A Typical Madeiran Dinner

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The final "tour" we purchased for the first week of our stay in Madeira was a "Typical Dinner". A minivan picked us up the hotel at 7:30 p.m. There were two passengers already in the van, a mother and daughter from Surrey, England. They immediately commented upon my American accent. Given that I've neither met nor heard any other Americans so far in Portugal, I guess my accent is noticeable. I wonder what an American accent sounds like to a Brit.

Anyway, we were driven to a large restaurant that probably holds up to 500 people, with a stage across one end of the room. We thought, oh dear, this is going to be a mass production. But, only about forty people came to the dinner that night, so it had an intimate feel about it. Of the dozen at our table, all were from England except Don and myself. (We learned that British Airways has a direct flight to Madeira from Gatwick that takes only 3.5 hours.) The couple on my right were from Cornwall and the group of about six on the other side of the ladies from Surrey was from London. They all spoke with notably different accents!

I keep digressing from the dinner; sorry. We were immediately served a glass of Madeira wine to start out with. The wine was followed by a bowl of vegetable soup and garlic bread that looked more like a huge English muffin than bread. A green salad with sliced tomatoes and onions, and grated carrots, all slathered in a dressing was served next. Bottles of red and white wine were then placed on the table, preceding plates of french fries and deep-fried maize. French fries??? When I raised the question, my English dinner companions pointed out that they were in fact chips, perfectly in keeping with the British settlement of this Island in the 17th Century.

The main entree was then presented on skewers hung from racks between every other place setting. This was Espetada, beef marinated in herbs and cooked over an open fire. The meat continued to hang there, dripping on a plate placed under it as we pulled chunks off to eat with our dinner. It was all quite good.

As the plates were being cleared away after we finished eating, a group of kids in traditional Portuguese costume came in to dance for us. They brought their own musicians; an accordian, banjo, drum, guitar, and tambourines. They were a delight to watch as they circled, dipped and swayed, and moved in and out of squares. While the dancing was going on, we were served very rich ice cream.

The dancers were followed by a male fado singer accompanied by the traditional guitar and mandolin. Fado is sad and soulful and it's the first time we've heard it sung by a man. I actually preferred it. The diners were then being served coffee and passionfruit brandy for the ladies; raw rum for the men. You should have seen the faces of the men when they first tasted that stuff. It was awful, but everyone had a good laugh.

It was a nice evening and we enjoyed the company of our dinner companions.

We've since moved into an apartment in downtown Madeira. I'll write later about our attempts to live Madeiran style.

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