What is chanfana?  A tasty traditional dish served only in Central Portugal. It is a dish based on goat meat, slow cooked in a caçoila of black pottery in woodburning stoves, steeped in red wine, garlic, bay leaves, pepper, colorau and salt .

Miranda do Corvo is called Capital of Chanfana, and Vila Nova de Poiares is called Universal Capital of Chanfana. No rivalry there!

Many tales account for the emergence of chanfana. Some point to the invention of chanfana during the French Invasions in the early nineteenth century near Coimbra.

One version is that the dish was invented by the nuns of the Monastery Semide that, to prevent the French from stealing their sheep, killed animals and cooked. As the French had poisoned the waters, the nuns used wine for the seasoning.

Another version is that during the Napoleonic invasions, French soldiers had confiscated all the animals for food, only left the old, and the only way to make it eatable was to soak it in wine.

Either way, from Poiares to Lousã, from Miranda do Corvo to Condeixa, this is a dish to enjoy!