Vila Vita Parc's Fine Wines & Food Fair - A Most Fabulous Weekend in Sunny Algarve

Vila Vita Parc

Vila Vita Parc is a luxury 5 star hotel in Algarve, Portugal, reputedly one of the top hotels in the country, it is set on a cliff top with breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean, just a 40 minute drive from Faro airport.

Set over 54 acres of subtropical gardens, with a golf course, numerous swimming pools, a tennis court and spa, and no fewer than 8 restaurants, Vila Vita Parc is a member of the Leading Hotels of the World. Its top restaurant, Ocean, has 2 Michelin stars. 

We were there to sample a couple of days from the biennial Vila Vita Parc's Fine Wines and Food Fair.  Now in its 8th year, this year’s event took place over 9 days from 5th to 13th May 2019. 

There is a tempting programme of gastronomic experiences, including dinners from Hans Neuner, Head Chef of the 2 Michelin starred Ocean restaurant, as well as an impressive line up of international chefs from Europe and the USA.

There were also wine tastings and masterclasses with some of the Europe’s top winemakers and gourmet food producers.

Our visit took place during the closing days of the event, including the highlight of the festival, the Saturday night Kitchen Party featuring 40 food stations where chefs were paired with gourmet food and wine producers and a live jazz band and a disco at the end – more on that later.

Accommodation at Vila Vita Parc ranges from exclusive Ocean View private villas to Junior Suites, and many gradations in between.

Our room was spacious and beautifully furnished, evoking the blue and white azulejos of traditional Portuguese houses in a completely modern way.

The room had beautiful local pottery and vases, and sliding doors to a private balcony with views of the sea, and also a Nespresso machine for that coffee fix whenever you fancy it.

It is wonderful to visit a hotel with such a strong culture around gastronomy – besides the dishes on offer in the fair itself, we also had excellent food from the hotel’s extensive breakfast buffets, a great lunch at the Mediterranean restaurant, Bela Vita, and dinner at the traditional Portuguese restaurant Aldega.

The breakfast buffet was exceptional, with various stations featuring cut tropical fruit, a mouthwatering range of local cheeses, hams and charcuterie, and some top quality patisserie including a daily change of traditional Portuguese cakes and pastries.

Fine Portuguese cakes and pastries are baked on the premises daily and available at the hotel’s café.  Vila Vita Parc’s Pastel de Nata was probably the best I have ever eaten – perfectly textured pastry, filled to the brim with rich and creamy egg custard.

Dinner at the Portuguese Aldega Restaurant was also noteworthy.  We had a mouthwatering monkfish stew with prawns and clams in a rich tomato, pepper and paprika sauce, served in a Portuguese cataplana pot.

Equally delicious was the oven-roasted suckling pig - this was meltingly tender and with great crackling, served with crunchy potatoes and a spicy sauce.

At Bela Vita restaurant, we had another great meal, including a sirloin steak with an intense flavour and the creamiest layer of fat, from cattle raised in the Herdade dos Grous region. It came with a rich, buttery truffled potato mash.

We also loved the surf and turf combination of monkfish and mussels stew with white beans and chorizo – heartwarming and delicious.  

A simple side of spinach sautéed with pine nuts and raisins might seem an odd thing to mention, but it was so delicious and as I write this, I am making a mental note to cook this combination at home.

Inside Kopke Wine Masterclass

One of the fair’s events was a wine masterclass given by Carlos Alves, the Head Winemaker of Kopke, the oldest Port wine house in Porto. Kopke was established in 1638 by German businessman Nicolau Kopke, although it did not have its own vineyard until the 1780s.

Unusually for a Port tasting, Alves decided to devote the entire event to white Port.  Representing just 10% of Port wine production, white Port is popular in Portugal as a simple fresh fortified wine to be drunk either on its own, chilled, or with ice and tonic water. We started with one of these, a Dry White Porto was fresh, dry and with tropical fruit flavours. The sweeter Kopke Lágrima White was golden brown in colour, with rich complex orange peel, honey and vanilla flavours.

We had a selection of Colheita (single vintage year) white Ports including the 2003 and 2008, before moving to the most venerable blended Ports – aged for 10, 20, 30 and even 40 years in oak barrels before bottling for selling. Producing Ports of this age is an expensive business, not just because of the need for a lot of storage space (by law, in any year, Port houses have to keep two thirds of their stock and sell only up to a third), but also because up to 5% of the volume is lost each year through evaporation.

