The food served in our restaurants is considered amongst the best the island has to offer. The offer is diverse and excels in quality. The locally-produced cheese, smoked sausages, and sweets are the beginning and the end of meals that delight those who visit us, as they take us back to our grandparents kitchen.
The richness of our sea offers fresh fish and seafood that is presented in many different ways: grilled, fried, in stews, or in soups - these are the most common ways of cooking them.. Most notably at our traditional restaurants is the octopus stew cooked in red wine, with a typical seasoning.
The characteristic grasslands from the island gives the meat dishes a genuine quality and taste. A large variety offered most notably includes: the stewed meat, stewed beans with tripe, dried broad beans with chorizo, the Portuguese "cozido" stew cooked in the hot springs of the earth boilers at Ribeira Grande, and the typical "steak Micaelense (São Miguel style)."
Visiting Ribeira Grande involves getting to know its cuisine.
A dish much appreciated by locals and visitors alike, fresh fish of the day ready to grill, as it retains all its flavour, served with potatoes from the land, yams, tanned onion, and chilli strips. A simple dish, but rich in flavours.
Prepared in a very typical way, wrapped in cornmeal and fried in pork lard or oil, and served with villain sauce, or baked in a clay frying pan served with green sauce, it represents the uniqueness of the most typical local cuisine. Tasting these dishes means going back in time.
Based on succulent fish such as the Conger, the Forkbeard, or the Rockfish, the “Caldeirada” [fish stew] offers an explosion of flavours, for the richness of its composition. Onions, fresh tomatoes, bell-peppers, among other ingredients that, together with the fish, are cooked over a low heat, distilling all their flavour, and turning it into a full and unique dish. When serving, it should always be garnished with slices of bread to absorb its abundant broth.
With some minor changes, stewed or baked octopus is a typical dish of the island of São Miguel. In Ribeira Grande, the best octopus is eaten at traditional restaurants. Cooked in red wine, spiced with chillies and served with diced potatoes - this makes for an appetizing dish.
One of the oldest dishes of our regional cuisine. Rich and strong, are the two adjectives that best characterize it. Made with dried broad beans to be soaked the day before and cooked in a low heat, until it becomes a thick and tempting broth that can be served just as a snack, or as a main dish, when accompanied by yam, cornbread, and a good glass of wine.
Beef cut into small pieces, preferably with small pieces of bone, and well seasoned, where chilli and aromatic wine seem the main ingredients. This dish, reddish in colour, should be served hot, accompanied by cubed potatoes. A specialty of our traditional restaurants.
Emblematic dish of the island of São Miguel, cooked inside the earth, in the hot springs of Lagoa das Furnas, and in the earth boilers of Ribeira Grande. It is the most complete delicacy offered by our local cuisine. Consisting of beef, pork and chicken, plus vegetables such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, carrots, savoy and green cabbage, and the two regional smoked sausages - the black blood sausage and the chorizo -, make this dish the delight of locals and visitors alike. All ingredients are placed in layers in an earth pan with the lid closed and covered with a white cloth, and it will bake at an average temperature of 90 degrees (in the hotspring boilers of Ribeira Grande) for about 6 hours.
The first essence of this steak is the quality of the meat, which is unquestionable in the region. Carefully and accurately cut, it is seasoned with a little chilli, lots of garlic, and fried in butter, served with salty chilli strips and accompanied by French fries. A true delight for meat lovers.
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