This week’s travel dream: Savoring the tastes of the Azores

Travelers are starting to discover the culinary riches of this lush archipelago.

Travelers are starting to discover that the tiny Azores are centuries ahead of New York or L.A. when it comes to culinary trends, said Denise Drower Swidey in The Boston Globe. Nose-to-tail dining? For the last five centuries and counting, the residents of these nine small islands in the middle of the Atlantic “couldn’t afford to waste even a pig’s ear.” Slow cooking? There isn’t any nonslow way for a family to cook when their source of heat is a pit in the ground warmed to no more than 212 degrees by the volcanic activity below their feet. Tourists who fly into the capital of Ponta Delgada are still drawn to this lush archipelago mostly by its “breathtaking” beauty. “But more and more, they are staying for the food.”

A stroll through Ponta Delgada’s indoor public market yields some instant surprises. You might guess that fish would be bountiful here, but the variety astounds: The daily catch seems to stretch out in an “endless,” rainbow-colored line. The multiple stands selling only pineapples might be even more unexpected—unless you knew already that São Miguel specializes in pineapple production. Generations ago, residents of this nontropical island learned to cultivate the plants in greenhouses, using smoke to force all the plants to flower at once. You can tour some of the greenhouses before visiting the Gorreana Tea Plantation: São Miguel also holds the distinction of being Europe’s only commercial producer of tea.

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