Creole Cuisine

Flavors from Three Continents on One Plate

The cuisine of Cape Verde is the edible reflection of its history: a fusion of African, Portuguese, and Brazilian flavors born in the kitchens of an archipelago that was for centuries a crossroads of Atlantic cultures. Each dish tells a story of blending, adaptation, and creativity, and eating in Cape Verde is to immerse oneself in a culinary tradition as rich as it is unknown.

The king of dishes is cachupa, a slow-cooked stew of crushed corn, beans, sweet potato, cassava, and meat or fish that simmers on low heat for hours. Every family, every island, has its own recipe. The "cachupa rica" includes pork, chorizo, blood sausage, and chicken; the "cachupa pobre," only legumes and vegetables. The next day, the leftovers are fried in a pan and served as "cachupa guisada," accompanied by a fried egg: the quintessential Cape Verdean breakfast.

From Sea to Table

In an island nation, fish takes center stage. Fresh grilled tuna, served with rice and feijão (beans), is the most everyday dish. But the star of special occasions is lagosta grelhada: grilled lobster, split in half and seasoned with lemon and butter, served in the dockside restaurants of Santa Maria at prices that would be unthinkable in Europe. Buzio (a large sea snail) stewed with tomato and herbs is another local delight.

Cape Verdean sweets are the perfect finishing touch: pudim de queijo (cheese pudding), grated coconut cake, doce de papaia, and cocadas (caramelized coconut balls). All washed down with coffee from the islands of Fogo and Santo Antão, grown on volcanic slopes over a thousand meters high, with an intense and fruity flavor that surprises even the most discerning palates.

In Cape Verde, the table is where Africa, Portugal, and Brazil meet, mix, and create something that exists nowhere else in the world.