More Than Burritos

Casa Portugal

1200 Cambridge St., Inman Square

491 8880

INMAN SQUARE IS RAPIDLY becoming an ethnic roto-sampler, with restaurant offerings ranging from the queasy combination of "Pizza and Seafood" to more fashionably exotic offerings like Thai and Korean. The recent Southbound yuppie trend has also swept through Inman Square, depositing yet another Cajun place in its spicy wake. But amidst these rising ethnic stars is a less media-glutted food group. The savory and homey seafood smorgasbord of Portuguese food, which is not the sub-division of Spanish or Mexican many people assume it is, can be found at the Casa Portugal.

Ted Silva '89, a first generation Portuguese-American and campus expert on all things Portuguese (and coincidentally my roommate), assures us that Casa Portugal has the genuine Old World atmosphere. Eating at the Casa Portugal is a family legacy passed on to Ted by his brother Louie '84, and passed on to me by Ted.

"C'mon, c'mon J.T. you'll love it" "But Ted, I don't like seafood." Portuguese dishes, and the menu at the Casa, mostly consist of fish and shellfish, as a natural result of Portugal's seacoast. I was worried. But Portuguese seafood is unlike any other fish dish you'll ever eat--it's good. Really good.

Complicated but not fussy mixtures are the Portuguese specialty. This is crowd-pleasing stuff served in iron cauldrons and enormous pottery bowls. Each dish is preceded by absolutely fresh clean-white loaves of bread which bring to mind images of swarthy rural folk feasting and guffawing. The Soup of the Day, which accompanies the dinner specials, is perfect for sopping up with this delicious bread.

The dinner specials are the best introduction to Portuguese dining. Most seafood dishes consist of salty slabs of off-white flesh with tangy blobs of lemon sliding across the top and flanks of the deceased H2O breather. But the Casa's seafood is served up as a steamy, eye-tingling gumbo of rice and hors d'oeuvres-size bits of fish, mussels, shrimp or clams, all wrapped up in a deliciously meaty, spicy sauce which takes away the nasty oceanic tang that clings to most fish.

Arroz De Marisco A Laboreiro is a juicy mixture of rice with shrimp, clams, mussels, squid, peppers and parsley. Caldeirada A Portugesa serves up fish, little neck clams, mussels, squid, potatoes, parsley, peppers and bread, with the shells included. Piling up a precarious mound of the sauce-dripping shells gives a satisfying feel of debauchery to the meal.

Both dishes are only $8.95, and the Portuguese home fries that are piled up free along with the bread and soup will ensure that you waddle out with a pleasantly overstuffed stomach.

There are also some good meat dishes. Carne De Porco A Alentejana($10.75), marinated pork cubes with little necks in shells, allows you to go halfway on the fish experience. And Frango A Monte Pedral($7.95), going along with the smorgasbord stew theme which is the Casa's strength, mixes chicken, linguica (?), ham, onion, and garlic bread in a sweet and slightly spicy wine sauce. If you're a big fan of knockwurst and other beery to worry about what linguica is. and wine dish is the Portuguese answer. Large quantities of vin verde--either Tres Marias or Casal Garcia--will get you soused enough not to worry about what linguica is.

But enough of these ridiculous attempts to find different ways to say delicious. Gourmets irritate me anyway--this is for hungry students trying to resuscitate their cafeteria-numbed tastebuds, not for effete snobs whose palates can differentiate wine bouquets at fifty paces. The overall impression of the Casa Portugal is being set down to Thanksgiving dinner in a Portuguese household--affirmed by my Portuguese expert Ted Silva. Big helpings, a friendly husband and wife team running the show, and decidedly unpretentious decor all combine to make you feel like you're visiting an Old World friend.

The broadstroke paintings of bullfighters and peasants decorating the walls, the loosely hung curtains and various knick-knacks all contribute to the quietly Mediterranean atmosphere--though expert Ted would interrupt here to emphasize that Portugal is an Atlantic country. To the uninitiated American, the effect is the same.

So if you think that Portuguese food means Mexican burritos or Spanish rice, go educate yourself at the Casa Portugal. The best primers are the dinner special seafood mixes, which will give you a new way to look at fish. Even squid become attractive under the Casa's handling--I personally have finally been cured of my chronic fishfear. The trip to Inman Square is a little long, but getting to this family establishment is definitely worth the walk.