Azorean cooking is spicy variant of Portuguese style

TERCEIRA, Azores Islands -- Iria Gronke isn't bashful about why the food of her island home is more flavorful than most other Portuguese cuisine: It's thanks to prostitution and booze.

"This island in the 16th century was a very important stop between India and Lisbon on the spice trade route," she said, gingerly picking the bones from the steaming flesh of several pounds of freshly boiled salt cod.

"Azorean food has more flavor to it, especially this island. More spices are added to it -- cinnamon, cumin and cloves."

Gronke, who is writing a book about Azorean cooking, said sailors found an easy currency in the spices and used it to trade for alcohol and other services while in port among the group of nine Portuguese islands in the North Atlantic.

The sailors, often from England and Spain, also left behind their own traditions, explaining why oxtail soup and puddings compete in popularity with the region's abundant seafood offerings, she said.

But the Azores' semitropical ocean setting gives it more than just a bounty from the sea. The islands also are blessed with a lush landscape of gentle hills studded with stone walls and hydrangeas.

Between the walls, cows and goats munch in vibrant green pastures. Their milk is made into tangy soft cheeses that complement the vinho verde, the young, almost effervescent white wine of Portugal.

Gronke, who is 36 and grew up on Terceira, an island of 56,000 people, considers herself a student of her culture, with food as her textbook. She laments that there are few cookbooks of Azorean cuisine, with even fewer in English.

She also doesn't like how most books lump together all Azorean cooking.

Gronke said it is important that the distinct personality of the islands be preserved so that future generations think of themselves as Azoreans as well as Portuguese.

"What I see so far in English are collections of recipes from mainland Portugal and a couple of the islands, but they don't say which islands the recipes are from," she said. "There are nine islands and each one has its own way of doing things."

Gronke's book will be a collection of recipes from her grandmother, who raised her from when she was 5.

She recognizes that part of developing a cultural identity is knowing the food of your people. While many dishes are popular throughout Portugal, Gronke said Azorean cooks like her grandmother had a special touch that shouldn't be lost.

Of course, there are challenges to putting down on paper recipes known only in one's heart.

"You watch so many times growing up, you don't use measurements. You just know. You just feel it," she said. "Grandmother never named anything."

No matter what the dishes are named, cod likely will figure prominently in Gronke's work.

"Cod used to be the food of the peasants," she said. "There are 365 recipes for cod."