Arroz de Marisco at Cervejaria Pinoquio in Lisbon

One of my 'to eat' list items in Lisbon is Arroz de Marisco, which is Portuguese seafood rice.  This trip to Lisbon being the 3rd time, I wonder why I never thought about trying this dish already before.

Anyway, we decided to try this dish at a seafood restaurant called Cervejaria Pinoquio at Praca Restauradores 79. This restaurant is located at the south end of Praca dos Restauradores, across the road from Hotel Avenida Palace where we are staying so it is very handy.

I read some reviews on Tripadvisor; some said that this place gets busy and people would cue to get in.  We did not book a table however since it's just across the road from our hotel, we decided to just turn up and see if we could get in.  The place was getting busy both inside and outside but we were seated right away.

Inside the decor is all basic, rather spartan with lime greenish colour paints on walls. There were quite a few waiting staff, constantly moving to transport dishes and drinks around the tables.  We ordered a mixed salad for starter, thinking that the seafood rice we order for the main course may take a bit while.

Considering how busy the place was, hallway through our mixed salad, the seafood rice dish arrived at our table.  It looked really good - it had everything we like .... lobster, clams, prawns and fresh corianders worked very well with it.  It was really delicious.

Mixed salad is just a simple one with lettuce, sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, chopped mushroom with some dry herbs. The waiter put some white wine vinegar, olive oil and some rock salt  and mixed them with salad, brought it over to our table, saying "if you want more dressing, just let me know." The dressing was perfect. Such a simple salad yet it was so tasty and refreshing, and lots of them!

As soon as you sit down, they brought a basketful of bread and a small bowl of black olives with garlic to our table. These are 'curvert' that are not free and you would be charged if you eat any of them.  We usually ask waiters to take them away but lovely warm bread with melted butter looked really nice so we decided to keep them. I can't remember how much we were charged for the cover however that did not matter; we ate them to mop up the lovely soup left in the stainless steel bowl after we finished the seafood and rice.

To be honest, at first we thought these were garlic bread ... it was just a normal butter
anyway, Portuguese bread is really good....

 We had all these with a half bottle of white wine.

 And of course, the meal has to end with good Portuguese bica!  We really enjoyed our dinner!

As we were leaving the restaurant, I see lots of big crabs in the fish tank.  I remembered some of reviewers on Tripadvisor were giving positive reviews about crabs.  Maybe next time .... however even a single crab looks like a lot of portion for one person to eat ....

Outside of the restaurant, we saw people cueing to get in. The restaurant was packed both inside and outside. We were lucky that we got in without booking and were served right away.

If we had any time left before we go home, we may come back to this restaurant and I want to try their pan fried clams with olive oil, garlic (lots of them) with coriander and boiled shrimps with rock salt.

There are just sooooo many restaurants where you could try in Lisbon; if only we have more time and money to try them all!

That's all forks!

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!

Restaurante Tronco in Lisbon

Here we are, back in Lisbon again.  We love Lisbon - weather is fantastic; still very hot at the end of August or early September with temperature anything between 27 - 31c but comes with lovely sea breaze; people are nice and food is just phenominal, especially if you are seafood lovers like we are!

Where do we go for our first dinner in this city?  It has to be Restaurante Tronco on Rue das Portas de Santo Antao, 147 Zona Rossio, Lisbon 1150.  This is a very unassuming place, away from the south end of the same street where there are many touristy restaurants with hard-selling. We found this place last year when we were walking toward another restaurant, Solar dos Presuntos (Please see my earlier blog, You gotta eat fish in Lisbon http://mwhe.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/you-gotta-eat-fish-in-lisbon.html).

Last year we went to this restaurant few times and we enjoyed having their grilled king prawns, grilled cuttlefish with a big heap of fresh mixed salad.  So, this time we ordered exactly the same.

My favourite - grilled king prawns
Just eat them with lemon juice

My husband's favourite - grilled cuttlefish

Big heap of freshly prepared cold salad,
eat it with simple dressing of olive oil, white wine vinegar and rock salt

It was still hot outside, and also quite hot inside without air-con apart from semi coolish air created by the big fan hanging from the ceiling above our heads, so the salad, which is perfectly cold, was just so refreshing.

