Foodtopia – A Feast of Food & Stories

Vamos lá – let’s go!

The inaugural edition of “Foodtopia – A Feast of Food & Stories” was held at the Jardim Botânico Tropical – the Tropical Botanical Garden – in Belém, Lisbon, on July 2 and 3, 2022.  The event featured 60 chefs from Portugal and other countries who presented small plates of food that highlighted their unique interests and approaches.  In addition to preparing food, several of the chefs gave short talks, telling stories about food-related topics.

Logo Source: amuse-bouche.pt

We visited Foodtopia on the first afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed the event.  Here is our report on what we saw, heard, smelled, and tasted.    

Whose idea was this?

Foodtopia was conceived and executed by Amuse Bouche , a communications and event management agency in Lisbon that specializes in gastronomy.  They call themselves “Food Storytellers”.   Past events they have mounted include:

• “The Power of Food”, a worldwide live stream event that focused on the future of gastronomy post pandemic.
• “Arrebita Portugal”, a food festival created during the pandemic and held in four different Portuguese towns and villages.
• “Sangue na Gueira” (“Blood n’ Guts”), a food festival and symposium organized around a “Manifesto for the Future of Portuguese Cuisine”.

The company’s experience in putting on large events was evident at Foodtopia.  Everything from the event website (https://www.foodtopiafeast.com/ ), to the signage and maps at the Garden, to the online payment processing was professionally executed. 

The only problem we experienced was with the online payments.  You purchased credits for food and drink either at kiosks in the venue or online.  Then you paid for your food and drinks by showing a QR code to the vendor.  But on a sunny afternoon the QR codes were sometimes difficult to read on shiny phone screens.

It’s part of a bigger picture

Foodtopia is part of the “2022 Portugal-France Cruzada Season”, a year-long cultural exchange program between the French and Portuguese governments. The overall theme of the Season is “The Ocean”, emphasizing the need for efforts to preserve the ocean. Other themes include building a responsible and sustainable economy, ensuring equality between women and men, respecting differences and valuing inclusion, and promoting innovation.

The Cruzada Season will feature 200 projects and 480 events taking place in 84 cities in France and 55 cities and towns in Portugal.  In addition to events like Foodtopia, the Season schedule includes exhibitions, conferences, theatre, music, art, and cinema.

Six chefs from France participated in Foodtopia.  There were also chefs from other Portuguese-speaking countries: Brasil, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe.

What about the venue?

The Jardim Botânico Tropical is located in Belém, just west of Lisbon, next to the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (the Jerónimos Monastery).  The Jardim is a 7 hectare site, with 5 hectares dedicated to a Botanical Park that is open to the public.  In 2015, management of the Jardim was transferred to the University of Lisbon.  

Throughout the Garden, small workstations were set up for the chefs. These “mini kitchens” gave them a combination cooking space and serving area.  

There were several bars mixed in among the chef’s stations.  Most were serving either wine or beer, but as we were leaving we saw one that was serving mixed drinks.

Tables and benches were located throughout the park.  Many people brought blankets and lawn chairs and sat in the open areas under the trees.  It was a great day for a picnic.

The Main Event: The Food!

First Up – A Taste of Cachupa

Our first bite came from chef Tony Fox, owner of Fox Coffee – O Rei Da Cachupa (The King of Cachupa), a modern African restaurant in Lisbon. 

Cachupa is a stew made with beans, hominy, chorizo, blood sausage, and other parts of the pig.  It is a dish brought to Portugal from Cape Verde, a former Portuguese colony located off the coast of West Africa.  Chef Fox’s parents emigrated to Portugal from Cape Verde in 1974.

While we were waiting on our cachupa to be dished up, we were wondering aloud about the different ingredients. A woman standing behind us stepped up and said “Cachupa has special beans, special meat, and special corn. You’re going to love it!”

She was right. We did like it. The hominy was starchy, with a texture similar to the beans. We had never had blood sausage before and enjoyed the new taste. The warm, rich broth surrounded all the ingredients and made this the definition of “comfort food”.

As we were enjoying the cachupa, we were serenaded by a band of wandering…uh, minstrels?

