Food and drink

What to eat in Madeira?
Food in Madeira has a few defining features. First – freshness. Fish goes straight from the boat to the market and the restaurants, tropical fruit ripens on the island and the beef is local. Second – simplicity. A typical Madeiran dish is a handful of top-quality ingredients, without complicated sauces or techniques. Third – generous portions. Order fish in a local restaurant and it comes with rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, lettuce and tomatoes – often at no extra charge.
Let’s start with fish and seafood, because they’re the foundation of the local cuisine. Espada preta (black scabbardfish, literally “black sword”) is a deep-sea fish with an almost grotesque look – black, with huge eyes and sharp teeth – but delicate white flesh. In Madeira it’s traditionally served with bananas and a passion fruit sauce, which sounds odd but works surprisingly well. Tuna in Madeira is in a league of its own – fresh, served as a steak, often with milho frito, fried cubes of thick cornmeal (usually with cabbage and garlic). Lapas are small molluscs (limpets) gathered from the rocks and served hot with garlic butter – a delicacy you’ll either love or give up on after the first bite.
Espetada is Madeira’s other signature dish – chunks of beef threaded onto a bay-wood stick and grilled over an open fire. In traditional restaurants the skewer hangs vertically above the table and you slide the meat straight onto your plate. In many villages, especially in Estreito de Câmara de Lobos and at the fairs in Santo da Serra, you can make espetada yourself – you buy meat from the butcher, bread and wine, and grill it at a designated spot.
Bolo do caco is a round, flat bread with sweet potato added to the dough, baked on a hot stone slab. Served warm with garlic butter and parsley, it’s one of those simple things that are hard to stop eating. On the streets of Funchal people buy bolo do caco from kiosks as a quick meal – with a frankfurter, bacon or presunto (cured ham).
Among the soups, sopa de tomate e cebola reigns supreme – a thick tomato and onion soup served with an egg in the middle. Simple, filling and on the menu in just about every local restaurant.
Tropical fruit in Madeira is a chapter of its own. At the Mercado dos Lavradores market in Funchal (though watch out for inflated prices at stalls where sellers hand tourists free samples) you’ll find anona (custard apple – creamy in taste and considered one of the healthiest fruits), several kinds of passion fruit (including tomato, banana and pineapple passion fruit), pitanga with its sweet and tangy flavour, monstera fruit (Monstera deliciosa – it has to be very ripe, otherwise it irritates your mouth) and local bananas – smaller and sweeter than the supermarket kind.
To drink: poncha is Madeira’s national drink. The classic version is aguardente de cana (sugar cane rum), honey, lemon and orange juice – mixed with a wooden stirrer. In Câmara de Lobos and all over the island you’ll find poncha in dozens of flavours. Nikita, on the other hand, is a local invention that combines beer, wine and ice cream – it sounds absurd but tastes surprisingly good.
Madeira wine deserves an article of its own – and you’ll find one in this category. In short: it’s a fortified wine that has been made on the island for more than five hundred years. Four noble grape varieties – Sercial (dry), Verdelho (medium dry), Boal (medium sweet) and Malvasia (sweet) – produce wines so different in character that everyone will find something they like. Tastings are offered by, among others, the Blandy’s wine lodge in Funchal, whose history goes back to 1811, with more than 650 casks and vats in a historic building in the city centre.
One last tip: you eat best in Madeira where the locals eat – away from the tourist restaurants in Funchal’s Zona Velha (Old Town). The further you go from the centre, the better the value for money.