This week’s Sunday Stamps takes us to Portugal, the ancestral home of Fernão de Magalhães, or Ferdinand Magellan, who, ironically, was famously credited with circumnavigating the globe and discovering my home country, the Philippines, after switching his allegiance to Spain.
While Portugal might not be immediately recognized as a sporting powerhouse, the country has steadily made its mark on the Olympic stage. Known primarily for its prowess in athletics, Portugal has expanded its medal-winning repertoire to include canoeing and judo and more recently in surfing, skateboarding, and breaking. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics was a particularly triumphant moment, as Portugal secured its best-ever Olympic medal haul. And let’s not forget the global phenomenon that is Cristiano Ronaldo – proof that Portugal’s sporting prowess extends far beyond the Olympic stage.
My stamp features a mouthwatering no caldeiro a tempura – a fusion of Portuguese and Japanese cuisine. It’s part of the Sabores da Lusofonia (Taste of Lusophony) series celebrating the culinary diversity of the Lusophone world – a term encompassing the Portuguese speaking community, akin to Francophone or Hispanophone. Beyond the shared language, Lusophony is a tapestry of historical and cultural threads. Interestingly, over 300,000 Brazilians of Japanese descent, known as decassegui, speak Portuguese as their home language in Japan – a fascinating tidbit from the Wikipedia.
No caldeira a tempura, a crazy good mix of Portuguese and Japanese tastes. This stamp is part of the Sabores da Lusofonia commemorative series, featuring representative dishes from eight Lusophony countries.
I love the crisp postmark on this stamp – it’s a rarity that allows the image to shine through. Interestingly, sabor in my native Visayan-Hiligaynon language means “taste” or “flavour”, and also as a verb to mean “to taste”, both mirroring the stamp’s theme. A question though – if a postmark is applied to a stamp, do we call it a cancellation mark, instead?
No doubt the Portuguese people would easily get a high mark in the Cooking Games as well!
Very beautiful and interesting stamp, as most from this country are. I love Portuguese stamps because they are always relevant to their history and traditions, and their designs are wonderful.
Interestingly, I just learned the tern ‘Lusophone’ earlier last week. When countries blend different cuisines, you can sometimes get the most mouthwatering results.
I believe that a postmark (that shows the date) can also be called a cancellation but the cancel mark can be just the squiggly lines that show the stamp is used.
Yes a nicely placed postmark. Nice to have fusion cooking.
I did not know there was such an intermingling of Portuguese and Japanese cultures! I learn something new everyday.
I didn’t know there was Portuguese-Japanese fusion food. Interesting. I didn’t realize a postmark and a cancellation mark weren’t one and the same! Thanks for spurring my curiosity enough to look that up.
That is a “delectable” stamp! Hooray for Magellan!