The Boston Episode of ‘No Passport Required’ Airs Tonight on PBS

Greater Boston’s Portuguese-speaking (aka Lusophone) communities will get some love tonight on Eater’s PBS show, No Passport Required, with host Marcus Samuelsson. The episode airs on PBS at 9 p.m. (check local listings here).

The second season of the show — which highlights immigrant traditions and cuisine across the U.S. — debuted on January 20 on PBS. Watch full episodes from seasons 1 and 2 here.

Samuelsson and the show’s crew travelled to greater Boston to learn more about its Portuguese, Brazilian, and Cape Verdean food traditions. Samuelsson visited Lusophonic communities in Boston, New Bedford, and Fall River to understand the cultural similarities that bind the three countries together.

In the episode, Samuelsson eats Portuguese chowder with halibut on a fishing boat based out of New Bedford before visiting a Portuguese market in Fall River, where he snacks on plenty of bacalhau (the popular dried salt cod is a fundamental building block of Portuguese cuisine).

Later, Samuelsson helps a Cape Verdean home cook in Roxbury’s Dudley Square neighborhood (recently renamed Nubian Square) make a bacalhau gratin with cheese and potatoes. He also learns the history of Afro-Brazilian martial art capoeira, listens to the music of a Cape Verdean American singer named Candida Rose, and tries Cape Verdean specialties like cachupa and cabritada at Cesaria in Dorchester. Finally, he heads to a churrascaria for tons of grilled meat. Importantly, the episode also features an honest accounting of Boston’s history of segregation, as well as Portugal’s complicity in the Atlantic slave trade and how it shaped Brazil and Cape Verde.

No Passport Required season 2 also features episodes about Seattle, Los Angeles, Houston, Philadelphia, and Las Vegas, each focusing on different immigrant cuisines.

Missed Season 1? Stream full episodes from the entire season here, and check out recaps and more intel on No Passport Required here.