The history of this Order of Cabidela is recent: it was created in 2016 by Edições do Gosto, responsible for the Congress of Cooks, the magazine Inter Magazine or the website etaste, among other gastronomic initiatives. “A movement of lovers of cabidela, a traditionally Portuguese dish, emblematic and subject to many interpretations”, in short. giblets there are many and, assuming that there is always “room for reinvention”, as explained in the announcement of the 2023 dinners, the basis is an obvious understanding that when we talk about cabidela, we speak of “a stew that incorporates animal blood”. It should be noted, however, that “the concept is not extinguished here”.
To take a pulse of how the cabidela is going around Portugal, the suggestion is to participate in a dinner (or several) on this year’s agenda, now announced and which starts on March 1st, proposing to take a short tour around the country in unique and to multiple hands. The opening dinner is scheduled for Pica Pau, in Lisbon, a restaurant with chef Luís Gaspar at the controls.
In April (4th), the blood starts to pulsate again in Lisbon, but not Zunzum Gastrobar by Marlene Vieira.
The Order of Cabidela was founded in 2016
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In June (14), it leaves for Braga, where tests will be given at Terminal 4470, with the chef Helena de Carvalho.
Afterwards and until the end of the year, it will always travel south: in September (13) in Setúbal, at the Hotel Casa Palmela (chef Mauro Alison); in October (25) in the district of Portalegre, in Páteo Real of Alter do Chão (chef Filipe Ramalho); in November (2) in the district of Évora, at Mercearia Gadanha de Estremoz (chef Michele Marques).
Detail: “each chef host is challenged to invite a group of chefs to prepare a menu that includes the traditional cabidela and also other dishes inspired by the honored delicacy, from starters to dessert”.
At each dinner, the order, already numbering close to a thousand members, is expected to grow: “by invitation or purchase, diners are present at dinners and are ordained ‘Knights of the Order of Cabidela'”, it is reported: they receive “a ‘ silver feather, in a red collar that symbolizes and concretizes his enthronement”. Reservations are made with each restaurant and chefs and menus will be announced on the site It is Instagram.
The enthronement of new cabidela knights is done by a respectable chicken
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The program was presented at the Manja Marvila restaurant, in Lisbon, with several examples of what cabidelas allow. Among these, cabidela croquettes with ketchup of blood, potato giblets with chicken livers or good pork giblets – for dessert, sweet vinegar with Moscatel pears and almonds. The menu had the collaboration of Camila Amaral, from Quiosque Beca Beca, in Lisbon; Francisca Dias, from Casa do Gadanha, in Estremoz; Lídia Brás, from Stramuntana, of Gaia; Marcella Ghirelli It is Miyuki Kanoof Project Seeding, in Lisbon.
In addition to the pleasure at the table, for whom cabidela is a delight, dinners are also enjoyed with a lot of conversation. Because, philosophically, as Paulo Amado, from Edições do Gosto, says, participation involves “accepting cabidela as a metaphor”. From what? Good question.