Congee
Last week I ended up having lunch at one of my favourite restaurants in Portugal – the Mandarin at Estoril Casino. I’ve mentioned it here before more than once, as
Book review: A year’s cooking in the Algarve
58 recipes from a misplaced English chef – Joe Devine On sale at the Lewis Andrews store in Almancil and no doubt elsewhere in the Algarve, this small and easy-to-follow
Wine: Quinta de Saes
The long overdue trend of Portuguese winemakers moving away from oaking (and in too many cases over-oaking) their whites unnecessarily continues apace. The Encruzado grape is the backbone of all
Moscatel Roxo espumante rosé
A couple of weeks ago, on my Saturday morning shop at Apolónia, this new sparkling wine was available for tasting, alongside the rosé wine from the same grape (previously featured
Real Chinese food
Having just returned from Asia last week, including a couple of days in Macau where I ate some of the best Dim Sum on the planet, I was invited with
Redoma Rosé 2013
The trend in Provence style rosés seems to be catching on only very slowly here in Portugal, and never one to be left behind, the Douro’s Dirk Niepoort has made
Crispy duck made easy
Anyone who has ever eaten real Peking duck knows that the poor deep fried imitation served by most Chinese restaurants in the west bears no resemblance to the real thing.
Fish – Size matters
Size, when it comes to fish, definitely does matter. A large fish, unlike almost anything else we eat, is invariably tastier than a smaller fish of the same breed. Take
Filipa Pato Baga
The humble and thick-skinned Baga grape, the backbone of Mateus Rosé and the predominant red grape of the Bairrada region, was traditionally a high-yield variety for low quality winemaking. But
Are restaurants ripping us off?
The prices of wine at restaurants is a subject of hot debate: just how much can be justified as a mark-up on a product that a restaurant simply pores from