Acorda de Gambas at Restaurante Pessoa in Lisbon

It was exactly a year ago on Sunday when we arrived in Lisbon and was looking for a place to eat for lunch.  We found this place called Restaurante Pessoa on Rue Dos duradores 190 in the centre of the city but in a quieter street.  This is also the same place where we had a wonderful big plateful of grilled sardines (see my earlier blog, Grilled Sardines in Lisbon, http://mwhe.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/peixe-in-city.html).

I fancied grilled sardines again, since we are in Lisbon now. They were not on the menu we saw at the restaurant. In fact, the menu was in Portuguese so we had to guess what they were but I did not see any words that resembled sardines.  The owner (?) does not speak English but I asked him anyway if he had sardines, which he understood. He went away to the kitchen to check with the chef, came back to give me a nod of 'OK'.  "Excellent, I can have sardines today!".

In the meantime, a ceramic bowlful of dish had arrived at the table behind my husband.  He saw some prawns in what looked like some kind of risotto like consistency so he checked the menu. He asked the owner, pointing at the dish which was brought to the table behind him discreetly and asked him what it was.  The owner then pointed at the item listed on the menu and said, "Prato do dia, Accorda de marisco!"  We guessed that he was saying about some kind of seafood dish as today's special.
This became his lunch for the day.

This was an interesting dish. We were trying to work out what was in this dish, apart from obvious such as prawns, chopped garlic (lots of them), coriander and some chilli. We could not ask the owner as he does not speak English.  My husband enjoyed this dish, especially its being traditional Portuguese dish and something different for a change.

Later on I checked on internet. Basically it appears that this is a traditional Portuguese bread-based stew with a consistency similar to risotto, made of mashed bread which was slowly simmered in a fish broth, using leftover bread,  with garlic, coriander, olive oil, white wine and salt, add cooked prawns and with final touch of a raw egg, stirred into the dish before serving.  Some website also offers recipe.  Break the stale bread into bits and cover with water just enough to turn the break into a sponge. Apparently the consistency should not be too liquid but more like porridge. Add the olive oil to mix slowly until the bread becomes a paste. One recipe mentioned about adding piri-piri sauce - that must be how the taste of chilli came from....

This is a clever dish, using left over rustic bread, adding prawns or cods which you can source easily in Portugal.  Italians also use left over stale bread soaked in water and squeezed dry to make Panzanella which is a Tuscan salad of bread and tomatoes, adding onions and basil, dressed with olive oil and vinegar.

I like this kind of dish and it's definitely 'blog-worthy', I think.  If we were not having lunch at this restaurant, we would not have known about this dish. Very interesting.

In the meantime, I was eating my grilled sardines, which were prepared to perfection. It also came with sliced peppers and white onions pickled in white wine vinegar, which I wish to try making once we go back home for accompaniment.  I really enjoyed everything, just like last time.

We ate all these with a half bottle of Vino Verde (Portuguese 'green' wine).

When we finish our meals, I wanted to try local dessert but not being able to understand menu, I asked the owner what was 'house special' dessert on the menu.  He gave me a nod with smile, went to the kitchen and came back with the actual dessert to show it to me.  To be honest, I was still not sure what it was; it looked like a gigantic marshmallow with orange jelly. 

I became very intrigue by this dessert. I was not sure if I would enjoy this or not but I felt bad sending  it back to the kitchen so I gave the owner with a nod of yes. He placed the plate in front of me. 

I guess the main part must have been made with white egg with lots of sugar but the texture is soft mash-marrow, covered with glowing orange coloured jelly like staff. I could not guess what this was; was it orange, apricot but it did not have much fruity taste to it other than sugar.  This was a very interesting dessert - we kept eating it. To this date, I have not worked out what this dessert was and my internet research did not prove to be illuminating however this glowing dessert was starting to grow on me somehow.  Well, in the end we ate it all up.

We finished off our meal with Portuguese bica.

Overall, we really enjoyed our lunch and it was literally an illuminating experience.

That's all forks!

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!