Monday 15 February 2016

The Portuguese Black Pork (Porco Preta)

Black pork
Black Pork

If you travel to Portugal to a villa in Lagos and or rent and apartment in Albufeira your guaranteed to have a wonderful holiday.   But notice all the various lifestyle differences this part of the world has to offer.  Sun and pristine sandy beaches are obvious.  The small differences are hard to see at first and from a culinary view point Porco Preta or black pork is one of those items.


Pork (porco) is everywhere in Portuguese food and, this being a country where very little is wasted, pretty much every part of the pig can be found in one dish or another. Cheap and full of flavour, pork is often eaten pink, which can seem strange to those brought up in countries where this is still seen as dangerous (and not without good reason).

Porco preto ibĂ©rico (known in English as ‘black pork’) is sourced from a breed of grey and black pigs native to Portugal’s Alentejo region, which range freely while stuffing themselves full of acorns, resulting in incredible-tasting meat.  Some Portuguese favourite cut of porco preto is secreto – a long, fat-marbled strip that is perfect when cooked over a hot grill with loads of salt on it. Sadly it’s incredibly fattening, so has to remain something of a rare treat rather than an everyday meal!

One recipe  is black pork tenderloin grilled in the aroma of thyme and rosemary

Ingredientes-
One choice piece of black pork tenderloin,
Potatoes peeled and sliced into chunks ,
To garnish meat rosemary &thyme,
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper,
Sweet peppers cored and sliced
3 cloves of garlic,
Half the juice of a lemon ,
To finish a nice Alentejo red wine  and very good company.

Next time you go self-catering Portugal check out the restaurant menu for Porco Preta.
Tags : self catering holidays in portugal, self catering portugal, portugal apartments, lagos apartments,

Friday 12 February 2016

News Updates from Portugal February 2016

Here are few interesting news item taken from the  The Portugal News  paper dated the 6th February 2016

1. There are plans to develop a hotel at the site of Oports famous Sao Bento railway station. The station structure is renowned for its architecture and history.   The design will include areas for a number off shops and also an arts and cultural centre.  The property is owned by Infrastructure Portugal.   Another station in the pipeline for redevelopment is Lisbons
Sao Bento
Sao Bento Oporto


2.  The Portuguese city of Braga has been voted the best Portuguese city to live in.  It comes after a European wide study. The city of Braga reached the third place category. Alongside  the cities of Stockholm and Malaga in the over all European placings.  The cities of Oslo, Zurich and Alborg in Denmark Vilnius and Belfast were slightly higher.  Lisbon came in the middle of the table.
Braga a third place European City of the year
Braga


3 With the rise in the Portuguese economy. Locals are inclined to travel more.  The number continued to rise in the third quarter of 2015.  The report says 33.8% of population went on some form of travel between July and September up 3.7% on the same period in 2014. Private self-catering accommodation seems to be the principal choice.  Keywords like apartments Lagos, vilamoura villas would have been widely used.

4. The Portuguese airports of Oporto, Ponta Delgada (Azores) and Faro have fared well in the latest ranking compiled by ACI (Airports Council International) Europe in terms of growth and traffic.
Oporto was ranked among a ‘group three’ level of growth, alongside Milan, Gothenburg, Berlin and Glasgow, where in the northern airport’s case footfall for the year of 2015 rose by 16.7 percent, to between five and ten million passengers a year.
Ponto Delgada (Azores) was ranked among Group 4, where passenger traffic was below the five million passenger mark but still registered rises, in the Ponta Delgada’s case, of 29.5 percent.
Solely regarding the month of December 2015, Faro airport registered a growth in figures of 17.3 percent, compared to December 2014, and was placed among the top-5 European airports where monthly passenger figures most grew.
The many thousands of visitors staying in the Algarve having searched accommodation using keywords algarve villas algarve villa holidays, algarve rentals, apartments algarve,  algarve apartments      apartments in algarve, algarve accommodation,  algarve villa rentals, would also also have searched their flight destination as Faro.