read the articleRegions, grapes few people outside Portugal know, and pairings that hold up through petiscos and a whole evening at the table.
Not green, not sweet and not only for summer. What is actually in the bottle and how to pick one worth drinking.
Read the articleAragonez, Trincadeira, Alicante Bouschet and Antão Vaz. What each one does to the wine, and what to eat with it.
Read the articleThe oldest demarcated wine region in the world now makes table reds that stand up to the best in Europe. Where to start.
Read the articleThe peninsula just south of Lisbon makes one of the oldest moscatels in Europe. How to drink it, and with what.
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Colares, Bucelas and Carcavelos are less than an hour from the centre, and almost nobody orders them. A shame.
Read the articlePortugal has more than two hundred grape varieties of its own. These three are enough to make sense of the rest.
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