Discover Azores | Azores.com

The cuisine of the Azores is varied and is derived in almost all its entirety from the mainland Portugal recipes. While Portuguese food is relatively unknown outside Portugal, Azorean cuisine is not only unknown but almost non-existent. The “Cozido das Furnas” for example is only unique on the way it is cooked as cozido is a typical mainland Portugal dish. Terceira’s Alcatra is also a knock-off o similar dish encountered throughout Portugal’s mainland. Azores food is spicier than that of the mainland and it is heavier on the meat and potatoes and lighter on vegetables. Besides the recipes for meat dishes there are those for fish and tasty shell-fish, groose barnacles, and other specialties. The region has many traditional sweets. 

 

The cheese from the Azores is mostly from cow’s milk while the cheeses from the mainland are mostly from goat and sheep’s milk. This allowed Azoreans to master the craft and specialty and produce some of the best cheeses in Europe.

With rare exceptions, Azorean table wine is mostly sub-standard. Pico is the closest to have a wine that can compete with the average European wines. However the best casts quickly sell out.

 

São Jorge’s cheese, the sweet and juicy pineapples from Sao Miguel and the aperitif wine from Pico that once reached the table of the Czars, are all compulsory stopping places in a gastronomic itinerary of the Azores.