does Portuguese cooking use a lot of salt ?
 

Question to those who can compare cuisine in Portugal with other countries. Do Portuguese use a lot of salt in their cuisine? My spouse and I have high blood pressure with salt our number 1 enemy. Salty foods every now and then is ok, but 2 weeks of high salt intake will be too much. I ask because I noticed that some countries, like Puerto Rico and Colombia, put a lot of salt in their dishes.
Any food or dish we should avoid ?
Thanks.

My father has high blood pressure so I'm used to eat mostly without it at home. I didn't notice when in Portugal an abnormal presence of salt in foods. Anyway, in their traditional cuisine a big ingredient is "bacalhau" (cod) which in itself can be salty.

The best fresh fish I ever had was in a small cafe in Lisbon. It was so fresh the fisherman brought it in while we were at the table. It was grilled, served very simple. It did not notice a lot of salt. You probably can get heavy food there but if you inquire I bet you can get some very good light grilled food. Don't miss the custard tarts if you can eat such! They are wonderful. Lisbon is a great city to visit if you can make it there...

We visited Portugal twice in the 80s and I have very fond memories of the food. I do not recollect that it was particularly salty, although we had been told by a resident that it tended to be slatier than what we might be used to. There were for two dishes, however, that we did notice were salty. "Frango com piri piri" was a grilled chicken that had been marinated in a hot sauce. I thought it was intensely salty, but that might have been unique to the couple of restaurants where I ordered that dish.

And, as kenderina mentions, bacalhau (salt cod) was a frequent offering. It can be prepared in a manner that extracts much of the salt, but it was indeed salty when I had it.

Anselm

We were in NW Portugal in July '04 and thought the food heavily salted, particularly on the coast.
Also, I noticed an unusually large number of younger folks who had signicant neuromuscular problems which appeared to be the result of prior strokes.
M
M

Stay away from Bacalhao, a very popular and revered dish, at least by most Portuguese. It's just another name for Salted Cod.

As Bill Boy said, stay away from the cod. It may be salted. On the other hand, if you like fish and seafood, Portugal serves absolutely the best,and freshest of both. Never had a problem with salt, and my wife doesn't want salt on anything.

Check out my webpage on our trip to portugal in April. Myabe it will help you in planning.

http://www.travel.stv77.com/portugal/pt.htm

Thanks to all of you for your tips.
I can live on fresh grilled fish. My husband can live on the custard tarts for 2 weeks.
sssteve, I've been reading your webpage and have indeed gotten many useful tips. Thanks.