Flavours and Knowledge

Tabuaço

Handicrafts

Tabuaço’s handicrafts are closely linked to the construction of pieces and instruments related to local culture and traditions.

There are still people in Granja do Tedo who reproduce traditional basketry, a craft they inherited from their ancestors.

In the municipality of Tabuaço, it’s interesting to see the reproduction, in schist stone, of the region’s typical houses, although local craftsmen have been diversifying the type of material used to build their pieces, such as wood, granite, roots, vines, among others.

The pieces are as varied as crucifixes, pens, nativity scenes, clocks and much more. In the wine-growing village of Barcos, the local craftsman uses tin as a working material, making beautiful handcrafted pieces. Other local artisans stand out for their skill in decorative arts.

There are several artists from Tabuac who have excelled in the art of painting and drawing, applying multiple painting techniques on canvas (oil, acrylic, oil pastel, wax, watercolour, sprays, charcoal, among others), but also on fabric, murals, ceramics, glass, wood and stone.

Throughout the county we find lace makers, weavers and embroiderers. In the town of Guedieiros, there are still the stilt walkers.

Gastronomy

Entrées and Snacks: Ham and local smoked meats (moiras, moiros, alheiras, chouriças, salpicões); Bola de Carne; Bola Doce; Folar de Azeite (Olive Oil Puff)

Fish dishes: River fish in pickled sauce

Meat Dishes: Roast kid with oven rice; Steak with port wine sauce; Grilled pork; Rump steak; Lamb frittata; Wild boar; Cabidela rice

Dessert: Vermicelli; Egg pudding; Rice pudding; Chestnut sweets; Cherries, grapes and apples; Roasted chestnuts

Drinks: Table wines (red, white and rosé); Port wine – Jeropiga; Gin and tonic (Cobalt 17)

Typical sweets: Bolo-rei de Tabuaço; Pão-de-ló; Matrafões

Traditional dishes

The gastronomy of the Municipality of Tabuaço is closely linked to the way of life of our ancestors. In a farmer’s house there was no shop that didn’t raise pigs and no fireplace that didn’t dry out the smoked meat.

Tabuaço thus offers a cuisine of traditional knowledge and flavors, with specialties such as goat stuffed with giblets and served with oven-baked rice.

As a riverside municipality, we cannot omit, especially because the sin of gluttony itself would not forgive it, the famous river fish, fried in olive oil and preserved in a distinct marinade sauce that only the most experienced hands know how to make.

Rich in game, wild boar is possibly the most extravagant delicacy in our territory, much appreciated and sought after by tourists and visitors from various parts of the country.

Tabuaço is synonymous with wine and olive oil, excellent products whose characteristics time and generations have mastered, with skill, preserved and perfected.

Time has also managed to preserve the memory and the rich gastronomic heritage associated with the Cistercian Monks who, many centuries ago, had a seat in our municipality. Today, through taste, we witness the mastery of conventual sweets that, as secrets, still reach our tables.

With more boldness, because to this end it uses its reputation for being the best in Portugal, the famous bolo-rei is presented, which has long since left the Christmas scene and is displayed practically throughout the year in the municipality’s bakeries and pastry shops, right there. alongside the famous olive oil folares, these most associated with Easter.

It is thus a case of saying that if the Best of the Douro is Here in Tabuaço, the best gastronomy can also be tasted here!

Dish - Roast goat with roast potatoes and oven rice

Ingredients: Kid, salt, olive oil, pepper paste, garlic, white wine, aromatic herbs, including rosemary and bay leaf.

Preparation method: The meat is roasted in the oven after being marinated in white wine and aromatic herbs for several hours. The particularity of our roast goat is that the roasting liquids also serve as a seasoning for the potatoes and rice, which are also roasted in the oven.