The Maderian capital of Funchal, with its 16th century charm, is the Portuguese word for “fennel plantation”, named for the wild fennel discovered there by the first settlers. Famous for its wine, the island is also a major tourist destination with its lush mountainous landscape, exotic plants and trees, clear seas, and mild, sunny climate.
One of the special amenities onboard Marina is their exclusive culinary center which, along with its sister ship, Riviera, offers the first dedicated cooking school at sea in a state-of-the-art teaching kitchen with individual stations for a hands-on experience. Along with a variety of class offerings, passengers can indulge in an all-day culinary discovery tour at select ports, so we set off to do this in beautiful Funchal, to see and taste the city.
We visited the nearby fishing village of Câmara de Lobos, famous for the popular, local Black Scabbard fish, a prehistoric eel-like species that lives at depths of up to 4 miles beneath the volcanic cliffs that plunge deep into the sea off the coastline. Often visited by Sir Winston Churchill, the village inspired him to paint its bay and picturesque surroundings.
Blandy’s Wine Lodge, makers of fine Madeira wine, hosted a tour and tasting in its ancient cooperage and winery, once a former prison, owned and operated by the Blandy family of England since 1811.
Next, we stopped at the local market, Mercado dos Lavradores, to see the famous scabbard fish after the catch, the tropical flowers, cheeses, meats, local wines, olive oils, and to take in the scent of garlic, bay, and the abundance of fresh and dried herbs.
The narrow alleys of Zona Velha, Old Funchal, have some of the oldest streets in town, adorned with uniquely painted doors, and jacarandas and bougainvillea on the terraced gardens and balconies overlooking sidewalk cafes, where we had lunch of typical Madeiran fare and a glass of local traditional Poncha, a drink made with sugar cane, honey, fruit juice and an abundance of alcohol, all blended with a large type of “muddler”. Believed to cure the common cold, Poncha is the basis for the popular Caipirinha drink.
Back in the culinary center, our day’s experience came full circle as our accomplished chef-teachers assembled their local market bounty for us to cook traditional dishes of Madeira-soaked honey cake, grilled skewered beef with zesty piri piri sauce, and the Madeiran gilled flatbread, Bolo de Caco, with garlic butter.
The Portuguese explorers may have set off in search of discovering a new world, but they left behind much for us to discover in their own homeland.
