Because of my daughter's exquisite request I have been looking for Portuguese cuisine books she would like to offer the English Chefs she is working with in England. I didn't come across many I would personally buy, especially after having read The taste of Portugal by Edite Vieira, I consider to be among the best (if not the best) I have seen so far and which is now only available in hardcover version and therefore a lot more expensive than what she was prepared to pay .
I nevertheless ended up buying some rather interesting ones, two of which I had never seen before. Three completely different approaches to the Portuguese cuisine but which I am sure will delight the ones they are for.
Amidst this search, which has been going on for almost two weeks, I have come across a very interesting French book on Lisbon and some of its less known stories and history associated facts, which I have read in one go, having been made aware of a number of things I must confess I didn't know. I have decided to buy one for a French couple I 'll be staying at on my return from Vietnam.
I have also bought a bilingual edition (Portuguese originals and English translations) of some well known Lisbon poets of the past, recently edited in Portugal which I had intended to offer a friend of the ICAEA association I will soon meet at an International Aviation gathering but I have once more got disppointed, as I have realised that possibly having English translators is not be the most accurate approach to convey the Portuguese soul. The poems are clearly well translated but lack something ... that something that could identify them as being Portuguese. I will therefore use some of them in the English classes ... and have my students 'opinions on those English versions as compared with the Portuguese originals.
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