O Pescador: Terceira Island's Premier Restaurant in the Azores by Philip S. Kampe & Maria Reveley

There is always something special about a vacation. Food and restaurants are always, should I say, on my mind.

Take this last vacation to the Portuguese possession, Terceira Island, Azores.
Being the foodie that I am, my goal was to search for the perfect restaurant for our needs.

And that was seafood and a great local wine list.

After a few hours of inquiries with our hotel staff, the Visit Azores tourist group and numerous other locals and tourists, the universal reply was,“ O Pecador?”, a local seafood restaurant in the seaside town of Praia da Vitoria.

With a solution in hand, we called the restaurant for reservations for an evening meal. The man on the other line was Jose Costa, owner of O Pescador.

We talked like old friends for several minutes and Jose suddenly asked me if we would like to join his wife, Patricia and himself, for dinner at the restaurant.
He said, “I want to show you what makes us famous.”

The evening was set.

Mr. Costa volunteered to drive us.
One thing that we noted was that the people on this small island are happy, nice and helpful to everyone.

Terceira Island seems like an island where the word, ‘stress’, has no meaning. And to all of us in the real world, isn’t this the place you would want to be?

As the hours passed, before Jose Costa’s arrival, we pilfered through our suitcase to find a suitable gift for Jose and Patricia Costa as a thank you for their good intentions. We didn’t have to look hard to find a couple of presents for the Costa’s.

Inside the suitcase was a large bag of homemade candied pecans and a restaurant size box of Louisiana crab boil. We always prepare for the unknown.

Our evening was set.

At a little after six in the evening, Mr.Costa showed up at our hotel. We talked for several minutes, like college buddies and headed off to O Pescador.

Upon arrival at the restaurant we were greeted by Patricia, Jose’s lovely wife, one of four pediatricians on the island.

Immediately the wine steward came over with a glass of volcanic wine from the islands. The winewas a Sauvignon Blanc/Verdelho blend from Casa Ermelinda de Freitas. The wine was excellent. High minerality, with a resemblance to white burgundy..

The evening was off to a good start.

We chatted for quite awhile and Jose asked us if it was OK for him to order for us.

Within minutes, a seafood trio came out: Lapas Grelhades (grilled limpets), Cambas ao Alho (prawns with garlic) and a creamy tuna spread. All of the appetizers paired perfectly with the wine.

This was our first time we consumed limpets, a shelled sea specimen similar to conch in a shell.. Jose placed a second order of grilled limpets for the table, probably due to the fact that I consumed my share in record time. I explained to Patricia and Jose that I grew up in New Orleans and could easily consume ten pounds of fresh shrimp, two dozen oysters and a half dozen crabs at one sitting.

Next came out a dish of pheasant and rabbit fried balls that resembled rice balls. In Portuguese, this dish is called Alheira Caca Lapas. The combination was satisfying, tasty and a new eating experience that was not only pleasurable, but, desirable.

My wife, Maria, agreed with me.

If this was just a preview of the cuisine of Terceria Island, what could be next? Enter Seafood Cataplana in a light cream sauce. The dish resembled a bisque style soup filled with mussels, limpets, shrimp and squid. Jose explained that the dish was made in a specially made copper pan with an attached lid that was made in Portugal.

The richness of the cream sauce loaded with seafood ranks in the top five favorite seafood dishes of my lifetime.

Next came dessert.

                                                         Donna Amelia

                                                     Seafood Cataplana

                                                  Sauvignon Blanc/Verdelho blend

                                                                 Appetizers

                                                Over 1000 bottle wine program

                                                   Ports and Donna Amelia desserts

                                                              Jose Costa

Jose explained that the Queen of Portugal visited the Azores during her reign. As a tribute to her, a dessert was made and named after her. Its called ‘Donna Amelia’ and was presented to the Queen during her visit in the 19th century.

Our festive meal ended with Donna Amelia and a glass of Porto Tawny.

Thanks to Jose and Patricia Costa, our introduction to the food of Terceira Island was turned into a lifelong memory.

Two nights later, we took the Costa family, including their eight year old son and twelve year old daughter out to eat at a local restaurant Jose suggested.

Friendships never die…

Jose Costa shared my favorite recipe of seafood cataplana. As you will see the recipe lacks measurable amounts. You will have to experiment.

Seafood Cataplana
*Try to use a round shaped Portuguese copper cooking dish (cataplana) or  a dutch oven*

* Lightly boil shrimp, fish, squid, mussels and clams.
* In the cataplana, add whole milk, mushrooms and broken up cooked bacon.
* Add the boiled seafood and season with salt, pepper, ketchup, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce.
* Cook until the cream milk turns yellow.


