I've always prided myself on being a healthy eater. But this trip to Portugal has taught me something I've glossed over for years. For the last decade, I've made carbs, sugar, and fat enemies to my diet. You're probably thinking, that's not possible, you are a chef. Ok, so I haven't sworn off any of these things. In fact, I taste sugar and fat all day long when I'm at the restaurant. The only difference is that for 5 days a week, while I'm working, I don't consume them. Tasting is different from eating. I take tiny bites to taste. Outside of that, my meals comprise of lean proteins and vegetables. I limit wine to 3 days a week and stick with as much water as possible. I don't drink any juice or soda and avoid desserts unless it's the weekend. And I don't touch carbs at all unless it's the weekend.
Late March of 2022, I took my family on a much needed family vacation. After 2 years of dealing with the pandemic, I thought a nice family trip would be appropriate. Plus, I've never actually traveled with my entire family, kids, both my parents plus husband. Time to build some memories with my family that exist outside of our restaurant right?
We picked Portugal because it's super under rated. The food is incredible, it's more affordable than other European countries, it's family friendly and lastly it looks kind of like San Francisco. Win Win!!
In preparation for our trip, my parents packed up medication for gout and diabetes. And while I don't need medication, I did pack a few baggy pants and sweaters in case I packed those pounds from our gastronomic trip. My plan was to indulge for 10 days and come home to detox.
What's the Portuguese Diet?
Bread is the basis of all their meals. Every meal begins with fresh bread, A LOT OF IT. And their bread is so delicious. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, we ate bread of all sorts with butter, olive oil, local cheese, and hams.
Alentejo bread, baskets of this ready for breakfast every morning. One of my favs!
Before each meal, always a basket of fresh bread, sometimes a variety that you simply can't resist with some unpasteurized local cheese. My dad and son enjoying their bread at dinner.
2. A pastry and a coffee a day. Cafes and Pastry shops are literally on every block. You can't walk down a street and not see a pastry shop. The Portuguese pop in for a quick sweet treat and coffee before continuing on the rest of their day. So we dabbled in some sweets, more than our usual amount.
The locals like to stop for a quick coffee and pastry during their usual day. Nothing fancy and nothing large, just a bite or two of something sweet before they head on to their next stop. You can find pasteis de nata bakeries everywhere! Literally on every block.
Just can't get away from these sweet treats. But don't fret, none of these desserts are big.
3. Lots of seafood and meats with minimal vegetables. Their menus comprise of 70% seafood and 30% meat. It's rare to find a large section on the menu with vegetarian offerings, if any. The only vegetables you may find is a simple salad or fried potatoes. This was a bit hard for me, but we easily forgot about vegetables after seeing all the amazing seafood they had.
Octopus Salad, one of my favorites starters. It's incredibly simple, just good olive oil, fresh ingredients, and some simple seasoning.
Clams in garlic, olive oil, onions and peppers. Another starter that you find at every meal that satisfies your soul.
When I say seafood is the staple in the local diet, I'm not joking. Roasted salted cod with potatoes, seafood paella with pork shoulder, lobster risotto which is more like a rice seafood stew. Seafood seafood seafood...with carbs carbs carbs.
4. Wine all day everyday plus some extras. There is so much good wine in Portugal, from white, red, green, to orange. There's amazing ports, gins, and liqueurs. And it's all so affordable. I drank everyday, during lunch and dinner.
A beautiful glass of orange wine for lunch. The orange hue comes from the chemical reaction that occurs between the flesh and skin of the grapes.
For an apertif, porto tonico's are a must! It's a white port tonic usually adorned with a lemon peel or some aromatic. It's refreshing and delicious. Great start to a meal before moving into wine.
White Negroni's another must have apertif.
As you can see, I basically went against all my dietary rules. I drank everyday versus only 3 days a week (that's a lot of calories and sugar). I ate bread everyday (another big no no for myself and both my parents because of glucose levels). We ate mostly proteins and almost no vegetables and lastly, we had sweets. Although we didn't eat a ton of pastries, we did consume more sweets than usual. On the entire trip, my parents didn't have any gout flareup and my mom didn't have a spike in glucose level. And to my surprise, I came home to learn I lost a pound after 10 days of cheat meals.
Throughout the trip, my parents would comment on how slim the locals looked despite the fact that they eat so much bread every meal and have pastries everywhere. His question was how? How is this possible? Is it because they walk these hills everyday?
So what's different then? The one major difference we noted was that everything we ate was fresh. We had fresh fruit, freshly baked bread, fresh seafood, and meats. Aside from the hams, we didn't have anything that was really processed. Even the butter and jams we had everywhere were house made.
From top to bottom: Plum Jam, house butter, sweet potato compote to accompany the house bread.
When I'm eating bread, butter and jams at home (on occasion), we reach for our fridge. The butter comes from a container, the jam comes from a jar, and the bread comes from a bag. We have it for convenience. I wake up in the morning with a million things to do. Going out for some fresh baked bread for the day is not exactly something I have time for and to be honest, isn't so easy even if I wanted to include this into my daily routine. We don't have bakeries at every corner with fresh bread, pastries, and cookies. In San Francisco, out of convenience we order groceries on our phones because we rather spend that extra 45 minutes working. What happened here? I actually love grocery shopping, I'm a chef for christ sakes! But convenience and efficiency reigns queen here. We want everything instantly, as fast as possible with as little effort as possible.
When I went home, I opened my pantry and came face to face with a disappointing reality. I have a lot of processed food in my pantry, masked as "healthy" food. Chips that have zero carbs made with healthy seeds and 10 other undecipherable ingredients. There's an obsession with low carb, low sugar, and low calorie but a lack of regard for all the other crap that's in there, that I don't even understand. And then the kids, there are snacks in there that can last months. A sudden sense of guilt hit me, how did I get here? What can I change? My perspective, my relationship with food can change. For one, I can relax a bit on the carbs, sugar, and fat, as long as it doesn't come out of a bag. If I want a nice treat, get a freshly baked loaf of bread or freshly baked cookie or slice of cake at a bakery or cafe. Get ice cream from the local ice cream shop that churns their own ice cream in house. Forget the packaged ice cream, cookies and cakes in the grocery aisles. Keep your fridge fresh and cut out the bagged or boxed treats.
Have I started on this journey yet? Not quite, it took me some time to think it over which is why I wanted to write this piece. It's always interesting to me, when I find myself feeling well versed in something and then realizing that I may not know it all. When there is room to learn more and improve, it's a good thing, it means there is progress. This trip to Portugal has been a revelation for me. Not only did I have an incredible time with my family, we all learned a little something there that we need to bring back to our household. We should learn to enjoy ourselves a little more. Take a step back from doing things quickly and efficiently when it comes to food. Try our best to enjoy the little joys in life, like a fresh loaf of bread or that glass of wine, even if it's a Monday or Tuesday.
