Cape Verdian Food & Drink

TRADITIONAL DISHES

-   The national dish, cachupa, is often described as the staple food of the Cape Verde Islands. It is a slow boiled stew of hominy corn, beans, herbs, cassava and sweet potato (poor-man's cachupa variety) with chicken and other meat (rich-man's cachupa variety). Cachupa rica (rich-man's cachupa), has become expensive and it is eaten by the majority of the population, who can't afford to buy meat and the other essential ingredients, and where fish is often used as a substitute, only on special occasions.

Cachupada are festive occasions when cape verdeans, scattered in immigrant communities around the world, gather to share a well-made kettle of cachupa, accompanied by storytelling and shared memories.

Recipes for cachupa vary from island to island and from household to household. On Brava island cachupa is called munchupa. 

The ingredients in a kettle of cachupa may also depend on whether it has been a year of rain or a year of drought. In a good year there will always be greens, mandioca, potatoes, maybe squash, yams, and plenty of pork meat. In a dry year you might have to make due with corn, a handful of beans and a piece of salt pork.

Because cachupa takes a long time to prepare, restaurants put a sign in their windows to advise when they will next be serving it. Cachupa costs around 350/500$.

And don't forget the cachupa guisada for breakfast, where the leftovers are fried over some browned onions and served with a fried egg on top! (cachupa ku ovo stralado)

-   Canja de galinha, the thick chicken and rice soup is another such dish, mainly served only at wedding, funerals and New Year's eve celebrations or to nurse a sick relative to health. 
                                

FISH & SEAFOOD

Fish lovers are also in for a treat in Cape Verde. Not only is it fresh and delicious, it’s also inexpensive.

Do not miss the grilled lobster (one of the main dishes for tourists, price starts at around 1,200$/ £8), juicy giant prawns, fresh tuna, tasty octopus and many other delicacies.

LOCAL DESSERTS

Typical desserts consist of fresh goat's cheese accompanied by local speciality jams and semi-dried fruits.

SUPERMARKETS AND STREET FOOD

Supermarkets, markets and bakeries are a good source for cheap picnic lunches, and bottled water is widely available in any ordinary shop (70$ for a 1.5 litre bottle compared to the steep 180$ in hotels).

Homemade sweets are the most common food sold on the streets. Sometimes you will also find women with trays full of little pasteis, fish pastries and fried moreia, moray eel.

AND, OF COURSE...

You will also be able to find restaurants offering excellent European cuisine throughout the tourist areas. 

LOCAL BEER, WINE AND SPIRITS

There are three main beers: Strela, the household brand (around 100$), Superbock and Sagres, imported from Portugal (around 250$). The one-litre bottle of Coral is commonly known as "Titanic"!  Mix it with the sweet limonade of Ceris and you get a refreshing panache, shandy.

Wine is mainly imported from Portugal, while local production comes from the island of Fogo and can be found around the archipelago.

The famous Grogue

And let's not forget the grogue, the local rum, produced on Santo Antao and Santiago. This drink constitutes an important part of Cape Verdean culture to the extent that the process of production proved to be a rich source of inspiration for music. In addition to pure grogue, people drink ponche (punch), grogue sweetened with sugarcane molasses and condensed milk.

Some grogue brand names include: Pelourinho, Fortaleza and Convento.