Cape Verde food delights

The best thing about living in a new country is the attraction over local food culture -the special cuisine that has been handed down from generations of happy native food lovers, from grandmothers to mothers to daughters. Food, like music lies in the heart of every local culture.

The Cape Verdean food culture consists mainly of fish and seafoods which are in abundance. One only has to go to the local pier and choose from the daily catch what to buy and bring back to one's kitchen. But there are days when the catch is meager and that is when the Sahara wind is strong.

Aside from fish and seafoods, the traditional Cape Verdean food consists of beans- different kinds of beans and corn- boiled until tender, sauteed in onions and mixed with different kinds of meats such as chicken, pork and beef. This is the catchupa rica. Without meat, it is catchupa pobre which is eaten as breakfast with eggs and sausage, or eggs and bacon. There is also stewed beef with potatoes, carrots and other available vegetables.

Most restaurants' dish of the day is grilled fish that is served with rice, pomme frittes and salad. However, the more expensive seafoods consist of shrimps, octopus, squids and lobster. I have not seen any fresh catches of the latter delicacies but they are available in restaurants and the prices vary in every place.

I buy my fresh tuna, grupper and mackerels in the pier from my favourite fisherwomen where I get preferential price - meaning the price used for locals as against tourists. Lately, we have grown fond of grilled squids and octopus. Long time ago, the sight of an octopus made me squirm. But no longer. They are delicious in any dish - grilled, stewed and fried or breaded. When we were in San Antao Island - a truly beautiful resort hotel, we were amazed at the cook's culinary ability with local dishes. His stewed octopus was wonderful and I tried to copy it with coriander when we got back home.

The tuna catches are immediately delivered to restaurants. Unless it is marinatred well in herbs, it does not have enough taste. Usually it is grilled or fried. In my kitchen I tried to cook it with curry and coconut milk and on another occasion with tomato marinade. I tried to make kinilaw - the Filipino raw fish in ginger, vinegar, chili, salt and pepper plus other secret ingredients, but it lacked something I could not define. Then I tried the Swedish style of marinade called gravad which is common with salmon. We had Swedish friends coming who brought fresh dill. The results was quite good along with homemade sauce of honey, mustard and oil.

Since coming to Sta. Maria, I've searched the Chinese shops for local ingredients for Asian cooking but they are not available. I did find fresh coriander but no noodles, soja, fish sauce, sesame oil and Thai sweet sour chili. And no spring roll wrappers! Lucky enough, we have a Danish friend who brought some of these ingredients so that I was able to cook some Asian dishes for dinner. Think how serious I have been to start an Asian restaurant. But it should not be a problem to import.

I can only say that food trips are the most interesting adventures one can have anywhere and the more exotic the places are, the more exciting the local food culture is. For the food lovers, learning and improving on new cuisine is always great fun.#