What my Characters Eat and Drink

One thing that sets my novels apart from other romance novels in the genre is the Portuguese setting. As a native, I know the people, the places, and the language. The details make it different, and, hopefully, interesting to the readers. It’s the culture behind the story—all stories have their own culture, and it’s up to the writer to use that to the advantage of furthering the storytelling and enriching the characters.  A culture-poor book suffers from the lack of that dimension, and it shows in its pages.

One aspect of culture is the food. I asked myself—do my characters eat? Indeed, they do. Not too often, but just enough to bring to light some delightful examples of Portuguese gastronomy.

In The Secret Life of Daydreams, there are a few scenes that show some traditional foods and drinks. One of such is the soft drink Sumol.

sumol_evolucao[1]

Sumol is a fruit soda. The traditional flavors are orange and pineapple, with passion fruit and lemon added in more recent years (decades really). It has a very unique fruity flavor and lots of bubbles, which make it a popular choice for kids and even adults. It’s a definite Portuguese icon.

Another traditional drink is lemon-balm tea. Lemon-balm is a perennial aromatic and medicinal herb, a cousin of the common mint. It has a lemony fragrance and calming properties. You can use it fresh, but it’s more commonly dried and used to make an infusion, or tea. Since it’s herbal, it’s 100% caffeine-free. It’s beneficial for any kind of stomach ailment, and it also helps as a gentle sleep-aid. It’s the go-to herbal tea in Portugal. I like it so much that I grow it in my herb garden here in Utah. In high school and university, when I had girl friends over, toast and tea was an easy snack. My mother often teased me, “So you invite your friends and then only give them bread and water?” 😉
In the book, Sofia makes herself a cup of lemon-balm tea on several occasions. It’s a comforting ritual.
Lemon Balm Seeds

 

Now, let’s talk about snacks. The quintessential snack in Portugal is the lupini bean.

Lupini beans are a legume, like lentils, but a bit larger in size. They have to be soaked, cooked in salt, then soaked again for several days. In Portugal, you can buy them already prepared in water (to avoid dehydrating). Since coming to the US, I’ve learned to prepare them at home myself. Here’s some more information, including nutritional facts: https://www.lupini.us/
I love these beans. When I’m in Portugal, I eat them almost everyday, since they are so readily available and cheap. And since they’re low in fat and high in protein, they’re a good snack to have on hand. But, they’re an acquired taste for sure, as you can read in a scene between Josh and Sofia. 😉

 

And from snacks to desserts—the flan pudding. This is not exclusive to Portugal, but it’s very popular there. Its main ingredient are eggs, sugar, and milk, and it’s either baked in the oven or cooked on the stove top (you place the mold in a pot with water). The inside of the mold is coated with caramel, which gives it a lovely color on the top once is baked and removed. Even though it’s pretty simple to make, there are several ways to botch the recipe, which means there are several ‘secrets’ to make sure you get a perfect pudding. Sofia knows this and it’ one of her specialties.

 

And I can’t leave out pastéis de nata, or egg custard tarts—a soft, creamy center of egg custard lightly flavored with cinnamon on a puff pastry cup. What’s not to like? You can buy these at bakeries and pastry shops. If you ever go to Portugal, you don’t want to pass on these, take my word.
Pasteis de nata

 

In my second book, the story timeline spans from late Summer to early Spring of the following year, which means opportunities for Fall and Winter recipes.

This is caldo verde, a potato and dark green cabbage (a kind of kale) soup, seasoned with olive oil and chouriço (chorizo). It’s a traditional Portuguese soup, and very yummy.

 

And the best Fall snack is, of course, the roasted chestnut. Street vendors cook them in clay or metal pots like this:
castanha
They serve them in newspaper cones, and you look inside and the chestnuts look like this:
assada

That smoky smell, and the crackling of the peels… Roasted chestnuts are the best on a cold Winter day.

When Christmas comes, then you have other traditional desserts, one of which is arroz doce, Portuguese sweet rice (not to be confused with rice pudding, which is so not the same):

arrozdoc

Creamy sweet rice flavored with cinnamon. I make this for Christmas and my children love it. It’s a comfort food.

I hope you’ve liked this brief tour of Portuguese foods and their role in the culture of my stories. I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry and craving all of these now. 😉

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