Brandon Healy
Professor Miller
ENG 110
Sep 10, 2019
Favorite Meal Essay
Bacalhau is by far my favorite food on this planet. It is the most iconic portuguese dish in the world. If you were to ask a portuguese person what they would describe Bacalhau as, they would probably say was a meal that was always there. I was first introduced to Bacalhau when I was around eight years old, and it was at a family party. My mother was born in the Azores on a small island located off the coast of Portugal named Pico. She wanted to keep me and my siblings cultured in our Portuguese heritage and that meant making us eat all these new foods at a young age. If you know anything about Portuguese food, you would know that it is very salty. The diet of a normal eight year boy usually consist of chicken fingers, fries, and something sweet. As you could probably delineated, trying the heavily salted, highly strachy, and lathered in oil Bacalhau, was not a great first bite or many bites for that matter. After, copious amount of attempts by my mother, the regular availability of it, and years of getting acquainted with new foods it finally grew into my favorite meal.
Recipe:
The first thing you will need to make Bacalhau is nose plugs, not really but the main ingredient is dried salted fish, so it is going to smell. The other ingredients include boiled potatoes, large onions, cloves of garlic, olive oil, boiled eggs, black olives, small bunch of chopped parsley, salt and pepper. You are going to want to cook this meal at least three days in advance to anybody to come into your home because the smell is going to linger. Alright to start the process of cooking the Bacalhau you are going to need a day in advance of the actual cooking process to soak the dried salted cod fish in cold water. The next step the following day is to grab a large pot and boil the codfish and potatoes. It is very important to take the potatoes out the pot before they harden, so you can actual slice up the potatoes. Once that step is completed, you have to grab a separate saucepan and hard boil eggs. After, you slice up your large onions, try not to cry because it ruins the atmosphere of the food and add it to a frying pan. It is important to use a lot of olive oil with the onions because they take away large amount of saltiness of the dish. Make sure to fry the onion until they are golden brown because it gives the onions more taste and time to soak up the olive oil. Next all the ingredients have to be assorted into a casserole dish by alternated layers of potatoes, cod fish, golden brown onions and garlic cloves. You must also drizzle olive oil on every layer of the dish because the dish is still extremely salty. Put the casserole dish into an oven preheated to 350 degrees fahrenheit until golden on top. Finally, salt, pepper and parsley is added over top of the dish almost like sprinkles on ice cream and you are done.
Image One Below:
(The final product of Bacalhau)
I know it is a heart attack waiting to happen but it is my culture and what we do. The dish can get a bit expense ranging from forty to fifty dollars, but it also does feed a lot of people because the actual food weighs about ten to fifteen pounds. Making an enormous amount food food runs back to the portuguese culture aspect behind the dish, as my mom said “You need to make enough food to ensure that everyone gets fed. Once everyones eaten you can just take the food home and eat it for lunch and dinner tomorrow. We never want to waste food filho.”. Filho means son in portuguese and this goes to show that the meals are made enormous to save time not cooking every night and can be eaten over the course of several days. Everytime I think about this meal it reminds me of my avó or grandmother in portuguese. I think of all the times where is visited her in Pico and explored the place where my mother was born, with her, my dad, and my siblings. How the island can be the most beautiful place in the world at times and other times rough red volcanic ash. All the memories just flood back after a bite of the salt infused, grease covered and potato starched smack of goodness.
Image Two:
(Here is a picture of my brother with the island of Pico behind him)
I could and would never try making this dish because it would be a disgrace to both my avó and my culture. If this dish is to be made it has to be done by an experienced cooker because if a mistake was made and the Bacalhau is ruined you would have wasted a lot of time and money. That is why I prefer when my avó over my mother to cook this dish because she cooked it for her when she was a child and has mastered it. Bacalhau is in my mother’s top five favorite foods and in her own words has said “Avó is a better cook than I am. Her cooking reminds me of the Sunday night dinners we use to have as a family back as a child with vovô.”. Vovô means grandpa and he passed away back in 1991 before I was born due to cancer. He was an avid smoker, as are most of my family here and in Portugal. Sadly this is another memory that pops into my head when thinking about this dish, it more than just food for me. That’s why my mother thinks I like this dish so much because she knows more than just the food for me, it is what it reminds me of too. My final question to my mother was why do you love Portuguese food? Her reply was “It’s more than just the food, it is the gathering other loved ones. To remind you of what you have lost and built over time. It is a way to reflect on your life.”.
Image Three:
(This is the taste of the island’s beauty)
The reason that Bacalhau is my favorite food is not because of the amazing taste of salt, grease, starch, and high cholesterol but because they memories it brings about. It does not matter if they brighten my mood or put me in a saddened state, I love the memories all the same. It makes me think about my culture and the astronomically healthy options that we take for comfort. I love the people that I chose to eat and share the experience with. Mostly though I love embracing culture and making my mom happy to see me love the food.
