Word: dinner
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...drinkability, affordability and sociability. The first two categories are self-explanatory, but the third may need some elucidation. "Sociability" is defined by the general nature of people who drink any given brand of beer. It is socially unacceptable to invite the head of your law firm over for dinner, pour him a glass of mouthwatering, buck-a-six-pack brew and expect to get that partnership you richly deserve. It is similarly unwise to walk into a hardhat bar somewhere in Chelsea, order a Corona and then bitch loudly when you don't get a lemon to rub ever...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...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...