An Ode To Sorpotel - (My Tune)
Channel: Pio Linhares
Date: 2018-09-11

Lyrics by Anonymous

Since I had found these lyrics online but never heard the tune before, this tune is my version which I composed to make it singable at parties. The original version does not have all the lyrics.


Some History Trivia For You

History of Sorpotel

Christmas is just round the corner and for those of you who'll dig into this dish in the coming days...here's the history of Sorpotel.

Pork Sorpotel has its origins in Sarapatel, a dish from Portugal that was modified to some extent in Brazil. The word ‘sarapatel’ in Portuguese literally means confusion, referring to the mish-mash of ingredients of pork heart, liver and even pork blood! 

The dish started out as a pork, sausage and blood stew called “sarrabulho” made in Minho, Northern Portugal. It crossed the Atlantic with Portuguese invaders and landed in Brazil, where African slaves added offal, chili, onion and tomato, and changed its name to sarapatel. The offal was added as the slaves didn’t have access to proper meat.

It was a fine dish that lasted long, and for sailors those days that meant more than how or with what it was made. In fact, the maturing taste – Sorpotel gets better as it gets older – came as an added bonus as the pork loving Portuguese got it to India.

No one knows whether the recipe sailed in from Brazil or was developed in Goa from the Portuguese version. The native Goan Christians and East Indians added their own little tricks to make it even more interesting. It is this variety that is available today. While one added the toddy vinegar and liver to it, and introduced the technique of frying the pieces in ghee/fat first; the latter added tamarind to it. 

Such was the rise in the popularity of the dish after that, even with the Portuguese who settled in India, that Sorpotel that was devised by the African cooks to feed an army of workers; became a celebratory must. So much so that today any wedding feast is incomplete without the presence of this dish.

Update on 12 Jan 2020
The actual old version of this song was written by Byculla based Philip Furtado son of Goan Poet Joseph Furtado more than 4 decades ago