A Foodie’s Guide to Evora, Portugal, Evora, Portugal

Regular readers will know that I’ve spent a lot of time in Portugal, and that’s probably because I’ve liked almost everywhere I’ve been lucky enough to visit in this country. But still, despite being on familiar terms with the vertiginous terraced vineyards of the Douro Valley, the sun-kissed cliffs of the Algarve and the Jurassic Park nature of the Azores, nothing quite prepared me for how much I was going to fall in love with Alentejo - and Évora in particular. The countryside is unassuming - flatter than many other regions, and fertile with vines and olives - but it has a humble charm that drew me in. Évora’s old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its ancient walls dating back to Roman and Medieval times, and its uneven cobbles threatening to break your ankle just to make you stay.

Évora’s old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its ancient walls dating back to Roman and Medieval times, and its uneven cobbles threatening to break your ankle just to make you stay.

More to the point, Alentejan food is simply joyous. The pig is king in much of the region (unless you’re by the coast, of course) and you’ll see porco preto (black pork) on every restaurant menu in every different form: hams, sausages, steaks and more. But pescatarians will also enjoy the region’s traditional sopa de cação (dogfish soup) and its many interpretations of the ubiquitous Portuguese bacalhau (salt cod). I can only assume the population of Alentejo ends up with a lot of leftover bread, because bread-based dishes seem to feature heavily: migas, a rich, garlicky mush of breadcrumbs fried with pork fat (which tastes more appealing than it sounds!); and açorda, in which stale bread soaks up a coriander-infused broth, often topped with an egg or fish. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).