Clams in Lisbon - Cacilhas, south of the Tagus River

If you are in Scotland right now, you would miss sunshine desperately.  It's 15 degree outside and dull.  I start thinking of holiday to sunshine me up.

Late August last year my husband and I went back to Lisbon.  I do love Italy but there is something really fascinating about Lisbon - people are lovely, the city is full of amazing history especially about their maritime history in 16 century when the brave discoverers went all the way as far away as to China and Japan!  Food is excellent (see my earlier blogs), there are so many places to see, weather is gorgeous - in the middle of summer it can get really hot yet with wonderful seabreeze you can easily get used to their summer.  We may go back there again.

Thinking about Lisbon already makes me feel like we are having sunshine although it is still dull outside and only 15c, so I don't look outside.

When we were in Lisbon last year, we took a short ferry from Lisbon's Cais do Sodre, the main departure point for ferries over the Tagus River, to get to Cacilhas.

The reason was to go and see the statue of Christ the Redeemer or Santuario do Cristo Rei, which was modelled on the more famous Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro.

We arrived at Cacilhas ferry right next to a little village (?) like streets of  cafes and seafood restaurants. As you walk along, you see the glimps of  head of Christ between the siluette of of houses. We innocently thought we could walk all the way to the statue following the wee main street. So we kept walking, looking for a sign to the statue which was nowhere to be found. We came to the very last restaurant on the street, beyond there were just more houses and some buildings and still no sign of statue. Maybe we were on the wrong track. By then it was noon, the sun was very strong, the temperature soaring despite constant seabreeze.  Yes, time for a nice cold beer!

So we just took our seats at one of tables outside of the very last restaurant we came to on this old fishing village's main street.  We ordered beer and, why not, fried clams to go with the beer. This was the right thing to do. Clams (ameijoas)  were just amazing - so many fresh clams with lots of chopped garlic and parsley yet garlic was never overpowering.  I think the whole portion only costed  something around 10 euro!!!

We also ordered a side salad which was refreshing, especially in such an intensive heat even if we were in the shade with nice sea breeze.  We ate it with local olive oil and white wine vinegar for a dressing.

We mopped up the clam juice with the bread - beer was nice and cold. Everything was perfect.

When you eat in at restaurants in Portugal, they always bring some wee nibbles to the tables. They are not freebies that the restaurants are giving you whilst perusing the menu. They are covers. If you don't ask them to take them away, even if you don't touch any of them, it would be included in your bill. Here at this restaurant, there were slices of Portuguese cheese with tuna spreads. Tuna spread did not look appetising nor inspiring but we were curious about local cheese so we kept them. I think we were charged for 5 euro for these. I think we could do without them but it was all about trying different things.

We finished off with Portuguese strong uma bica, short black coffee, which I enjoy with  a sachet of white sugar.

Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the restaurant - it was family run place - nothing fancy but they serve nice, simple and honest dish.

We went through this street with full of restaurants and cafes on both side,
The place where we had the delicious clams was the last restaurant on your left through this street.

We passed by this church....

And here it is ....

Anyway, after the lunch, we gave up going to see the statue, so we headed back to the ferry terminal.
We took some pictures of the Tagus River and city of Lisbon beyond with a wee green fishing boat passing by..



At this point, I consulted with my guidebook just to check if there are anything else before we ferry back to the City. I then realised that we could take a bus No.101 from the bus terminal by Cailhas ferry terminal which was right behind us!!  Phew, we could still get there.... but definitely not on foot.

We took the bus that drove through houses, flats, modern shops and traffic, and we finally made it.
The giant statue stands with arms outstretch on the south bank of the Tagus River, mounted on a hugh pedestal built by Francisco Franco in 1949-59 at the instigation of Prime Minister Salazar. There is a lift taking you up 82m (269ft) to the top of the pedestal where the observation deck at its feet.

Cristo Rei

So we went up in the lift to the observation deck (of course, not taking stairs!) and looked up the Christ - Wow, he is 28m (92ft) tall and looks amazing. 

From the observation deck, you can see Lisbon's suspension bridge, Ponte 25 de Abril to the left, which was built to commemorate the revolution of 25 April 1966 that restored the democracy to Portugal. The guidebook informs me that the bridge, inspired by San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in the US, is 1 km (half a mile) long.

To the far left, you can also see Torre de Belem and beyond. 

To the far right, you can see the city of Lisbon and Cacilhas below.

Lisbon close-up from the observation deck of Cristo Rei

We came down from the observation deck and walked around the park, admiring the beautiful views of the City of Lisbon.  I turned around and looked up the statue - literally awe inspiring....

