Taste this!

 Taste this!

One of the reason I love to travel is to try new foods.  It may be familiar ingredients put together in a whole new way, or it may be a totally different item.  Our time on Pico provided both.

The sandwich called Francesinha was developed in Porto, and is now available in many Portuguese locations -- one of which is in Madalena, the main city of Pico.  Now Pico only has 14,000 inhabitants, so the main 'city' is really just a town, but it is the 'big' place there.  The buffet restaurant which I had checked out at lunch time, decided to take the evening off, so we were left scouting around for a spot.  Down a side street was an open door with music and a bunch of people.  Always go where there are lots of people!  Ian got his grilled squid, and I decided to explore the Francesinha.  It is layered from the bottom:  bread, cheese, sausage, ham, a thin steak, more cheese, another bread, another slice of cheese and then a hot beer and tomato sauce is poured over.  Finally a fried egg is perched on top and it is served like a castle with a moat.  HIghly recommended!

On Tuesday we went for a wine tour.  Now Pico is the youngest of the Azorean islands and therefore is known as the black island, thanks to the volcanic basalt rock.  It is also a very poor island and has been so since settled in the early 1500s.  A Friar brought vines to the island, but the only place to plant them was in crevasses between the volcanic rock.  They even had to import soil to dribble in the crevasse to get the vine started.  Walls, about 1 m high, were built around the vines to protect them from the very strong winds and maintain warm temperatures thanks to the thermal mass.  As you can imagine the mineral content of the terroir is totally different from the European source and has, over the years, changed the vines to a now established different variety.  It made for a very interesting tasting of something totally new.

Don't worry, there is also a new pastry.  The hotel in Pico had a lovely breakfast including some unusual pies.  The standard custard pie comes au natural, but also with chocolate chunks or cookies baked in on top.  this one had palmiers!

Tomorrow is our cheese tour on St. Jorge.  Can't wait!