In Cape Verde, the meal revolves around a single shared main dish — most often based on corn and beans that simmer for a long time — surrounded by fresh fish from the port and washed down with grogue. There is no separation into starter, main course, and dessert: everything is placed on the table, you help yourself, you go back for more, and the morna is never far away. Generosity (“to receive is to feed”) structures the meal more than the order of courses.

Two pillars of Cape Verdean identity: milho (white crushed corn, the base of cachupa that simmers for hours) and grogue, a cane spirit distilled in the valleys of Santo Antão. On the arid island of São Vicente where Cesária lived, these two flavors speak of both frugality and celebration.