Il Mulino, Ristorante Pizzeria in Lisbon, Portugal

I love fish and seafood in general and Lisbon is certainly the great place for that, however half way through our week in Lisbon, I was already feeling 'fished out'.  So, we decided to go for a pizza instead.

To be honest, we have been to 2 pizzerias in Lisbon in the past and we were really disappointed so I almost not bothered. I quickly did some homework, checking on TripAdvisor that seems to give good reviews so we decided to try this restaurant, Il Mulino (http://ilmulinolisboa.com), which is just off a square called Praca dos Restauradores. 

The location is perfect for us as our hotel is very near to this restaurant. There are lots of restaurants in this area, unfortunately most of them also hassle tourists to come into their restaurants to the extent that you can't walk without being approached by hard-sellers every 3 meters. This can really put you off; best to avoid eye contacts with them. My husband just put his hand on his stomach, indicating that he has already eaten or is already full and they just walk away.

Well, amongst such chaos, this restaurant does not hassle you at all.  The place was already busy but we were lucky to get a table without any booking.

Mulino means Mill in Italian ... that's why there is a drawing of a mill house on the wall...

 

Anyway, although we were fished out, we still like clams in garlic and wine so we ordered that along with a mixed salad for starters.

Clams came in a big pot - enough to share for two.

I know it's only a vinegar however I find Portuguese white wine vinegar tastes much milder than the one we get in UK, which is perfect for salad dressing. I think Portuguese white wine vinegar makes the salad refreshingly tasty.  I took a mental note to remember that I buy a bottle to take it home with me.

For main course we both ordered vegetable pizzas.  Pizza dough was light and crispy around the edges; it's just a normal vegetable pizza but we really enjoyed it.

The pizza was nice with chilli oil .....

We finished our meal with an Espresso....

Well, we really enjoyed our dinner - apart from clams, nice change from fish and traditional Portuguese dishes.  I saw a group of Italian family leaving the restaurant, giving some compliments to their waiter. If Italian thinks it good, the food here must be good....  I found their service was quire efficient, professional, courteous and friendly too.

Stepping outside the restaurant, you brace yourself to fend off all those hard-sellers again to go back to the hotel. Despite that, every restaurant now seems to be very busy with customers so their hard-selling tactics must be working after all....  It does give bustling and buzzing atmosphere which is interesting too to experience. Yes, we are on holiday in Lisbon. We just walk through the crowd with our hand lightly on our stomachs whenever hard sellers coming to our ways....

That's all forks!

Italian Restaurant Padrino - Westcliff on Sea, Essex

After long drive from Scotland, we finally arrived in Essex (see my last blog). The wedding was taking place in Leigh-on-Sea so we stayed at a hotel in near-by Westcliff-on-Sea, which is situated on the northern side of the estuary of the River Thames, not far from the open waters of the North Sea to the east.

By the time we arrived here in early evening, the weather was gorgeous. Lovely sunshine with nice breeze. There were lots of flowers with full of vibrant colours everywhere on streets or people's gardens. People were having a nice and relaxing stroll along the seafront. Proper summer weather. There was definitely a lovely holiday feel to it. Why can't we not get a weather like this in Scotland???

Anyway, back to talk about food. I did consult with TripAdvisor earlier to see where we could go for dinner, however by the time we left our hotel for wander, I completely forgot a name of a restaurant so we just went for a walk and see what we could find.

We found three Italian restaurants right next to each other on one street, overlooking the seafront, so we just walked into the one that was situated at the corner of the block. The restaurant is called Padrino (http://www.padrinosouthend.co.uk).

As we did not have to worry about driving for the night, we decided to order a bottle of wine.

For starter, we had Insalata Caprese. Mozzarella cheese was very creamy.

For the main course, I could not decide whether to have a pizza or pasta. We decided to do Jimmy Style and had half pizza and half pasta. We ordered roasted vegetable pizza and, since we are at Padrino Restaurant, why not try their Tagliatelle Padrino, which was with squid, courgette and tomato.  The pizza was very delicious with lots of toppings and tagliatelle was also very tasty with perfectly cooked squid with garlic.

We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and had macchiato to finish our meal.

We ordered from a la carte menu however you can also choose from two course set menu which is £9.95.