This was a very worthwhile visit for both the statue and beautiful clams!

How can you resist this.....

I now looked out the window and yeah, it is a bit hazy but sun is now out a little bit in Scotland too. 

I could have another plate of ameijoas just now....

That's all forks!

What you can eat in Sorrento, Italy

In just over 2 weeks time, my younger daughter Maria and her boyfriend are going to Sorrento, Italy for summer holiday. It was June 2005 when my husband and I went to Sorrento for holiday and have so many lovely memories - and of course the food!!!

(All photos are from our trip in June 2005 - I have no idea what they are all like if we go back these places now....)

In Sorrento, there are many good restaurants as you can imagine and off the main street, shops are selling lovely fresh fruits.  According to an internet information, hugh lemons growing in Sorrento, a size of American football, are called sfusato sorrentino and is good for making limoncello (lemon liquor).

Lemons are also painted ceramics vase, bottles and tiles ubiquitously and you see then when you are in Amalfi coast.

A shop in Positano, Amalfi coast.

One night, I had Spaghetti with clams - there were so many big clams in my spaghetti and you could taste the sea!  My husband had pizza (see the photo behind my spaghetti). I can't remember what were toppings but he really enjoyed it.

... and his pizza was made by this chef who kindly posed in front of camera for me!

Food was so delicious, we went back to the same restaurant again and I ordered another spaghetti clams and my husband had another big plate of pizza!

Obviously there are many pizzeria in Sorrento.  One evening we went to Pizzeria Aurora ( www.pizzeriaaurora.com) which is in the the main square, Piazza Tasso. 

We also tried other restaurants in Sorrento and also had Capri salad (mozzarella cheese, tomato and basils).  Well the mozzarella was nice and really creamy, tomatoes had so much flavour that they were no comparison to tomatoes you get in supermarket in UK.

During the day, you can also go to a small cafe or some patisserie off the main street for a nice cappuccino (although Italians do not drink this in the afternoon) or biscotti or both!

Being right by the coast, seafood is obviously excellent.  We loved the restaurant called Ristorante Bagni Delfino in Marina Grande (www.ristorantebagnidelfino.com). It is by the sea with sun-deck extending over the water. We had lovely lunch, away from the main town centre of Sorrento but still within walking distance, with wonderful views of the peninsula and mount Vesuvio.

My husband had Fritto Misto di Mare (mixed fried seafood).

and I had grilled king prawns or were they langoustine...? Anyway they were huge and really delicious!  I love to go back there and have these again!!!

During our holiday in Sorrento, we also had day trips to explore Amalfi coast.  We took public bus to get to Amalfi, took a boat back from Amalfi to Sorrento via Positano. 

In Amalfi, we found a lovely restaurant off the main square. We had clams and musseles with hand-made pasta. It was absolutely delicious.

On the way back to the centre of Amalfi from the restaurant, we found a snack bar. They were selling so much variety of cakes and they all looked really delicious.

We had an expresso and eclair with chocolate cream filling for dessert! 

We also went to island of Capri. We went to a restaurant called Ristorante Sollievo - just checking on internet, this is now Ristorante D'Amore. I have no idea if it's still owned by the same people or not...
Anyway I remember they had a photo of Keanu Reeves on the wall so guessed he must have dined there long time ago.

I had spaghetti with clams again!

The restaurant is a bit away from the town centre of Capri where many trendy and probably expensive restaurants are. I remember there was also a very good ice-cream / cake shop nearby.

Back to Sorrento again.  On our last night in Sorrento, we went to a restaurant called Ristorante Caruso (www.ristorantemuseocaruso.com) just off the main square.

It was a very lovely, romantic place, with full of pictures of the great tenor, Enrico Caruso, his friends and family and his life on the wall.  When we went there in 2005, they had tasting menu that came with many courses (can't remember how many) which was what we had then.

Risotto with mussels.

Langoustine ravioli

White fish (can't remember what type?) with bed of fennels

Dessert - sponge cake with liquor and fruits.

I love to go back there but I don't think they are still doing the tasting menu. Well, it was a lovely place to go for a finale of our lovely time spent in Sorrento.

Anyway, if none of these interests you, you can always have Italian ice cream. They are just tasty!
A local tour guide took us to this ice cream parlour on our first day and we kept going back to the same place every day for a treat.  We ate too much but there was always room for ice cream!!!

I hope my daughter and her boyfriend will have a lovely time in Sorrento.