Bacalhau A Bras appears as a signature dish in 2 Portugal cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Bacalhau a Bras · Lisbon
Shredded salt cod tossed with thin-fried potatoes, sweet onion, garlic and scrambled egg, finished with black olives and parsley, eaten hot.
Invented by a Bras family tavern keeper in Lisbon's Bairro Alto in the late 19th century as a thrift dish, combining the new fad of potato chips with leftover bacalhau and bound with creamy scrambled eggs. The dish travelled the country in 20th-century cookbooks and now anchors lunch menus from family tascas to chef-led rooms, with Solar dos Presuntos plating the canonical classical version that Bairro Alto regulars cite as the benchmark.
Where to eat in Lisbon:
- Solar dos Presuntos
- O Velho Eurico
- Casa do Alentejo
- Pap'Acorda
Bacalhau à Brás · Porto
Shredded salt cod sautéed with onion, matchstick fried potato and beaten egg, finished with olives and parsley. The most-ordered cod dish in Porto trattorias.
Bacalhau à Brás was invented in Lisbon's Bairro Alto in the 19th century by a tavern-keeper named Brás, but the dish travelled to Porto early and is now equally canonical to the northern cod tradition; the Portuguese say there are over 365 ways to cook salt cod, one for every day of the year, and à Brás is the everyday weeknight standard. Adega Sao Nicolau and Cafe Santiago serve the trattoria version; the city's modern restaurants reinterpret it but rarely improve.
Where to eat in Porto:
- Adega Sao Nicolau
- Cafe Santiago
- Tapabento