10 Flavorful Reasons to Visit the Azores

Dez razões saborosas para visitar os Açores, é o titulo do site BOSTON.com.

Frutas e vegetais exóticos; Peixes e frutos do mar; Queijo; Ananás; Licor; Vinho; Chá; Cozido; Doçaria.

"In restaurant Anfiteatro’s sleek waterfront lounge, skilled barmen muddle herb-infused cocktails as guests settle down at long dining tables set for a multicourse meal—wine pairings included. No, this is not New York or Paris. It’s Ponta Delgada, the largest city in the remote Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. At this teaching restaurant, part of the city’s hospitality school, you quickly learn a major lesson: Azorean food can be surprisingly modern.

Abundant in fertile farmland and surrounded by thriving ocean, the Atlantic island chain has been giving its rustic regional cuisine a contemporary boost for the last decade or so, largely due to the school’s annual food showcase 10 Fest, which hosts 10 gourmet dinners over 10 days in June. Here, in a place where chattering fishmongers and small-scale cheese makers are the norm, 10 well-regarded chefs from Portugal and guest nations elevate simple ingredients into gastronomic treasures, including squid terrine with passion fruit emulsion and artfully composed pineapple queijadas virtually floating on ethereal tea foam.

In creating their menus, the chefs draw from a bevy of local products caught from the sea and grown in rich volcanic soils. And, as a traveler, you can follow where they go, sampling island flavors along the way. So, in the spirit of a festival where good things come in tens, here are 10 food-filled reasons to visit the Azores."

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