A Portuguese seafood glossary: what to order, and what it is
A Portuguese seafood menu can read like a spelling test. Half the words have no English twin, and the ones that do sound nothing like the creature on the plate. This is the short glossary we give guests before a first lunch in a marisqueira: what it is, how it is usually cooked, and how to order it well.
The shellfish
Percebes, goose barnacles, are the most coveted and the strangest to look at. Leathery and prehistoric, they are prised from wild Atlantic rocks, boiled for a minute in salted water and eaten warm with your fingers. Our full guide to percebes, Portugal’s goose barnacles tells the story.
Amêijoas are small clams, and amêijoas à Bulhão Pato is the national way with them: olive oil, garlic, fresh coriander and lemon, cooked until they open. Keep the broth for bread.
Lingueirão is the razor clam: long, slender and sweet, usually grilled or steamed, and the star of a good arroz de lingueirão.
Berbigão are cockles and mexilhão are mussels, both honest and inexpensive, steamed or cooked in a rice or a stew.
Ostras are oysters, navalheiras are velvet crabs, and sapateira and santola are the brown crab and the spider crab: large, sweet-fleshed crustaceans usually served cold, dressed in their own shell, and worth the work.
The crustaceans
Gambas and camarão are prawns and shrimp, grilled, boiled or cooked à guilho in garlic and olive oil. Carabineiro, the scarlet prawn, is the grand version: deep red, rich and sweet, and priced accordingly. Lagosta is the spiny lobster, and lavagante the blue lobster, both ordered by weight and best kept for an occasion.
The molluscs
Polvo is octopus, and polvo à lagareiro is baked until tender and finished with olive oil and garlic. Lulas are squid and chocos are cuttlefish, grilled or fried, and the cuttlefish is the heart of arroz de choco and of the black rice made with its ink.
The pots and the rice
Cataplana is both a dish and the copper clamshell pan it is cooked in, a steamed stew of shellfish, fish and sausage that comes to the table closed and opened in front of you. Caldeirada is the fish stew of the coast, layered with potatoes, tomatoes and onions. Arroz de marisco is a wet, soupy shellfish rice, closer to a stew than to a paella, and best shared.
How to order
Shellfish is sold by weight. The menu shows a price per kilo, and the waiter will bring the live or fresh shellfish to show you, or estimate a portion with you before it is cooked. For two people, a platter to start and one hot dish to share is plenty. The little plates that arrive before you have asked, the couvert, are charged only if you eat them, and it is perfectly polite to send them back. Ask what came in that morning, and then let the answer decide your order. For where to eat it all, start with the best seafood restaurants in and around Lisbon, or further north, the best seafood restaurants in Porto. On the coast the rules are the same: in Nazaré, where our day trip to Óbidos and Nazaré stops for lunch by the sea, ask what the boats brought in.
Questions we are asked about Portuguese seafood
What are percebes?
Goose barnacles, also called gooseneck barnacles or Portuguese barnacles: leathery, prehistoric-looking shellfish prised by hand from Atlantic rocks, boiled for a minute and eaten warm with the fingers.
What are amêijoas à Bulhão Pato?
Small clams cooked quickly in olive oil with garlic, fresh coriander and lemon, one of the classic dishes of a Portuguese marisqueira. Save the broth for bread.
Why is shellfish priced by weight in Portugal?
Because the best of it is sold by the kilo, according to the day’s market. The menu shows a price per kilo, and the waiter will weigh or estimate the portion with you before it is cooked.
A table kept at the right marisqueira, with the right dish ordered for the day, is exactly the kind of detail we love to arrange. If a food-led journey appeals, see how we design tailor-made holidays in Portugal, or start a conversation.