The problem with food traditions in the UK is that fuck all grows there due to climate. And all the cool imported stuff was traditionally very expensive, thus only accessible to the rich. Portugal has a much better climate for growing food, so back in the days you could import some seeds, plant them locally and exotic stuff became cheap and available to everyone. Brits couldn’t do that really, so exotic stuff was rare and mere mortals didn’t know about it.
The problem with food traditions in the UK is that fuck all grows there due to climate. And all the cool imported stuff was traditionally very expensive, thus only accessible to the rich. Portugal has a much better climate for growing food, so back in the days you could import some seeds, plant them locally and exotic stuff became cheap and available to everyone. Brits couldn’t do that really, so exotic stuff was rare and mere mortals didn’t know about it.