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So this is the main reason why I bake Vizela Bolinhol at home: to make a sponge cake that is as light as air and delight my guests with this little piece of heaven. Add the eggs, the egg yolks, and the sugar to the Kitchen Aid bowl and set the mixing speed to 4 during 20 minutes. Vizela Bolinhol photo gallery with all the steps: The particularity of the Vizela Bolinhol, and what separates it from all the other Pão-de-Lós in Portugal is the fact that it is covered with a sugar glaze. However, if you want to try, add 200 g of caster sugar to 25o ml of water and bring to a simmer long enough for the syrup to thicken and start making bubbles on the surface of the pan.

As I have written in my Best Restaurants in Vizela article, Vizela has some of the best restaurants in Northern Portugal. Remember to take a white flower with you as a gift for the Saint. Visit the Casalinho Winery and taste the Três Marias Wine Nuno Silva is the winemaker at Caves Casalinho and a good friend mine. He is leading the charge to make Três Marias the Portuguese household wine that it once was and ramping up the wine tourism business at the Casalinho Winery. He will take you on a tour of the winery and the estate, and if the weather is good, you can even ask to have your wine tasting at the Três Marias belvedere, which overlooks the Casalinho estate vineyards and the São Bento das Pêras Sanctuary.

The estate is surrounded by vineyards and is made up of a refurbished 17th-century manor house, and an enormous garden filled with decades-old camellia trees. The big blocks of granite shape the main house and give a frame to the bedroom and indoor breakfast area. Because we were still in the middle of spring when I stayed at Quinta das Lavandeiras, I took my breakfast in the downstairs part of the house, which used to be the winery. I was so impressed with the modern style of the houses, that I even filmed a sunset pool party scene at Casa da Tangerina and took some amazing photos.

For dessert, Oscar, the patron of Restaurant Rainha, files up the table with all kinds of local sweets like bolinhol (Vizela’s official dessert), custard tart, profiteroles, homemade chocolate mousse. A Northern Portuguese Food Feast (my review of Restaurante Rainha in 2012) Widely acclaimed by its array of mini dishes called petiscos, Restaurant Rainha, has become a synonym of traditional northern Portuguese cuisine in the little, but very Picturesque town of Vizela. The house specialty and the dish that I recommend at Adega Avelino is Vizela’s official dish – Bacalhau á Zé do Pipo, a loin of salt cod roasted with pure and homemade mayo. A whole crab, piri piri prawns, regular prawns, little prawns (camarão da costa), barbequed prawns with lime, goose barnacles (percebes), clams, mussels, Padron peppers, octopus salad, tuna salad, sea snail bean strew, grilled pork ribs, stewed chicken gizzards and toasted bread with garlic butter