Saturday, December 29, 2018

My Adventures in Portugal, Gluten-Free



My Adventures in Portugal, Gluten-Free

This is the lovely Country House that we rented in North Portugal, situated in a quiet area between GuimarĂ£es and Braga.  My friends and I have been using these Vacation Rental Homes around the world for the past 20 years…and this house is a real gem! It’s now one of our favorites. The house is beautifully decorated and spotlessly clean. Our hostess, Rosario was there to greet us when we arrived, to show us around and make us feel truly welcomed. She had even prepared a light lunch buffet just for us with local
cheese, presunto, fresh bread and fruits.  There were even some homemade wine & cakes…what a wonderful surprise!! Of course I couldn’t enjoy it all…but my travel mates loved the extra hospitality.

My favorite spot was the Lilly Garden, in beautiful bloom, just outside the kitchen balcony.  I spent a lot of time just sitting out on the balcony, enjoying the peace and quiet of the countryside and watching my Granddaughters playing
outdoors.  The children’s favorite were the two Splash Pools they discovered were only about 2-feet deep and perfect for some fun and splashing around.

The house provided us with some of the basic items needed for our stay…trash bags, soaps, paper goods, some non-perishable cooking supplies…those were a big help.  Not all rental houses provide things like that.  Many are stripped clean after each renter and it’s up to the renter to scramble
for supplies that first day. Honestly, houses that are stripped like that are a huge disappointment.  But Rosario even took us to the local grocer so that we didn’t get lost. So our first stop was a store called Bolama’s in GuimarĂ£es.

I'm afraid that Portugal was the least Celiac friendly place I've visited. The Portuguese people are some of the friendliest
on earth, so the people were wonderful; they honestly tried to be helpful. But for the most part they had no clue, or real interest.  On the positive side...REAL ingredients abounded!! In restaurants and grocery stores...they used REAL food :-) So I did quite well...and I lost a bit of weight, no complaints. 

As we normally do, we asked the locals for their favorite
places to eat.  One place was so good…and did so well with my requests…that we went back two or three times to enjoy ourselves.  The first time we went, my daughter used a translator app on her phone to communicate with the owner.  When we went back the 2nd time HE had the app on his phone!  Now that’s customer service :-)


When you walk into any restaurant, aside from giving you a
heart-warming welcome, they immediately begin putting food on the table! We all looked at each other in amazement as the table began to fill with small plates of bread, butter, olives, cheese, Pasteis de Carne, Bolinhos de Bacalhau, Presunto you name it! Every time we sat down the offerings were always local, always different choices, and we enjoyed every bite.  But we never ordered any of it.  Menus came next, and we always ordered dishes to share…or some places actually served the entire table family style which was fun.  It wasn’t until the
check came after that first meal that we realized we were being billed for all those little bites we enjoyed before our meal! Lol If we ate 6 olives, we were billed for 6 olives, or 3 pats of butter, or two wedges of cheese…it was an interesting process. We didn’t complain though because the prices were reasonable, and the food so tasty, and we had planned on ordering hors d'oeuvres anyway.  It was simply a wonderful way to explore all the different foods and flavors that Portugal had to offer.  And a surprise every meal!

CarolAnne Le Blanc


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