We didn’t quite know what to expect from the food of Cabo Verde – African? Portuguese? Seafood? Turns out it’s all three, with Brazil in there as well. We’re enjoying some old favourites and finding new ones! Here’s a quick rundown on what you can expect if you’re eating in Cabo Verde.
Cachupa
Let’s start with the most important. Cachupa is the national dish of Cabo Verde and it appears literally everywhere. Even in cafes and bars that don’t serve other food. It’s a hominy-based stew with beans and vegetables. Beyond this, the details are up-for-grabs. Every restaurant has its own way of making cachupa, and each assures you that theirs is original, and the best. Vegetables include kale, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, cassava, plaintain, and cabbage, in a seemingly infinite number of combinations.
There are two basic varieties, though, rica, and pobre (‘rich’ and ‘poor’ – with meat and fish, and with fish respectively). We’ve seen a southern-looking one (below right) but also one that looks Spanish, with tomatoes and chickpeas (below left). And many other things in between. The fish is most often tuna, on which see below. The meats are anything from chicken to linguiça to chunks of beef on the bone to canned weenies (slightly downmarket). Given the variety, it’s hard to describe the flavour, but it’s usually delicious, hearty, and healthy-feeling. This dish is so well beloved it also appears at breakfast, with the liquid cooked down and a fried egg on top (see first image). And that’s also pretty darn good!
Fish and seafood
A main staple food of Cabo Verde (as evidenced by the fact that ‘poor’ cachupa includes fish) is fish and seafood. These include octopus, tuna, swordfish, squid, large shrimp, small lobsters, and all kinds of white fish we don’t know the names of. Among the more unusual are conch, whelk, and limpet, though these are not as readily available as their ubiquity on menus might lead you to believe. We love all of these things, ideally in combination: seafood with rice or seafood with spaghetti appear regularly. We keep meaning to make our way to the fish market, but the restaurants do such a good job with all of this seafood that we’re hard pressed to bother.
Also, eels swim in the waters off Cabo Verde. Eager to remove the taste of British eel pie and mash – we ordered fried moray at a local restaurant. There was resistance: the server looked at her watch and moved her head in a typical way we now recognize as “I want to say no but I hate to disappoint.” Smiling , we asked if there was a problem. She said it might take a while. We said we have all the time in the world. It did indeed take a while. When the three-piece starter arrived, we had forgotten about it. Too bad, as the plate was enormous. Beautifully fried, seasoned with lemon and one sprig of parsley. Perhaps we need to rethink this eel business, because it was full of bones and didn’t taste wildly different from most firm-fleshed white fish. Still we’ve scratched that itch for another six months.
Grogue and Pontche
The local firewater goes by the name of grogue (yes, as in the pirate drink grog). It’s sugar-cane based and comes in darker and lighter varieties; on its own it tastes mostly of alcohol, but not in an unpleasant way. The drink below left (always served in a classy lowball glass, by the way) will set you back under $3 in any but the most touristy of places. Grocery stores sell a huge variety; we’re working our way through as fast as we can but don’t have much to report yet.
We do, however, have a lot to say about pontche: it’s grogue mixed with molasses (sometimes honey). This mellows it out nicely. And many restaurants also serve fruit flavours: we’ve had passion fruit, tamarind, coconut, chocolate, pumpkin, and a couple we couldn’t quite place. We are certain these varieties are for tourists only, but we don’t mind!
Other Influences
The food of Cabo Verde is not nearly as African as we had expected: there are many of the same root vegetables, but few dishes that we knew, except once, in a restaurant, Senegalese fish balls in tomato sauce (yum!). Making up for this are lots of portuguese dishes, including caldo verde and bacalao. Feijoada, the national dish of Brazil (not wildly different from cachupa, come to think of it) is also a favourite plate of the day.
But our favourite example of cross-continental fusion in Cabo Verde is the caipirinha, made here not with cacaca but with grogue. These drinks typically run you $3, $5 if you are in a very fancy restaurant (note how the glass is not as fancy as for grogue, though).
To sum up: Cabo Verde is also not the country in which we are going to lose weight!
