Sonia Nolasco has done a bang up job describing the concept of Petiscos over at CataVino. Petiscos are, well, here’s the title: Petiscos: The Portuguese Cousin of Spanish Tapas
Small plates. What a great way to get to know the food of a country. And usually there is a social component, lacking in the US version of things. I can get good tapas food in San Francisco, but not the social atmosphere a tapas bar generates in Spain.
Things are a bit different in Portugal, evidently:
the ritual of going out for a Petisco consists of ordering the specialty of the house in great quantities and sitting there for hours eating and drinking.
So it’s not one of those, “let’s order one of everything here and then go across the street and taste everything there” sorta deal.
In any case, this is one of those blog posts (with recipes) that are rare in the travel blog world, a post that explains not only the origins and evolution of the food, but the traditions which surround eating it. It empowers the reader to travel and to partake.
Conveying all this is great gift, really. The craft is in the details.