This was a real eye-opener of a tasting, experiencing the range and complexity of white Ports available in Portugal, and is something I would love to explore more, as I learnt that these Ports make a great accompaniment to sashimi as well as cheese.

The Kitchen Party 

We were thrilled to take part in The Kitchen Party at Vila Vita Parc to celebrate the 2019 Fine Wines and Food Fair. The event kicked off with an open-air Pommery Champagne reception on the hotel grounds, with breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean.

This was followed by the party itself, a casual mingling event, where all 18 participating chefs cooked their signature dishes for us to try, plus numerous stands of wine makers and food producers. There was a live jazz band too, free flowing bubbles and fine wines.

Chef Dieter Koschina from 2 Michelin star restaurant Vila Joya made a wonderful dish of layers of tuna tartare and tomato salsa topped with a bright green Jalapeño chilli foam, light as air and delicate, which for me was the finest dish of the event.

Flying the British flag, Nigel Haworth from one Michelin starred Northcote Hotel & Restaurant in Lancashire cooked a fantastic “British taco” - a thin crumpet topped with king crab, trout caviar and various types of seaweed and herbs.

Iran born, Reza Korouji from Berlin, brought his luxurious Imperial Caviar to the event, served with a shot of chilled seafood bisque.

Vila Vita Parc’s own 2 Michelin starred Restaurante Ocean headed by Chef Hans Neuner served another highlight - massive red Mediterranean prawns barbecued and served with a delectable mango salsa.

There were numerous Portuguese wine makers showing their finest fare - noteworthy was Celso de Lemo’s Quinta de Lemos winery from Dão region, that served us the some of the best red wines we tried during the entire festival.

How lucky of me to bump into mixologist Pedro Paulo - Portuguese born, but a Londoner at heart, Pedro is One Aldwych Hotel’s top bar man - his cocktail of London dry gin, St Germain liquor and Champagne, topped with edible gold leaves had everyone queuing up for it!

The Fine Wines & Food Fair at Vila Vita Parc has got to be one of the most significant, delectable and fun gastronomic events in Europe that I have attended in my 10 years of food writing. Look out for their 2021 dates, but if that is too long to wait, why not come to the Algarve and visit Vila Vita Parc in the meantime.

Travel Essentials

Vila Vita Parc
Rua AnneliesePohl
Alporchinhos
8400-450 Porches
Algarve
Portugal
www.vilavitaparc.com
Rooms cost from €355 per night including breakfast. 

Fine Wines and Food Fair
https://www.finewinesfoodfair.com/

Disclaimer

The London Foodie attended as a guest of Vila Vita Parc.  However, complete editorial control remained with Luiz Hara.

Casa do Frango – Exceptional Quality and Value Portuguese Piri Piri Chicken, Vinho Verde and Pastel de Nata!

Name: Casa do Frango

Where: 32 Southwark Street, London SE1 1TU, https://www.casadofrango.co.uk/

Cost: A 3-course meal plus a side cost on average £25-£30 per person (not including drinks or service). The menu is short but well thought out. Frango (half chicken) is the star and the signature dish of the menu (£9 per portion). Starters cost from £4 to £10 such as chilled Algarvian gaspacho (£5), Bacalhau and chickpea salad (£7), Grilled prawns (£8), or Octopus rice (£10). Sides include African rice (£5), Lettuce salad (£3) and Batatas fritas, (fries, £4).

About: Casa do Frango is a beautiful and airy restaurant on the busy Southwark Street, just around the corner from Borough Market. It is on the 1st floor of a rather dull, corner building though with its vaulted ceiling, a huge glass skylight, and an inspired interior design that fills the space with plants and gorgeous furniture, Casa do Frango is a lovely dining spot.

Casa de Frango’s fresh and modern look really sets it apart from other Portuguese or pseudo-Portuguese eateries like the more traditional, cheap & cheerful piri piri chicken joints in Stockwell (I visited these a lot during my spell in Dulwich and highly recommend them) or the Nando’s chain, which is in fact is South African owned.

Casa do Frango is the result of travels and food expeditions in the South of Portugal by three friends - Marco Mendes (himself Algarvian-English), Jake Kasumov and Reza Merchant. Their mission is to bring to London the real flavour of Algarvian piri piri chicken to folks in London.

