Madeira Island Shopping

What to buy: One of the more popular fish to eat is swordfish. An ugly looking black fish, about a meter long that lives below 1000 m and can only be caught with a rod and line when it comes up to 800 m at night. It makes for an excellent meal if served with bananas.

At this market, one can buy not only the most exotic flowers and handcrafts, but also clothing, food, souveniers, leather, ceramics and there also is a fishmarket in the building selling fresh fish of every kind.

In the first place Madeira is famous because of its Madeira, of course ! But you can find also many local alcoholic liquors. It looks like every town or fruit has its own liquor at Madeira island.

For example Curral des Freias is famous because of its nuts. So there is also a 'Licor de Noz Curral'

Madeira is known as the flower island. There are nice parks and gardens with many colourful flowers and flowering trees everywhere on the island.

Many people buy also flowers to bring them home. You can buy them in the street, at the market and in the shops. Also it's possible to order them in several hotels.

What to buy: Every season has its own flowers, but the year round you can find Popcorn Bush, Bird of Paradise, Anthurium, Bougainvillea, Cape Honeysuckle, Begonia, Morning Glory, Tibouchina, Hibiscus, Flamingo Flower, Pinnate Lavender and Plumbago

Camacha, a village in the mountains in the eastern part of Madeira, is known by its craftwork, made by willow basket makers.

In Camacha they make almost everything of wicker, like baskets of all sizes and forms, but also furniture, kitchen utensiles, wine holders, hats. So if you need anything like this, it's the place to be.

Another souvenir that i bought in Madeira was those lovely things for the kitchen.
Take a look to the photo, how lovely are the pot holders (Thanks Mary for the tips ;-))
And the thing that is in the middle it is used to place the lighters and for decoration in the kitchen.

Well, before I have been in Madeira, I already had tasted the fabulous Honey cake (bolo de mel) from Madeira and the sweet wine (vinho), because I have some friends from Madeira and they brought to me.

You can find the recipe of Madeira Cake on the website : http://www.recipecottage.com/cakes/madeira.html

What to buy: Honey cake and wine from Madeira, these two things you can’t miss, it is my advice, you will love them for sure.

You can find these gorgeous things in any pastry shop and even in the souvenirs shop.

Madeira wine got its special taste by chance and this happened in the old days when sea voyages were so long.
Wein was sent to East India and because of pirates the ships had to return back home. At first they thought the wine was not drinkable after having crossed the Equator twice and being exposed to high temperatures . However, someone decided to taste the wine and they found out that it was excellent so what they did in those days was to send the wine on a long trip to the Equator and back to get that special flavour.(Torna Viagem ). In time it was discovered that through heating the wine barrel (Estufagem) the wine developed that special caramel aroma which gives it the unmistakable flavour of Madeira wine.