Cataplana at Maria Catita in Lisbon, Portugal

We have recently found a lovely restaurant called Maria Catita on Rua Dos Bacalhoeiros by chance.

The restaurant looked nice from outside and it was already busy despite all other restaurants nearby were very quiet. It must have been a sign of good food, so we walked in and got a table right away. It has a very nice atmosphere inside too. We were lucky as others who came after us were all turned away...

Anyway,  all waiting staff were really nice, friendly and efficient. They brought us our English menu right away.

The menu looked interesting. I wanted to try octopus salad for starter so my husband and I decided to share this to try. For main course my husband ordered roasted tuna with sweet potato and I ordered cataplana, which is a traditional Portuguese dish that I have never tried before but always wanted to try. It says 'Speciality from the Algarve region cooked in a concave casserole Maria Catita style!  Well, if it has its restaurant's name attached to it, it must be good, right!?

In the meantime, my husband was selecting the wine and found vinho verde rose. We never had it as rose and were very intrigued about it. The waiter told us that it is a sour wine. .... interesting so we decided to try.

Well, it was sour alright, but not in the way of being off, it was more like a chewy sour if you know what I mean....  It was quite a nice wine, could get used to it.

The next thing, our octopus salad arrived.  Just as well we only ordered for one as the portion size was very generous. And this is really really nice. We were wondering what were in this - octopus of course, coriander of course (everythng in Portuguese dishes seem to have corianders in them...?), olive oil, red wine vinegar maybe and lemon?  Also lots of chopped crunchy red and green peppers which work very well in this dish.  We really loved this starter.

The next my cataplana has arrived ... first of all, the waiter brought a bowl of rice and put them into my plate.

Then a copper casserole dish (called cataplana) shaped like two clamshells containing lots of seafood in it appeared.  The waiter then celemoniously scooped all the seafood off the dish and coverd the rice at the bottom of my plate.

He explained that the dish acts like a pressure cooker and seals all goodness of ingredients within the container during the cooking process. Sounds great and it tasted really great too. There were muscle, prawns, monk fish, cod with some vegetables ... they were really well  married to create a wonderful fish stock poured over rice - such a clever dish....

My husband's roasted tuna with sweet potatoes also have arrived. Wow, you should see the size of tuna!  There were big chunks of tune, the size of man's fist each in a plant size pot with big chunks of sweet potatoes. This is a very meaty dish but not meat....   My husband really enjoyed this dish too.

.... look at the sizes of roasted tuna in comparison to my husband's hands ....

Anyway, these dishes went down very well with chewy-sourly vinho verde rose! We couldn't eat anything else after this so we just had uma bica each.

We ordered the bill, which came in a lovely tin....

The restaurant has a very lovely atmosphere, service was very friendly and efficient, food was lovely with generous portion, yet it only came to around 40 euro including wine and coffee.  We would definitely go back to this place.

The next day, we were walking on a different street looking for a place to eat dinner and found a cataplana casserole dish displayed on top of a sign outside of a restaurant, so I took a picture to remind me of what cataplana means ...

Anyway, we really enjoyed our dinner.  What shall we have for dinner tomorrow ....???

That's all forks!

Happy Mother's Day

I know it's a bit late but I thought I mentioned what we had for lunch when my daughters, Emily and Maria, took me and my husband for Mother's Day a few weeks ago.

They booked us for a table for 4 at City Merchant Restaurant (http://www.citymerchant.co.uk) in Glasgow and we had a lovely lunch from their Mother's Day Menu. This is a seafood restaurant that has been operating since 1988. I heard about this restaurant but had never tried this place before so it was a lovely treat.

Inside of the restaurant

For starter, Maria had Butternut Squash Soup with sage and permesan, Emily had Shellfish Cocktail with Marie Rose sauce while my husband and I had Whisky Cured Salmon with capers and creme fraiche.

Butternut Squash Soup

Shellfish Cocktail

Whisky Cured Salmon

For main course, Maria had Roast Sirloin of Beef with crushed roast potatoes, thyme gravy and Yorkshire pudding. Emily and my husband had Pollock Mornay with a prawn and dill sauce. I had Seared Hake with a mussel, tomato and vegetable broth.

Roast Sirloin of Beef

Pollock Mornay

Seared Hake

To finish off the meal, we then had desserts - Maria and I had Chocolate Torte with raspberry sorbet and creme Anglaise. My husband had Tipsy Laird Trifle and Emily had due of Scottish Cheeses with biscuits, chutney and grapes.

