One of the most compelling and ignored cuisines in the world is Portuguese cuisine. It is full of surprising combinations, tasty ones you'd never expect, like the Alentejo's pork and clams.
In Portugal's rugged mountain territories, south and east of university town Coimbra, you find a series of villages once almost abandoned when the young went elsewhere for work more exciting than growing vegetables in the hardscrabble "valley of abundance." These villages that have now been revived. Houses built of schist have been renovated and many turned into rental properties, mountain bike and hiking trails have been added and signposted, windmills for generating electricity sit on the high peaks and this world of mountain food, often based on hearty soups and tasty stews of lamb and goat, is ready for the traveler.
A funny thing happened while the Schist Villages were being transformed into vacation hideouts. Many of those young people brought in to learn how to restore the houses and build downhill biking trails got to liking the place. Some have bought homes in the area once again, and the place is lively and dynamic with active travelers, artists and tourists sharing the same valleys and trails--not to mention restaurants.
And the food? Well, in the next five pages we'll show you some of the mountain cuisine that we packed away while we were there. Remember, plan an active vacation and you can eat more. That's why I do it!
We'll take you through a culinary odyssey that includes Maranhos, a combination of mint, rice and lamb stuffed into a sheep stomach and cooked (you don't have to eat the stomach part they tell me), sausages made by Jewish folks to disguise the fact they weren't eating pork, to a "dirty rice" that had us salivating for more.
