I had to laugh to myself as I recalled Greg Gomes telling one of his favorite jokes: “There are two kinds of people, there are those that are Portuguese, and then there are those that want to be Portuguese.”
I will be visiting Portugal this fall for the first time — something I have always wanted to do because I think Portuguese food in Hawaii is one of the more misunderstood cuisines in the state. Local people tend to think that Portuguese cuisine is all about Portuguese bean soup, malasadas, sweet bread and Portuguese sausage. I believe it’s more than just that. I recently had to make a pot of the soup and had to talk story about the subject so I dived into seeking out as much information as I could about Portuguese bean soup. In the process, I got so absorbed with everything Portuguese that I thought of Greg’s joke.
I asked friends going to Portugal to inquire about Portuguese bean soup and maybe trying some so they could explain to me what it was like. Everyone says that the locals there don’t know what that is. I meet people from Portugal and ask if it exists there and they mostly say it doesn’t exist like how it is in Hawaii. So this is how I rationalized the soup in my mind. The early Portuguese immigrants that came to Hawaii from the Azores had a craving for the food of their homeland, no different than all the other immigrants that were here as well. They made the dish with what ingredients they had on hand or could find in a mostly humble time. But if the soup didn’t exist in their homeland what were they actually trying to cook up?
I searched the Internet to see if there is a Portuguese bean soup in Portugal. All I got is Hawaiian-style Portuguese bean soup, but when I asked if there is a bean soup in Portugal, bingo! I get sopa de feijao and molho de feijão. I dug deeper and found that some recipes have pasta in them, some have chorizo sausage, some have tomato in them, and none had ham hocks. Of course, all had beans in them. Now I’m starting to get the feeling of what the early immigrants were hungering for. I also think it depended on what part of Portugal they came from that determined what ingredients they added to a bean soup. It sounds like a humble and satisfying soup that probably wasn’t as luxurious as some of the versions we see locally, with a lot of ham hock and sausage in the soup. What we eat in Hawaii has been an evolution of the dish over time and that’s why it doesn’t exist in Portugal. We see it so many times where a dish from its homeland comes to Hawaii. It evolves and becomes unique to us. A hybrid dish is born that doesn’t exist in its own country of origin.
For the upcoming cruise that takes us to London, Bordeaux and Lisbon, we had a pre-trip talk story with everyone who signed up. We started with a tasting of wines from Bordeaux, the Loire Valley and Napa Valley. Robin and Kerry did an outstanding job with that. Randy went over the itinerary as well as all the other details. I served my current version of Portuguese bean soup. I started with ham hocks and oxtails. After it simmered for a couple of hours, I added pork and beef shoulder cubes. Onions, carrots celery, potatoes, cabbage, kimchi, tomatoes, beans, no pasta and the obligatory Portuguese sausage to qualify it as Portuguese (I’m being sarcastic). What came out in the end wasn’t Portuguese nor would I find it in Portugal. It was inspired by our hybrid local bean soup. I cannot wait to eat Sopa de Feijao in Portugal, along with all the other dishes we find in Hawaii that are called Portuguese. From what little I know, a lot of it is simple. If you are on the coast, a lot of seafood such as grilled sardines with Portuguese olive oil and some ingredients that have a long history like bacalhao or salted cod. I want to try piri piri, to compare it with our local style chile pepper water. The Portuguese gave us many culinary gifts. I look forward to some exploring and tasting them in their own country.
Chef and restaurateur Alan Wong has wowed diners around the world for decades, and is known as one of the founders of Hawaii Regional Cuisine. Find his column in Crave every first Wednesday. Currently, Wong is dba Alan Wong’s Consulting Co.
