Codfish

Dried salt cod, or "Bacalhau", is a purely Portuguese invention. The Portuguese were fishing Newfoundland's Grand Banks for cod within just a few years of Columbus' discovery of America. As early as the 16th century, the fishermen learned to salt cod at sea to last the long voyage home, and to sun-dry it into board stiff slabs that could be kept for months, later to be soaked in cool water before cooking.

Cod is still sun-dried on racks the old way on the beach of Nazaré, although much less of it than in past decades. Portugal now is importing bacalhau from Norway just to be able to meet their annual demands.

It is said the Portuguese know 365 ways to cook the bacalhau. The best, and most famous bacalhau dishes are "bacalhau á gomes de sá" (cooked in a casserole with thinly sliced potatoes and onions, then garnished with hard-boiled eggs and black olives), "bacalhau à brás" and "bacalhau dourado" (two quite similar recipes composed of scrambled eggs, onions and shoe-string potatoes), "bacalhau á conde de guarda" (salt cod creamed with mashed potatoes) and "bolinhos de bacalhau" (codfish croquettes, a particularly popular hors d'oeuvre). Delicious!