Pata Negra or Black Pig PDO, PGI.
On recent trip to Lisbon we discovered the Portugese like pork (especially Pata Negra) almost as much as the Spanish, I suppose living next door to each other and having had the same king for a while you might expect it. However the Portuguese are mightilly independant and never admit to any simularity with Spain if they can help it, in the nicest possible way. For example if you were to say that is very tasty and a bit like the Spanish one they’d say, no no the Spanish on is good but this is Portuguese and is much better.
Their fondness for Pork is probably to do with Spanish King Philip II who took the throne of Portugal when there was a slight succession crisis and somewhat by force. During his reign anyone who didn’t eat pork was clearly a Muslim and that could get you into lots of hot water, literally, expelled, put to death or much worse. Mind you the Jews and the Protestants didn’t fair much better. Naturally eveyone ate a lot of pork, pork for breakfast, pork for lunch, supper and dinner.
As in Spain (very good but obviously not as good as the Portugese) Pork became part of the culture and it’s still a big part of it today, the markets are piled high with Chourico (Portugese for Chorizo), black pudding, black pork (Pata Negra), dried pork sausage, bacon and the list goes on.
There’s a market in the Praca de Figueira where I took this photograph, there’s a twenty or so stalls selling Chourico, sausages, ham, black pudding and wonerful cheeses. They make up fresh sandwiches with Pao de Mafra (bread of Mafra, Mafra is a city north of Lisbon) with ham warm cheese scouped out of the waxy casing. You can also sample all the different sausages and have a beer or glass of wine for lunch.
Lisbon comes highly recommended for the people, the wine and of course the pork, the beef is rather special too and it pains me to say it, from Basil.
This is wonder site with some Portugese recipe chttp://bkpk.me/10-traditional-dishes
You can buy here. http://www.portuguesefood.co.uk/
Links to all things portugese and Spanish on Protectedfoods.
protectedfoods.com/fruta-feia-ugly-fruit/
protectedfoods.com/tins-sardines-crammed-like-sardines/
protectedfoods.com/iberico-chorizo-chorizo/
protectedfoods.com/iberico-porkio-pdo/