When we eat lunch at the Palace Hotel in Bussaco, we feel like a character in a 19th-century novel. There is a serenity, an ability to enjoy the passage of time that is absent from modern life.

The items on the menu are variations on traditional recipes, prepared with care and served with elegance. When the dessert cart arrives, the waitress recommends without hesitation the “Morgado do Bussaco.” It is a perfect dessert, made with only nuts and honey. Morgado means young heir. We’re lucky that Bussaco inherited this old recipe and shared it with us.