Lisbon: Culinary Backstreets - Post-Colonial Food Tour

The activity lasts 5 hours and 30 minutes

Available in English

Cancellation policy

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the experience starts.

All food consumed during the walk
Expert Tour Leader
Almost a dozen different edible specialties across 9–12 stops

Alcoholic beverages
Gratuities
Transportation to and from the meeting point

All food consumed during the walk
Expert Tour Leader
Almost a dozen different edible specialties across 9–12 stops

Alcoholic beverages
Gratuities
Transportation to and from the meeting point

Discover the flavors of post-colonial Portugal on a guided food tour of Lisbon. Taste Brazilian pastel de vento, Cape Verdean cachupa, and more as you learn about the city's diverse culinary history.

Begin your culinary journey with a taste of Brazil, stopping for the city’s best pastel de vento (a popular meat- and cheese-filled pastry), made by an immigrant chef from Minas Gerais who has worked hard to set up her own business. Here, in Lisbon’s “little Brazil,” get a chance to taste a variety of other classic Brazilian snacks, both savory and sweet.

From there, head to Cape Verde and try its signature stew, cachupa. Packed with hominy, studded with Portuguese chorizo, and topped with an egg, the version you’ll try is prepared by the self-proclaimed “King of Cachupa” himself. While here, sip on locally-distilled grog, a Cape Verdean spirit made from sugar cane (in this case grown on the outskirts of Lisbon).

As you continue your walk, enjoy coffee from Angola and chocolate from Sao Tome, learning about these commodities’ roots in slavery and their current move toward free-trade standards. Visit a shop selling religious icons from Brazil and learn about how African religious traditions were disguised within Catholicism for centuries by colonial subjects of the Portuguese crown.

Though Portuguese language and the Catholic faith were once the cornerstones of Portugal’s colonies, in all of these diverse kitchens the real object of devotion is piripiri, the chili pepper. Along your tour, sample a few versions of the chili-based sauce that reflect a range of tastes, from Africa to Asia, and stop into one of the best spots in the city for a taste of piripiri chicken, based on a recipe brought over from Angola.

Up one hill and down another, reward yourself with the city’s finest samosas and meet a family that’s protecting Goan culinary tradition by serving up bojés (chickpea fritters), sanná (steamed rice cake with coconut), and bebinca, a unique multi-layered cake. Finally, sunset will find you at a beautiful viewpoint overlooking the city, giving you the chance – with one more surprise bite – to honor the survival of such rich and diverse traditions, all at home in little old Lisbon.