List-Free Luso-Paradise

Sustainable fish lovers may see red in the Algarve for the concept of a red, yellow and green list of permissable pescatores is foreign to the fun loving hairy hedonists of southern Portugal. So what really is the point of SA fish lovers eating sustainably when at the top end of the Atlantic, Russian oligarchs and their child brides tuck into species redder than their sunburn, you may well ask?

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In Portugal, marine conservation is driven by cash and not lectures: the rarer the fish, the pricier it is. It certainly seems to work from an architecture perspective if you compare the unspoilt Algarve beach below to Shimmy’s or the Grand.

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But the genius of Portguese cuisine is to take a humble pescatore like monk fish, give it a sexy name like tamboril and serve it with rice cooked aldente in a sauce of fresh tomato (below). Who needs to see red when you can eat like this?

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