The bill arrived. It wasn't expensive at all. We were about to pay and noticed that the restaurant forgot to charge us a bottle of wine. No wonder. We mentioned this to them. They were very apologetic about this and gave us complimentary glasses of limoncello. That was very nice of them.

If it were not for the wedding, we would not probably come to Westcliff on Sea or to this restaurant. The restaurant has a very friendly, warm atmosphere and service was very good. We did really enjoy our dinner and the complimentary limoncello made it even better! 

We did not have any dessert although their tiramisu looked really nice.  I had another idea ....

After Padrino, we walked down to the seafront, passing by houses with lovely flowers.

I saw an ice cream place earlier in the evening when we were driving around looking for our hotel. I wanted to go there to buy an ice cream for dessert and that was what we did.

I can't remember what my husband had but I had Rum & Raisin, which is my favourite.

Rum & Raisin Ice Cream Corn

We had a leisurely stroll back to our hotel, eating lovely ice cream and watching the seafront. Weather was still nice and warm, with lovely breeze. It must be very nice to live down south England where you get a lovely summer weather that you can properly enjoy.

The next day was the wedding, the whole purpose of why were were in Essex.  I hope I could squeeze myself into a dress, and after that back to Scotland.

That's all forks.

Andiamo in Milngavie, Glasgow

Having bought a MOB (mother of bride) dress for Emily and Craig's wedding, I now have to find a matching hat, a pair of shoes and a little clutch bag.  Emily found a shop called Mad Hatter in Milngavie and since we were there we also decided to try a local restaurant there for lunch.

We tried Andiamo (http://www.andiamo-restaurants.com/Milngavie/Home.html).  We didn't book and the place looked busy for lunch but the restaurant accommodated us without any problem.

Whilst our table was being getting ready, we sat in the bar area.

Emily checking cocktail menu already ....

We did not have to wait too long and were shown to a table in a light and relaxing conservatory area.  We also found that they were serving set lunch menu in addition to a la carte menu.

I love ravioli and found that they had lobster and crab meat ravioli in their a la carte menu so I decided to try this.  Emily opted for lunch menu. Maria and Craig also ordered off a la carte menu.

For starter, Craig had Minestrone soup whilst Emily had Crostino con Gamberoni (crunchy slice of garlic bread topped with prawns and pineapples marinated with chilli, lime juice, chopped parsley and olive oil).  I tried Emily's crostini and liked the refreshing combination of prawns and pineapples.

For main course,  Maria had Pollo Valdostana (supreme of chicken bread crumbed and pan-fried, topped with tomato sauce, salami and mozzarella served with penne in a tomato and cream sauce). She really loved this as everything she loves are in it and on it - chicken, cheese, salami, pasta and it was a huge chicken, almost like a love heart shape.  It's like a breaded chicken pizza. Oh, Maria loves pizza too, so this was like her heavenly combination!

Craig had Pollo Mediterraneo (supreme of chicken pan fried with Mediterranean vegetables, black olives, tarragon and tomato sauce served with rice).

Emily had Spaghetti Puttanesca (with anchovies, capers, garlic, chilli, tomato sauce and herbs).  I was expecting a few small strips of anchovies in the spaghetti but instead there were lots of good sized anchovy chunks along with lots of olives, capers and chopped tomatoes, so I was rather impressed by the way they did with their Puttanesca - with lots of ingredients and this is a lunch menu dish too.

I had Ravioli Astice Gamberoni e Granchio di Mare (Freshly handmade lobster, crab meat and king prawns ravioli served with a light tomato, dill and cream sauce).

There were lots of big ravioli, each one with lobster, cram and prawns mixtures filled to the rims. I think it was only just under £14!

See what I mean.... there were big chunks of lobster meat in ravioli!  Impressive!

After having managed main courses, we decided to try their desserts too.  We ordered Strawberry cheese cake, meringue with ice cream and I wanted to try their cafe affogato (ice cream with espresso coffee poured over it).

I asked them to bring ice cream with espresso on the side rather already poured over it as I wanted to do this by myself.

Soon I realised that it was not an easy thing to pour coffee over ice cream without making any mess as espresso came in espresso cup. I did not think. I managed it though and it was tasty. I enjoyed it very much (...however I must confess I still like Cafe Coia's Cafe Affogato the best - see my earlier blog about Cafe Coia's). 