To this end, they brought in a specialist “pitmaster” from the Algarve to ensure that the dishes, particularly the frango, which is roasted on an impressive wood charcoal grill at the heart of the open plan kitchen, deliver the promised regional authenticity.

What We Ate: The Algarvian Gaspacho (£5) was cooling and flavoursome, the small pieces of sourdough bread, cucumber, tomatoes and pickled garlic added a lovely texture. I could have done with more seasoning but my companion felt it was just right.

With its thick but crispy batter the Super Bock Beer Battered Whitebait (£6) was lifted by its delectable, smoked paprika aioli.

Grilled Prawns (£8) with piri piri, white wine and parsley, a serving of four well-sized prawns, had a lovely charred flavour from the grill, but the much anticipated heat from the piri piri sauce wasn’t really noticeable.

The Octopus Rice (£10) was a shade too far on the side of pale. The octopus was tender but the rice was overcooked and thus unpleasantly gummy and soft. It also lacked seasoning, which was rather disappointing.

Much better though was the Bacalhau and Chickpea Salad (£7) with slivers of salted cod, chickpeas, black olives, and a generous serving of creamy mayonnaise and soft-boiled egg. We loved this salad.

We didn’t think we could eat any more but we soldiered on to the mains.

The Frango (1/2 chicken – one breast, thigh and leg on the bone) comes with three flavour choices: piri piri, oregano, and lemon and garlic. We ordered their star dish, the Frango Piri Piri (£9) - the chicken meat was very succulent, oozing with flavour and had the perfect amount of heat. The skin was crisp and delectable. Casa de Frango’s Piri Piri Chicken is probably the most flavoursome grilled chicken I have had in London for a very long time.

The other Frango we ordered was laced with oregano and garlic. Grilled as perfectly as its piri piri sister, it had distinctive herbal, garlic and salt flavours, which were a delight to tuck into, particularly for the wonderful crispy skin and the moist thigh and leg meat.

To accompany our Frangos, we ordered a number of sides - the African Rice (£5), a nod to the cultural influence of former colonies, had an infinitely better texture than the earlier Octopus version and was truly delicious.

It came with chorizo, plantain, garden peas, peppers, parsley topped with crispy chicken skin. It was a great accompaniment with a perfect balance of flavours and texture. It was so good I am featuring it again below!

The other two accompaniments were a very well-dressed lettuce salad (£3) and Batatas Fritas or chips (£4) which were sadly a tad under-cooked and so not crisp.

We could (or should) have stopped here, but we couldn’t resist ordering the traditional Pastel de Nata (£5) for dessert. The quintessentially Portuguese custard tart, it was deliciously creamy and sweet served with a small glass of refreshing coffee ice-cream.

What We Drank: The drinks menu offers cocktails and a good selection of Portuguese wines (prices ranging from £20 to £44 per bottle). We kicked off with the classic Portuguese Port & Tonic (£8), made with Churchill’s 10-year-old white port, tonic, mint and orange peel, which was perfect. The Portuguese version of Gin & Tonic (£8) made with Portuguese Gold grail gin, tonic, lime peel, rosemary, juniper berries and cardamom, was equally refreshing.

With our meal, we shared a bottle of Vinho Verde Muralhas de Monção (£26) made from Alvarinho grapes (albariño). It had a fresh and citrusy flavour, with a great structure, acidity and body- it conjured up summer by the beach.

Likes: Both Frangos piri piri and oregano ticked all the boxes – they were exceptional and I cannot recommend them highly enough. We also loved the grilled prawns (though more piri piri heat was needed) and the Bacalhau and chickpea salad. The African rice was also great. Very attentive, efficient and friendly staff. 

Dislikes: The starter section of the menu desperately needs to be looked at, especially the Octopus Rice (by far the weakest link) -  they lacked seasoning and texture and did not compare well with the wonderful frango that followed. Bacalhau is the trademark of Portuguese cuisine so it would be great to have a bacalhau main course on the menu (also as a pescatarian option) and perhaps Bolinhos de Bacalhau as a side or starter.

Verdict: Casa do Frango has the most flavoursome and perfectly grilled Piri Piri chicken in London right now - it was exceptional. The perfect meal here is Frango Piri Piri, Bacalhau and Chickpea Salad, and the wonderful African Rice (and chips too of course) followed by Pastel de Nata with coffee ice cream. It is excellent value too and I cannot wait to return. Highly recommended.