My Culture

 My Culture: The culture in Madeira, Portugal begins with cuisine; since the geographic situation in Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean, Madeira has an abundance of fish of any kind. The fish that is most consumed in Madeira is Espada (black scabbardfish), blue tin tuna, white marlin, blue marlin, albacore, bigeye tuna, wahoo, spearfish, and skipjack tuna. Espada is often served with banana and Bacalhau (Cod) is the most popular fish not just in Madeira, but the whole of Portugal.

Sports: When it comes to sport, there is no doubt that football is the most popular sport in Madeira. The Island has 3 professional football teams such as Maritimo, Nacional, and Uniao Da Madeira. Maritimo is considered the biggest club of  Madeira and has enjoyed various campaigns in the UEFA Cup/Europa League having recorded famous results against teams like Juventus (0-1 L), Leeds (1-0 W), and Rangers (1-0 W). The most famous person that was born in Madeira, is the name that everyone has heard of and that name is Cristiano Ronaldo. He is regarded as one the best players of all time, and he is currently playing at Juventus, Italy.

   

Beverages: Madeira is also famous for making alcoholic beverages, let's start with wine first. Madeira wine is a fortified wine made on the island. Madeira has many styles of wine, ranging from dry wines which can be consumed on their own as an aperitif to sweet wines usually consumed with dessert. The Island has a long winemaking history, dating back to the Age of Exploration when Madeira was a standard port of call for ships heading to the New World or East Indies. During these voyages, they were able to prevent the wine from spoiling by putting neutral grapes but, when it is a long voyage the wines would get exposed to excessive heat and movement which transformed the flavour of the wine. The way the wine is made start out like most other wines: grapes are harvested, crushed, pressed, and then fermented on their skins to leach more phenols from the grapes to balance the sweetness of the wine.

Madeira has its own local beer, the beer is called Coral and its produced by the Madeira Brewery, which dates back from 1872 and it has achieved several Monde Selection medals.

               

Where do I fit in this culture?: The things that I do that is part of this culture is eating fish and watching football. I do enjoy eating fish that mention above and I watch football but, I don't support Maritimo (though I was born in Madeira) I support Benfica, the club that is based in Lisbon.