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Cape Verde Food, Cape Verde CuisineIdeal for fish eaters and vegetariansThe cuisine in the Cape Verde is derived from Portuguese traditions and is also similar to Brazilian. It relies on an abundance of locally caught fish, and some locally grown vegetables such as tomatos, potatoes, carrots, peppers and salads. On Sal, tuna, wahoo and a variety of Atlantic fish are landed every day at the pier. Most are bought by big hotels, but if you arrive before mid-day and are pay a bit more you can get what is going. The nursery just near Murdeira off the Espargos-Santa Maria highway will sell boxloads of fresh vegentables grown almost without water in a hydraponics system. Rice is imported from the US and Portugal and frozen chickedn from Brazil. Good frozen meat used to be available from Sotu Africa but as SAA has diverted its Atlanta-Joburg flights, this source has been replaced by less apetising meat from Brazil. Very few cattle are kept on the islands although you will see a forlorn decapitated cow`s head on the open air market. The national dish cachupa derives, amazingly enough from an English recipe called ketchup. This must have been well before Mr Heinz degrade it and put it into a bottle. It consists of rice, tomatoes and usually either small pieces of fish or chicken. It is good value at around £3 in local restaurants and can make a nice breakfast with a fried egg on top. The other main dish is white fish, cooked wih potatoes rice and carrots. Most Cape Verdean dishes feature both potatoes and rice. Beans - black, white, red or brown - are available in profusion, imported in bulk from Portugal. Wine too is mostly Portuguese but you can also find local wine from the volcano on Fogo, the most southerly vinyard in the Northern hemisphere. It is excellent but not as cheap as the Portuguese which can be £2/3 a bottle.
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