The restaurant is decorated very stylishly throughout with consistent colour scheme of black, white, silver and purple.  What I liked was that the same theme is carried through to the toilet too. Often restaurant does not pay much attention to their toilet but not here.  And that big purplish pink chair  - you got to try sitting on it, which I did of course.  The restaurant definitely passed my toilet check, it was very clean. 

Overall we have a very lovely lunch. I thought it has a very good menu with lots of choices, both lunch menu and a la carte menu, food comes in good portion size and price is reasonable too. Maria is already thinking about going back there for her birthday.... We checked cocktail menu at the beginning and they don't seem to be too expensive neither.  I would not mind going back there and have their ravioli again. I love ravioli!

I have just checked the meaning of Andiamo in English - it means 'Let's Go' according to on-line dictionary.  Yes, let's go back there again and I would try their lunch menu or another lobster, crab meat ravioli, or even start off with one of their cocktails at the bar whilst sitting on a comfy chair.

That's all forks!

Butterflies in Stomach

My daughter Emily has recently suggested that I should blog about the food I make than the food I have eaten every now and again. Not that I am a Master Chef, quite opposite in fact. I am a lazy cook -  I don't have patience to follow recipe, I can't be bothered about using scales or measuring spoon, etc. I just use my hand and eyes to judge how much ingredients I need when I cook.

I was watching a repeat of a TV programme called Simply Italian by Michele Chiappa on Channel 4 the other day (http://scrapbook.channel4.com/programmes/simply-italian/bookmarks/series-1/episode-1). What I like about her programme is that she shows us the easiest way to cook lovely Italian dishes.
Even making home-made pasta looks so simple when she does it and it really makes you want to try it. You don't need any super gadget or lots of ingredients, as long as you have '00' pasta flour, egg(s), a cup and a rolling pin.

I saw her recipe of Farfalle (bow-tie shape pasta) with Mozzarella and Tomato Sauce again and thought I shall try it tonight for dinner.

Unfortunately I didn't have all ingredients listed in her recipe so I just had to improvise.

Michela showed us how easy to make farfalle pasta at home but as I didn't have '00' pasta flour, I used dry farfalle pastas in the packet. I did not even have enough pasta in the packet left so I had to mix them with tricolour pasta to make up the volume.

The following recipe serves 2 - 3 people.


Boil hot water in the kettle and pour into a cooking pot to boil pasta. Put salt and a drop of olive oil if you wish.  Cook the pasta until al dante.

Michele's recipe says you need: red onion, garlic, tinned chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, cayenne pepper, chicken or vegetable stock, black olives, mozzarella cheese and baby spinach. This is all I had in the kitchen this evening.  I ran out of vegetable stock and did not have cayenne pepper, so I used few strips of anchovies instead. I used a packet of baby spinach and watercress mix.

First, heat extra virgin olive oil and fry chopped red onions until being soft.
Squash a clove of garlic with a knife, moving back and forth with a little salt, and add to the pan.

Add anchovies to let them melt and then tomatoes. Chop tomatoes as you mix in the pan and simmer for 5 - 10 minutes.

Chop watercress. Add both watercress and baby spinach into the pan along with black olives.

 

By then pasta is ready. Quickly finish the sauce by tearing in the mozzarella, add grated parmesan cheese.

Drain the pasta, reserving a little of the cooking water to add to the pan. Mix the cooked pasta into the pan.

Sprinkle with bit of baby spinach over the past, tear a bit of leftover mozzarella cheese, grate more parmesan cheese and pour over good quality extra virgin olive oil. Grind black pepper if you wish.  There you have it. My improvised version of Farfalle with mozzarella and tomato sauce. Farfalle means butterfly (farfalla) in Italian, so butterflies in stomach, ha ha ha.

This was quick and very yummy. You could add rock salt to the tomatoes in the pan whilst cooking if you like more salt in the sauce. I didn't as I thought anchovies and parmesan would be enough.

My family all enjoyed it and we were full of butterflies in stomach!
I would definitely cook again, perhaps I may even try making farfalle from scratch as Michele showed us on TV.

That's all forks!