Bacalhau (codfish): the Sea Tourism heritage defining Portuguese national identity and regional diversity, and its future sustainability direction.
Supervisor: Luís Avila Silveira (U Coimbra)
Food is more than what we eat. Food carries its cultural, historical and social meanings. Food is important in the promotion of a tourist destination such as wine to France, sushi to Japan and Tortilla de Patatas to Spain, Couscous to Morocco, Poutine to Canada, etc. The national dish is a culinary icon that can define and represent a country just as a flag or an anthem. Food is a form of cultural image and heritage. The relationship between national identity, food and tourism is a research theme that has only recently attracted the attention of researchers. For example, cod is both the food that has been integrated into Portuguese eating habits since the sixteenth century and a culinary icon of Portuguese cooking. In this project, we will carry out its investigation by studying bacalhau. It has a unique status in Portuguese cuisine, as it is both a staple food, and a symbol of Portuguese national identity. In the Portuguese people’s diet, fish has played a major role among animal products, with emphasis on cod (gadus morhua). Cod has a unique status in Portuguese cuisine, as it is a very frequent food and mandatory dish, and it has a special space reserved at Portuguese tables. Bacalhau is the Portuguese word for dried and salted cod fish. It is a type of fish that cannot be fished in Portuguese water but found thousands miles away in Newfoundland. Portugal is the world’s first consumer of bacalhau (Dias et al. 2011; Sobral& Rodrigues, 2013). The research strategy was anchored in a triangulation qualitative research methodology of sources (books and documentaries), museum visits with Portuguese chief, professor/researcher and food owner, interviews, aiming to study the pivotal role of bacalhau in Portuguese sea culture and the gastronomic symbol of Portuguese identity. The main objective of this project is to examine the role of food and cuisine in general, and cod in particular, as markers of national identity. Other objectives concern issues related to sustainability. The results showed cod being a power identity marker. Cod has been more than just an economic activity, a political project or a human adventure, in that it bears a powerful symbolism. The findings of this study are significant because output of this study will help manage sea tourism, design measures that would help sustainable tourism. Based on the results I argue that bacalhau is an explicitly symbolic marker of the gastronomic cultural identity of Portugal determined by three factors-Catholic religion, bacalhau’s affordability and convenience, and bacalhau campaign during Salazar’s dictatorship.