Chocolate Torte

Tipsy Laird Trifle

Duo of Scottish Cheeses

We really enjoyed our lunch. Being fish/shellfish lover, it was also nice to have fish-based menu instead of meat based menu for a change. So much so my husband and I will go back there sometime soon to try their seafood platter which, according to their website menu, consists of langoustine, scallops, oysters, mussels, shell-on prawns and crab claws. (We actually got a good on-line deal for two x seafood platters with a bottle of wine to share so we are hoping that Maria, who has recently passed driving test and loves driving for every opportunity she gets, will come and pick us up from the restaurant after the dinner.....).

Emily and Maria paid our lunch, with their hard-earned cash for Mother's Day, especially Maria being a student too.  How grown up they are now to do this for us and what wonderful daughters I have!  Thank you, Emily and Maria for lovely lunch for special day!

Oh, I also checked the toilet, of course and it passed my test. It's a bit small with 2 cubicles and any more than 3 people around hand wash area would make one feel a bit crowded but it was clean. Toilets are in downstairs and corridor leading to the toilet was all decorated in tartan and made us feel if we were in a Highland lodge and suddenly you forget you are in the middle of city centre Glasgow or made us feel even if we were in Brigadoon but luckily we were not in a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every hundred years!

For your information their website also informs us that they offer 30% discount on a la carte every Sunday (except Easter Sunday) if you book your table quoting code CMSUN30.  Menu looks nice and it caters not only for seafood lovers but also for vegetarians and meat eaters too.

I shall report back after we try seafood platter soon.

That's all forks!

121212 - Gamba, Seafood Restaurant in Glasgow

One two, one two, one two, one two.... am I doing an exercise? No way, not especially I got so much food at home at the moment. Is this a code? No.

Apparently at least five newborns have come into this world this year on once a century good luck date of 12.12.12 at 12:12!  In the meantime my husband was born xx numbers of years ago on 12.12 so to celebrate his birthday, we went to Gamba (http://www.gamba.co.uk), seafood restaurant in Glasgow on 12th December.

Emily and I checked their menu online and found an excellent deal of Winter Menu that comes with 3 courses and a glass of Prosecco for £20 each.

For starters, Maria had a bowl of parsnip, honey and cumin soup with creme fraiche, Emily had prawn and pear cocktail with chilli jam and lime while my husband and I had Gamba fish soup with stem ginger, Portland crabmeat and coriander. The fish soup was so excellent that you just want to keep going back to the restaurant to order another bowl! For information, if you order this soup from A La Carte Menu, the soup comes with prawn dumplings.

Parsnip, honey & cumin soup with creme fraiche

Gamba fish soup with stem ginger, Portland crabmeat and coriander

Prawn and pear with chilli jam and lime

We then moved on to the main courses. Emily and I had Baked grey sole with smoked haddock, leeks, garden peas, scallop cream and chives, my husband had line caught seabass with Caesar salad, crayfish tails and capers and Maria had crisp fried salmon, garlic olive oil and sweet soy with fragrant rice.

Seabass with Caesar salad, crayfish tails and capers

Baked grey sole with smoked haddock, leeks, garden peas, scallop cream  and chives

Crisp fried salmon, garlic olive oil, sweet soy with fragrant rice

All these dishes taste exactly what they look - very delicious indeed ... in fact the photographs would not do justice as they were much much tastier than they look.
Alas, halfway through the main course both Emily and I were defeated by the volume of dish and grudgingly had to give up but grey sole and haddock was so delicious, we really wish we could go back right now to finish the rest if we could....

It's funny how we always manage to create extra space for dessert no matter how much we are full. Three of us ordered Honeycomb ice cream with chocolate sauce and Maria ordered Christmas pudding creme brûlée.

Honeycomb ice cream with warm chocolate sauce

Creme brûlée with Christmas pudding inside

We then finish the courses with teas and coffees that came with home made tablets. Yummy...

The food was delicious, good price for excellent quality of food and attentive customer service. Overall it was a lovely evening with lovely food and lovely company (of course!) to celebrate my husband's birthday on 12/12.

In case you are wondering, I have checked my husband's birth certificate to find out what time he was born. It was not at 12.12. It was not even close but at 20.10pm.

Having eaten all those food, I think I would need to go on a treadmill and go 'one, two, one, two' but I will wait till after the New Year.

Hope you all have had a lovely year 2012 and wish year 2013 will bring a lot of happiness and good health to you.  That's all forks!