Kuneru Maruta

# MC is a blonde:
Granted, most Portuguese have the Mediterranean type, but still in my family one fifth of the people are blond, and not because they are born from mixed couples with northern Europeans. This rate is probably higher than average in Portugal, but there are quite a few blond people in the northern interior of the country, for instance.

But really, this treatment is no different to what mangas do to Japanese people themselves, where you see many more blond characters than you would find among a typical group of Japanese people. Since there is no difference in treatment, it's not racism.

# MC is called "Maruta"
Maruta is the japanese transcription of "marota", which translates as "naughty". Portuguese people's names come from the classic blend of greco-roman, hebrew and german names, common in the rest of Europe. However many people are given a casual nickname, that can sometimes be more used than the given name. For instance, until my eighteenth birthday, I only knew my uncle by his nickname, and actually had to ask my parents for his real given name, when I needed to address him in a formal and public setting.

This being said, I don't know of anyone with the "marota" nickname, that would be too sexually charged, specially for an adult woman. But hey, the mangaka can be forgiven some artistic freedom, once in a while.

# MC often breaks into dance:
ok, the average Portuguese woman will not do that but really, the average Portuguese woman is by definition an abstract and boring construct. Let me give you an example of a real Portuguese woman which would cause rioting among Portuguese readers if portrayed in the manga instead of the MC:

My aunt is a tall blond woman, still a stunning beauty in her fifties. Every time she drops at family gatherings, she will cause chaos and mayhem. Last time, she showered everyone with extravagant gifts, started loudly talking about sensitive information on absent family members, and then definitely dropped the ball by discussing her Brazilian waxing adventures in the presence of kids. By the time she left, my mother - usually phlegmatic and level-headed - was catatonic because of shock and anger.

Back to the main topic of the manga, i.e. cooking, I thought that the mangaka research was sincere. For instance, I love bacalhao, but totally understand that foreigners would be weirded out by the pungent smell of dried cod. It reminds me of some Swedish fish preparations that require some effort from foreigners before they can be appreciated. I also liked the note on how some Portuguese preparations can take days to prepare, traditional Portuguese cooking is very rich and diverse, but often required devoted and diligent work from a house wife. For instance, in the running up to Christmas women would cook non stop to prepare cakes and pastries specific to a certain days of the calendar. All this culinary knowledge is quickly being lost, nowadays.