Cozido, Azores

 August 2019

It quickly becomes apparent that Furnas is focussed around lunch.  Crowds begin to gather around the sleepy geothermal lake just before midday in anticipation.  Huge cauldrons of bubbling stew are hauled up from holes in the ground, slow cooked by the geothermal activity.  Each restaurant has their own hole, marked with a small flag, and it’s an early start for restaurant owners.  Taking their cauldrons down to the lake at sunrise, they are buried in time to allow around 7 hours of slow cooking before loading them in to vans to drive to their restaurant where lunch is served.   Quite the spectacle!




The flavours of all manner of meats and root vegetable, including carrots, sweet potatoes, cabbage, taro root, pig ears, chorizo, chicken, beef, pork belly and black pudding, mingle together and are served with a selection of surgical-looking implements to attack it with.  The experience is definitely more enjoyable than the flavour!


Find it at one of the several Furnas restaurants, O Miroma and Tony’s vie for the top spot.  Be sure to book in advance.

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