Grilled Sardines in Lisbon

We are in Lisbon right now, leaving younger daughter Maria cat & house-sitting. The first thing we notice is that there are none of our pet cat, Yuki's hair that we have to brush off our cloths, keyboards on my laptop or between pages in a book or magazine we are reading. Back home we feel like using lint rollers to catch Yuki's hair day and night, dusk to dawn, all day every day. Here, staying in a hotel, there is none of that, it's even odd that we don't have to do that.  In fact, we don't even see any cats at all since we have arrived in Lisbon. Not even a stray. Very strange, considering there are so much fish in Lisbon.

Ever since we arrived on Sunday morning, we have been eating fish, every day for lunch and dinner. We fear we may turn into a fish, may start growing scales and fins! However, fish and shellfish are really good here - it's seafood lover's heaven. You get really fresh seafood, cooked simply to respect natural tastes of ingredients.

A lots of restaurants seems to be closed on Sunday but we managed to find a fish restaurant named, Restaurant Pessoa at Rua Dos Duradores 190, Lisbon 1100. This is not necessarily a cheap restaurant, considering you could find many restaurants that offer reasonably priced food in Lisbon however not exceptionally expensive neither.

Since we are in Lisbon, we got to eat famous grilled sardines. It was not on the menu but we asked for it anyway. "12 Euro per person, it is ok?" the waiter asked. We had no idea how much a plate of grilled sardines would cost but we just ordered it anyway.

Those who know me well must be able to picture me clapping my hands with excitement when the large dish full of grilled sardines arrived at our table. Each sardine was already fair size and there must have been 14 or so on the plate, along with boiled potatoes and some salad. We were hungry so of course we ate all up without any problem. It was really delicious with lots of rock salt.

Before ....

and After .....

We also ordered a half bottle of dry white local wine. We were about to order house white but the waiter to us "not that with the dish" and brought this wine. It was only about 6 euro and not bad at all.

Inside of the restaurant is decorated with white wall and typical azulejo tiles. My guidebook informs me that azulwjos takes their name from either julej, the Persian word for 'blue' or az-zuleyha, Arabic for 'polished stone'. There is no paper table cloths and napkin nonsense - they use real line serviette here.

We thought we were the only customers but by the time we finished eating, people started arriving. Most of them seemed to be local people coming for family Sunday lunches. I wonder what they would be ordering...

The place does not look that appealing, in fact it's rather shabby and run-down looking however most of restaurants are in Lisbon; looks can be deceiving, in fact.

This is the beginning of our 'peixe' in the city, here in Lisbon.  I am afraid you will see more seafood blog from me for a while.

That's all forks!