O Pescador (closed Sundays and open every other night for dinner)
Rua Constantino Jose Cardodo no.11
9760 Praia da Vitoria

Tel# 351 295 513 495

Article by: Philip S. Kampe and Maria Reveley

Philip.kampe@thewinehub.com

Terceira Island, the 'Gem of the Azores' and home of Verdelho Wines by Philip S.Kampe

                    

                                              The many faces of Angra do Herismo

Terceira Island, the ‘Gem’ of the Azores

The online advertisement read, “Visit beautiful Terceira Island, one of nine islands in the Azores”. The ad went on to say that SATA airlines is introducing weekly flights to Terceira Island from Boston and is offering a “Special Inaugural Deal” to visit this spectacular island.

The obvious first question I had was, “Where are the Azores?”

Even though I still maintain my amateur radio license (WA5EAM) and know a lot about geography, I really did not know enough to pinpoint the location of Terceira Island.

Yes, the islands are a possession of Portugal and yes, they are closer to America than any other European hamlet, but, really, where are they located? After a little research, the answer appeared. The Azores are on the same latitude as Lisbon (Portugal), but nine hundred miles closer to America, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

In essence, a flight from Boston to Terceira Island takes a mere four hours and forty minutes, which is shorter than a flight from Boston to Los Angeles. Obviously, if the Azores are a third closer to America then the rest of Europe, the weather conditions, the seafaring history of the island and wine varietals may be unique to the islands.

Climate
Terceira Island has a temperate, maritime climate with average temperatures average 72F (22C) in the summer and 58F (19C) in the winter. As we witnessed, weather wise, it’s possible that all four seasons of weather can occur in one single day. Rain can be found on one part of the island, while sun, only a few miles away. When it rains, the duration is short, rarely more than two days in a row. Wind is another story. Like the clouds, wind exists daily, more during the winter season than the summer.

Terceira Island
The island is 18 miles long, from east to west and 11 miles wide, from north to south. The highest elevation on the island, Serra de Santa Barbara, is 3,350 feet. The land area equals 154.7 mi or 396.75km. Terceira is also referred to as ‘Iha Lilas’, the lilac or violet island. The islands population is 56,000 inhabitants. The historical capitol of the Azores is Angra de Heroismo, the Azores oldest city and UNESCO heritage site. The name, Terceira, origin comes from the Portuguese word that means the ‘third’, as in ‘the third island’ or ‘third to be discovered’. Terceira Island is in the Central Group of the Azores archipelago.

History
Terceira Island is one of the archipelago of nine Azorian islands and is a symbol of the new world created by the Portuguese voyages of discovery. Dates vary as to when the island was discovered, but remnants from 2000 years ago were discovered, indicating a history of settlement.  The island was originally named Jesus Cristo before the name change to Terceira Island. The second oldest recorded history of the island dates back to 1325, prior to 1460 when Flemish Jacome de Bruges brought Portuguese migrants to the island. Production of wheat and pastel-a plant used in dyeing- was introduced and exported to northern Europe. Shipping expanded during the 16^th century and Terceira Island was a stopover for fleets returning to Europe with spice, silk and porcelain from Asia. Ship repairs were made on the island before returning to Europe.
In the 17^th century, Spanish ships stopped for repairs, after returning with gold and silver from their South American conquests. Occupation by the Spanish followed in due time, which eventually led to Portuguese rule.

Economy
Livestock is the main economic activity on the island, followed by dairy based products, such as cheese, yogurt and ice cream. Terceira has two main seaports and a commercial airport. The outlook for tourism is bright.

Terceira’s Geography
The island consists of four overlapping ‘stratovolcanoes’ built over a geologic structure called the ‘Terceira Rift’, a triple junction between the Eurasian, African and North American tectonic plates. These volcanic structures rise 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. Historically, the oldest volcanic activity began 380,000 years ago. Due to thousands of years of volcanic activity, the island possesses an abnormal amount of basaltic soil, formed from the basaltic lava that flowed from the eruptions.

                                          Island cuisine includes seafood and livestock

Wine
Prior to the 1857 phylloxera outbreak, all nine of the Azorian islands produced wine. Today, Terceira, Pico and Graciosa are the three remaining wine producing islands. In the mid-15^th century, Franciscan friars played a major role in the introduction of vineyards to the Azores. Historically, Verdelho, the key Azorian grape used in wine, was exported during the 17^th and 18^th century to northern Europe. Legend has it that when the communist revolution of 1917 ended, bottles of ‘Verdelho’ were found in the Russian Tsar’s cellars. The three wine producing islands are DOC’s of volcanic origin. Pico produces the most wines of the three islands due to the fact that the soil is a black basaltic, which supports vine growth. There was a burst in winemaking in the 1990’s, when winemakers began producing wines from the three traditional grapes, Verdelho, Arinto and Terrantez.

The focus of this article is to educate you, the reader, about the general aspects of the Azores, specifically Terceira Island. In forthcoming articles, the focus will be on the Wine Museum of Terceira Island; O Pescador Restaurant from Praia: the second largest city on Terceira; Quinta do Martelo: a village that recreates the general ambiance of Terceira from decades ago and Quinta dos Acores: a modern technological dairy, restaurant and meat packing house.

To learn more about the Azores, contact www.visitazores.com


Philip S. Kampe
philip.kampe@thewinehub.com

        

                                                          Philip S. Kampe