What to eat on Terceira: alcatra, Dona Amélia cakes and where to buy them

Terceira has two foods you will be told about before you land: alcatra, beef cooked slowly in a clay bowl, and the small dark Dona Amélia cake. Both are easy to find in Angra do Heroísmo. This guide covers what each one is, when to eat it, and where to buy the food that survives a flight home: cakes, sugar figures, cheese and verdelho.

Alcatra is rump of beef cooked for hours in an unglazed clay bowl with bay leaf, black pepper, cloves, allspice and wine, until the meat falls apart in its own sauce. It comes to the table in the bowl, with a soft milk bread for the sauce. The island's tourism site describes the bread as neither sweet nor bitter.

It started as festival food. Alcatra is what Terceira eats at the Holy Spirit celebrations, above all between Easter and Trinity Sunday, and traditionally it went into a wood oven. Today you can order it all over the island, all year. Coastal villages also make a fish alcatra with grouper or rockfish, cooked the same way.

Each spring the island runs an Alcatra Festival, organised by the Angra chamber of commerce with the island's alcatra brotherhood. In 2026 it ran from 24 April to 10 May, with restaurants cooking it the old way. Check the dates for the year you travel.

Alcatra has to be cooked in its own clay bowl. The regional crafts centre names Angra do Heroísmo as one of the two places in the Azores that still keep traditional pottery going, and calls the bowl the "alguidar terceirense", made to serve alcatra.

The best-known potter is Ricardo Simas, whose workshop is at Terreiro 81 in Terra Chã, just outside Angra. In a 2017 interview he said alcatra bowls made up about 70 percent of his sales, and that they were the reason the pottery stayed open when others closed. A bowl is heavy and breakable, so pack it in your hold luggage wrapped in clothes, or buy a small one.

A Dona Amélia is a small, dark cake made with corn flour, cane honey and cinnamon, with currants and candied citron, dusted with icing sugar. It is dense rather than spongy.

The name comes from 1901, when King Carlos and Queen Amélia of Portugal visited Terceira. The island offered them its best cakes, and the queen liked this one enough that it was renamed after her.

The place to buy them is Pastelaria O Forno at Rua de São João 67 in the centre of Angra, which has made regional sweets since 1987 and is the producer listed by the regional crafts centre. It also makes the Conde da Praia, a pudding, and the Careta, an almond sweet. Many cafés on the island sell Dona Amélias as well.

Alfenim is sugar boiled with water and a little vinegar, then moulded by hand into white figures: doves, chickens, swans, rabbits, flowers and hearts. The regional crafts centre says the tradition survived mainly on Terceira and Graciosa. The figures are offered as promises at the Holy Spirit festivals, so you are most likely to see them in the festival season between Easter and summer. The crafts centre lists a certified maker in Ribeirinha, just east of Angra.

Massa sovada is the festival bread of all the Azores: a sweet, buttery dough made with eggs and milk, baked as a round loaf or a ring. At the festivals it is handed out to the people taking part, and it is the bread that goes with alcatra.

Terceira is cattle country, and the cheese maker you can easily visit is Queijo Vaquinha, a family dairy in Cinco Ribeiras, west of Angra on the south coast. Its cheeses are soft to semi-soft with a buttery texture, including one flavoured with the Azorean red pepper paste, pimenta da terra.

At the shop you can watch the production room through a window and taste every cheese for free. The website listed opening hours of 10:00 to 22:00, every day, when we checked in 2026. Call 295 907 138 to confirm before driving out.

The island's wine is verdelho from the lava-walled vineyards at Biscoitos on the north coast, the same wine the alcatra is traditionally cooked and served with. Our Biscoitos guide covers the wine museum, tastings and the natural pools nearby.

• Dona Amélia cakes: Pastelaria O Forno in Angra.
• Alfenim figures: in the festival season. They are hard sugar and snap, so carry them in your hand luggage.
• Cheese: Queijo Vaquinha in Cinco Ribeiras, after the tasting.
• Verdelho: the wine museum in Biscoitos.
• An alcatra bowl: Ricardo Simas's pottery in Terra Chã.

For where to stay in Angra and how to spend a day in the old town, see our Angra do Heroísmo guide.

What is the typical dish of Terceira?

Alcatra: beef cooked slowly with wine and spices in a clay bowl, served with bread to soak up the sauce. You can order it all year.

What is a Dona Amélia?

A small dark cake of corn flour, cane honey, cinnamon and dried fruit, named after Queen Amélia, who visited Terceira in 1901.

Where can I buy Dona Amélia cakes?

Pastelaria O Forno on Rua de São João in Angra do Heroísmo is the best-known maker. Many cafés sell them too.

Can I visit a cheese factory on Terceira?

Yes. Queijo Vaquinha in Cinco Ribeiras lets you watch production through a window and offers a free tasting. Check the hours by phone.