Cabbage, in its rough and flat form, could be used as a metaphor for Portugal’s rustic ways. Think of the Calda Verde soup that's so basic in Portguese cuisine. Because of this importance, Bordallo many times depicted the cabbage in his work. This dinnerware was a clever way to honour it, by making it nice enough for the tables of the bourgeois families, who at one time would have considered the common cabbage too lowly to serve.