Kitchen Table Passport September 2016 Subscription Box Review + Coupon – Portugal

Bem-vendo a Portugal! Welcome to Portugal!  Kitchen Table Passport is a meal-centered cooking and exploration kit.  Each kit features a traditional dish from the featured region, providing a recipe, spices, and pairing suggestions.  With the Full Package, the dish is the centerpiece of the evening, but you also receive “discovery items” – mementos emblematic of the featured culture and a stack of beautifully photographed cards replete with trivia and information.  The Taste Only Package provides just the spices and recipe.

I am not familiar with Portuguese cuisine, but I am going to guess that it is pretty close to Spanish or Mediterranean (based on location).

The fold out welcome card introduces you to the featured culture and provides some suggestions for serving your dish in an authentic way.  It also gives information on the mementos that are featured in your box.

The Portugal Box!

Mementos:

Handmade Paper Flower – These flowers are made by two sisters from the Alvalade parish in Lisbon, Portugal’s capital and largest city.

Cork – Portugal produces half of all the cork harvested annually worldwide!  That’s a lot of wine bottles.  From the sobriero, or cork oak tree, cork production is considered environmentally friendly because bark is harvested every 9-10 years, and trees have a lifespan of nearly 300 years.

Discovery Cards:  Each card has a picture of notable Portuguese places, people, and items on the front.  The back of the card provides cultural and demographic information, as well as some words for you to learn.  These are a good tool to help your younger ones learn about other cultures.  The dog featured on the card in the top, right is a Portuguese water dog.  If the breed sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same as the First Dog, Bo.

Recipe Card:  Camarão Moçambique = shrimp Mozambique.  In addition to the ingredients and cooking directions, the recipe card provides a full color picture of the dish, meal suggestions, and a list of equipment/tools that will be needed.  The directions were clear and easy to follow.  I recommend reading the entire card before you begin prepping.  The dish gets its name from the spicy flavors which the Portuguese adopted from their colony in Mozambique.

Herb and Spice Mix:  This mix contains a blend of French sea salt, Indian Lampong peppercorns, Moroccan coriander, Indian cumin, Indian Annatoo, and chili flakes.

As you can see, this is obviously not shrimp.  The recipe says that chicken can be substituted, and since I didn’t have a chance to go shopping, that’s what I did.  This change did get some negative reactions in my house – we are huge seafood lovers.  Regardless, the dish was still delicious.  The brightness of the lemon juice made this feel more Mediterranean.  The heat level from the spices wasn’t over the top.  It was very subtle, and you noticed it more on the finish.  I used Sauvignon Blanc to make the dish and as my drink pairing.  Yum!

The Full Package starts at $29.95 per month; however, this rate can drop to as low as $19.99 with subscriptions that are 6 months or longer.  Not only are you given tools to help prepare an authentic meal, but you are getting an immersive experience with the mementos and Discovery Cards.   Take a culinary journey around the world from your kitchen!

Have you tried Kitchen Table Passport? You can save $10 on your first box of a full experience subscription with coupon code HELLOTENBUCKS.

Visit Kitchen Table Passport to subscribe or find out more!