Salazar Spatula
This kitchen utensil for scraping bowls and avoiding waste is not a Portuguese exclusive. But it did achieve symbolic status in Portugal, where it received the nickname of “Salazar”,the dictator who ruled the country for 40 years and claimed the virtues of poverty. Indeed, António de Oliveira Salazar went as far as to say that “a people that has the courage to be poor is an unbeatable one”. His propaganda machine insisted in using adjectives such as humble, frugal, modest and economical to strengthen his image of someone who made do with very little. But amongst the Portuguese people the Prime Minister was becoming more and more famous for his stinginess. The Salazar spatula is the best proof of this.