By presenting you the most traditional portuguese Christmas cake – Bolo Rei (King Cake), I wish you all a merry Christmas (even though some of you don’t celebrate it).
PS1 – Although the anchorman speaks in portuguese, the rest of the newsvideo is subtitled in English. Nevertheless, he says something like “globalization has hit the Bolo Rei industry. Nowadays, the cake is made with ingredients from all over the world”.
PS2 – One of the most famous “gaffes” of Cavaco Silva (our President) when he first run for presidency, back in 1996 (he lost), featured a piece of Bolo Rei. The journalists where insisting on questioning Cavaco during a candidate’s rally, and he simply refused to answer and kept on eating a slice of this famous cake. You can see it here.
5 responses so far ↓
1 LM (Beirut, Lebanon) // Dec 21, 2007 at 11:19 am
Yummy, I think I’ll spend Xmas in Portugal. But there’s one detail that really disturbed us, me and my sister, while we were searching for train tickets to Portugal: the way the cook makes the whole (using his elbow) in the bolo-rei
Merry Xmas to all!!!
2 MM (Cairo, Egypt) // Dec 21, 2007 at 11:20 am
MMMMM delicious yamiiiiiiii!!!
3 MM (Cairo, Egypt) // Dec 21, 2007 at 11:23 am
You also forgot to say that there is a curious tradition associated with eating it. There are two surprises hidden within the bread dough before it is baked. One is a present, like a coin, a charm or a medal. The other is a dried broad bean! Tradition dictates that the person who receives the broad bean in their slice, must provide the Bolo Rei the following year, either by buying it or making it.
4 Susana Ribeiro // Dec 21, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Exactly, MM. You’re a true “connoisseur”!
5 carolinapop // Dec 22, 2007 at 6:13 pm
mmmmh delicious!!!
next christmas in portugal
Leave a Comment