{"id":508,"date":"2012-09-24T21:25:14","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T04:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/?p=508"},"modified":"2012-10-20T00:54:02","modified_gmt":"2012-10-20T07:54:02","slug":"missing-the-food-in-lisbon-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/?p=508","title":{"rendered":"Missing the Food in Lisbon (Part I)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before leaving for our Portugal and Spain trip,\u00a0Ryan\u00a0and I\u00a0did a little research on some food\u00a0we wanted to try in Lisbon, and I wrote about it here<\/a>.\u00a0 Now that we’re back, we miss the delicious food we were able to eat for every meal.\u00a0 We took full advantage of the proximity to the sea, and made sure to try everything I had researched beforehand.\u00a0\u00a0Looking back at the pictures makes me\u00a0envious of my Lisbon-visiting self, but I can’t wait to share the local delicacies that have made us add Lisbon to the “places to revisit” list!<\/p>\n

First up is\u00a0bacalhau, the nation dish of Portugal.\u00a0 We made sure to try this several times, since they are reportedly 365 different ways to make it (we only tried four).\u00a0 Bacalhau is my kind of fish – tender, salty, and full of flavor – and I loved it every single way we ordered it.\u00a0 The traditional way, served with potatoes, was fantastic.\u00a0 Both times we tried it this way it was covered in garlic and an oil and white wine vinegar mixture (that was not overpowering).\u00a0 The combination of bacalhau with potatoes is perfect – the soft potatoes and the firm (but tender!) bacalhau made the dish interesting and delicious.\u00a0 Also, both taste great cooked in oil and garlic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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One of our only cheap meals (Lisbon is known for having cheap food, but there were tons of restaurants that had expensive food and, not being budget travelers, we followed the recommendations to some of the spendier joints) brought two more bacalhau dishes – Ryan’s with beans and mine with eggs.\u00a0 We had no idea what to expect.\u00a0 Mine was kind of like a bacalhau hash – cod, eggs, and potatoes all made in one pot and seasoned to (salty) perfection.\u00a0 And finally, on our last night, I had the opportunity to try the cod cakes, which were worth the wait.\u00a0 Mixed with dill and other less prevelant spices, the cod mixture was fried in a light batter and absolutely melt-in-your-mouth fantastic!\u00a0 I wish we could have tried a few more variations of the national dish, but I’m satisfied with our list.<\/p>\n

The percebes, or gooseneck barnacles, were something I desperately wanted to try, but we were not sure if we’d be going to a restaurant that served them.\u00a0 Luckily, our B&B recommened Sea Me (we highly recommend it if you love seafood and don’t mind spending a bit of money on delicious food) and to our pleasant surprise, they had percebes on the menu.\u00a0 I saw that and we immediately ordered 100 grams to start our meal.\u00a0 I had to ask the\u00a0bartender (we sat at the bar)\u00a0what a normal amount to order was.\u00a0 Not only am I confused by the whole “grams” thing (I know, how hard is that?) but I didn’t know what 100 grams meant in terms of percebes.\u00a0 Our percebes came out, and he had to show us how to eat them.\u00a0 We caught on right away and devoured our plate.\u00a0 The best way I can describe them: they taste like the sea.\u00a0 They are fresh, salty, chewy, and harbor a delicious salty liquid in their “skin.”\u00a0 We loved them so much that we ordered another round!<\/p>\n

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\u00a0And now onto the sweet: the famous Pasteis de Belem (or pasteis de nata, although we only tried the ones from Belem).\u00a0 These are definitely worth it.\u00a0 I can’t speak for the pasteis de nata sold elsewhere, since we didn’t try any, but the Pasteis de Belem were warm and sweet, and we could have eaten several more than just two each.\u00a0 A little bit about the shop – you can either stand in line (which looks long, but is super quick) to go to the to-go counter, or you can step inside and sit.\u00a0 We opted to get our to-go and then took them across the street to a shady park area with benches.\u00a0 However, we were told that there are multiple dining areas inside (I believe we were told seven) where you can better enjoy the pasteis.\u00a0 Next time!\u00a0 They are fairly small – probably a two to three bite treat, and cost 1.10 euros each.\u00a0 We decided to get four of them and, within a couple of minutes of ordering, we were handed a cardboard tube with four freshly made pasteis, and packets of cinnamon and powdered sugar to shake on top.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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And finally….the wine! \u00a0We made sure to have wine with every meal, and it was either vinho verde or a house white wine. \u00a0The vinho verdes we tried were fantastic – light, fruity, and bubbly, and paired perfectly with our seafood. \u00a0Sipping this wine helped to keep us cool on the hot days. \u00a0To finish off each dinner, we tried a chocolate cake at each restaurant, and ordered a Port wine to go with it (always chosen by the waiters – we didn’t know which one to pick!). \u00a0The strong, sweet wine was delicious. \u00a0It’s not something I’d want a lot of, but a small glass each was perfect and brought out the best in the chocolate. \u00a0The wine we were least impressed with was at the Wines of Portugal Center on the Pra\u00e7a do Comer\u00e7io.\u00a0 Overall it was an okay experience (I would even call it “good” if you have the time and won’t feel rushed because of it!) because we learned a bit about the different wine regions of Portugal.\u00a0 It would have been better to go here on one of the first days, so we could try the different wines with our meals.\u00a0 Anyway, the\u00a0four wines we tasted were chosen for us, and none of them were too great.\u00a0 They weren’t horrible, but we just were not impressed.\u00a0 So, we stuck with vinho verde for dinner that night!\u00a0<\/p>\n

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If this post (or at least the pictutes) doesn’t make you hungry – you are crazy!\u00a0 Looking at the pictures and thinking back to the food gets me so excited to return to Lisbon.\u00a0 Luckily, I managed to remember to buy a cookbook before we left, so hopefully I can try to recreate one or two Portuguese dishes at home.\u00a0 I’ve only just touched the surface with this post – I wanted to follow up on all of the food we were especially wanting to try.\u00a0 But, there are so many other food that are worth mentioning.\u00a0 Stay tuned!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before leaving for our Portugal and Spain trip,\u00a0Ryan\u00a0and I\u00a0did a little research on some food\u00a0we wanted to try in Lisbon, and I wrote about it here.\u00a0 Now that we’re back, we miss the delicious food we were able to eat … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,3],"tags":[10,11,57],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=508"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":622,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions\/622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}