KING OF THE PIGS | REI DOS LEITOES
In 1992 our Rei dos Leitoes, first opened its doors in London Ontario. The Vieira family bought the restaurant in 2001 introducing it outside the Portuguese community, who then coined us as King of the Pigs.
MENU SPECIALS
DISH1
Piri-piri chicken is a spicy dish with roots in both Africa and Portugal. The dish was created in Angola and Mozambique when Portuguese settlers arrived with chile peppers (known as piri-piri in Swahili). Timing note: The chicken needs to marinate for at least four hours before being grilled
DISH2
Codfish, or bacalhau in Portuguese, is more than simply a traditional dish, it is a national obsession. The dish even has its own nickname, “the faithful friend”, and is traditionally consumed on Christmas Eve in Portugal. There are hundreds of different recipes and versions of this classic, but bacalhau à brás is one of the best; a combination of onions, chips, olives, parsley, egg and, of course, cod. Laurentina in Lisbon specializes in codfish and has been proudly serving the dish since 1976.
DISH3
Tamboril is Portuguese for monkfish and while not as locally popular as the traditional cod, there is still an astounding variety of dishes served on the Portuguese coast that include it. It is often cooked in a laurel, garlic and tomato stew with rice, almost like a risotto, to become arroz de tamboril. Caçarola 1, in Figueira da Foz, a seaside village just 10 miles from Coimbra, prepares one of the best versions of arroz de tamboril in the region
DISH4
The alheira, a type of fowl sausage, is one of the cheapest and most common Portuguese dishes with a fascinating history. When the Jewish population was expelled from Portugal in 1498, many hid in the mountainous region of Trás-os-Montes in the northeast of Portugal, practising their religion in secret while pretending they had converted to Catholicism. One way to do this was to ostensibly make, display and eat sausages so that everyone would think they were no longer keeping kosher