Next – Let’s Eat Some Ants!

The day before we went to Foodtopia, Mike downloaded the list of chefs and what they would be serving, so we could get an idea of what to expect.  The dish that leapt off the page for him was Sandes de Pernil com formiga amazónica – Roasted pork sandwich with Amazon ant.

That’s right – Amazon ant.  

Mike’s attitude was “If I have the chance to taste an ant, I’m going to do it!”

This unusual item was presented by Chef Alex Atala, owner of D.O.M. restaurant in São Paulo, Brasil.  Chef Atala has won many awards for his imaginative transformation of traditional Brasilian dishes.  

We stepped away and considered this appetizer.  They were much smaller than we expected.  Something about “Amazon” ants suggested big, fat, black bugs.  But these were tiny and brown.  We had also expected the ants to be on the sandwich.  But this way, we could savor the flavor without fear that the pork or dressing would overpower them.  

So we each took a couple and popped them in our mouths.  

So how did they taste?

Mary thought they were bitter.  Mike couldn’t discern any taste, just a crunchiness.  

And lest we forget: The sandwich was delicious.  The pork was flavorful and dressed with some cabbage and a sauce – maybe yogurt-based – on a soft bun.  No ants needed to make this a tasty treat!

In Search of Dessert

We ate the pork sandwich at a table in the shade of a large tree.  Then we decided it was time for dessert.  Mary suggested that Mike go find it while she held our spots in the shade.  She had seen one chef making “something with strawberries and cardamom”.  The strawberries we’ve had this year have been excellent, so we had high hopes.  We were not disappointed.

Mike didn’t find any cardamom, but did find two desserts with strawberries.  (Yes, we ate two desserts.  We did it for you, dear reader, so we could give you a better description of the food at Foodtopia.)  After we finished them, we went back and talked to the two chefs who made them.

A Sweet Strawberry Treat

Our first dessert was made by Chef Joana Thöny of Le Monument restaurant, in Porto.  It was morango, iogurte and estragão – strawberry, yogurt, and tarragon.  

Chef Thöny described it to us this way:  She began with a compote of strawberries, sugar, butter, and tarragon.  On top of it she placed small biscuits, a yogurt mousse, and little straws made of meringue.

The dish was a delight to eat.  (And we dived into it so fast, we never got a photo!)  The smoothness of the strawberry compote played well with the crunch of the biscuits.  All of it enhanced by the yogurt mousse.  But the meringue straws were a real surprise.  (They’re in the lower left of the picture.) It was busy at her booth when we spoke to her and we didn’t have a chance to ask how she made them.  Guess we’ll have to visit Le Monument for another taste.

Strawberry gazpacho

The second one was made by Chef David Jesus of Seiva Restaurante, also in Porto.  He served a Gaspaho de morango, edamame, hoisin e tandori – Strawberry gazpacho, edamame, hoisin, and tandoori. That’s a group of ingredients we could not have imagined, so we had to try it.

Chef Jesus told us that he started by making a mix of strawberries, edamame, and cherry tomatoes.  Then he added a barbeque sauce that he made from mushrooms fermented with miso.  He poured out a spoonful of the sauce for us to taste. It was as good as any traditional barbeque sauce we’d ever had.

He added small balls of fried grain with tandoori spice.  Finally, he mixed in a sauce of strawberries, rice vinegar, pepper, and hoisin.  

The dish was nice to look at, and better to eat.  You expect a dessert to be sweet.  This one had the added surprise of the spices.  The sweetness of the strawberries was enhanced by the addition of the spices and the tartness of the tomatoes.  The edamame were surprisingly sweet.  The tandoori grain balls added a crunchy texture to the whole experience and the sauces blended all the tastes together.  

We hope we can try this again the next time we’re in Porto.  

Wrapping Up

By mid-afternoon the park was full of people and there was a line outside waiting to buy tickets. We hope they all had as much fun as we did.

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Have you had a special summertime food experience this year? Tell us about it in the comments below or with a note via the Contact Us form.

Until next week / Até a próxima semana

Mary and Mike

The Cook and The Writer

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