We also ordered 1/2 bottle of Portuguese Vinho Verde ('green' white wine), which is a slightly sparkling wine made from immature grapes, hence being called Verde or green. We love Vinho Verde. We notice that you can buy this at supermarket now back home although limited selection, such as at Tesco but we found some of them a bit sweet so we need to look out for drier ones.

Of course, great meal has to end with Portugal's wee cup of bica, strong coffee which is a bit like Italian's espresso; you offset the bitterness (if you wish) with sugar. I don't add sugar in coffee but I do love uma bica whilst being in Lisbon. By the way, umai (which is an adjective form of umami) means delicious in Japanese, so uma bica is umai coffee indeed, hahaha.

So, all these (i.e. 1/2 vinho verde, a chilled bottle of still water, 2 x main course of grilled king prawns and grilled cuttlefish, a big heap of freshly made cold mixed salad and 2 x bica) came to only 26.60 Euro!!!  Yes, it's very good money for value, but that's not the main reason why we keep coming back to this restaurant.  

I must tell you, this place is nothing like Solar dos Presuntos. It's a very small and narrow, family-run restaurant with small menu with no air-con but big fan hanging from the ceiling. When it's really busy with full tables and people whilst the big fan hanging from the ceiling does not do much to cool you down, I suggest you wear something comfortable and loose to help you feel cool down. Prepare to be patient until your order comes as service can be slow.  The owner (?) is doing everything by himself except cooking, i.e taking orders, kitchen portering, barista, cleaning up dishes away and setting tables, etc.  But the food they serve is very honest, tasty home cooking using fresh ingredients, and off course, cheaper that any other fancy or touristy restaurants nearby.

Inside of the restaurant. 

TV is always on with a black mark on the middle of screen but no one seems to care if it's slightly broken.  Last time there were some Portuguese soap and also some show that looked like an equivalent of Voice on. This time it was a football match.

Outside, they display menus in different languages and also some promotion of sardines.

Very unassuming place

Looking left, toward the south end of the same street where most of touristy restaurants are located.

See, I told you. It's a quiet part of the same street, away from the tourists and other restaurants. You could almost ignore or not notice and just pass by.  There is also a wee lane near by with lots of graffiti and you would probably just keep going till you get to the other end of the street.

Don't judge by the look of the cover, just go in and try their traditional Portuguese food, and if you don't like it, at least it does not break you bank.

That's all forks!

Chanterelle Risotto at Sarti's in Glasgow

My husband and I were going back to Lisbon for holiday shortly. Food in Lisbon is just heavenly, not to mentioning the weather.... that being said, I have never come across any good pizzas in Lisbon. Obviously you don't go to Lisbon to eat pizza really, but after having so many fish/seafoods and custard pastries every day, one sometimes needs a change, hence a notion of good stone baked pizza, even in Lisbon. For such a ubiquitous dish like pizza, one would think 'you can't go wrong with pizza, anywhere', albeit pizza in Italy being still the best in the world. Alas, not in Lisbon, or at places we have been to in Lisbon ...

So, naturally, we decided to go to Sarti, our favourite restaurant in Glasgow, to have a really good pizza before we go back to Lisbon for imminent holiday. Yes, we love pizza at Sarti's. In fact, the first time we went to Florence, we went to this restaurant to order some stone baked pizza. It was really good but also we said to each other, 'just like the one at Sarti's!'

Anyway, before we got to Sarti, I had already decided that I was going to have a tuna and red onion pizza.  Then, one of the chefs, Martin, came over and told us that chanterelle risotto was really good that day ....

I had a big dilemma ... do I have a pizza or the risotto.... the chef said it was really good .... and I had never tried chanterelle mushroom properly before.
In the end we were persuaded; we could have pizza any time but not the chanterelle mushroom risotto, and we did not regretted our decisions.

The risotto was really delicious, so creamy and with lovely flavoursome mushrooms!!!  How could they make the dish so beautifully ...
If they had this on a special menu in future, we would definitely have this again!

This was half-portion size risotto, sprinkled with freshly grated Parmesan cheese;
there were lots of chanterelle mushrooms, mmmmmm.

Well, just as well I only ordered as a half size portion so that at least I could manage to finish this, because we already had some focaccia whilst waiting for starter, and then had roasted red peppers with mozzarella cheese for starters, both were fantastic!

Mozzarella cheese was really soft and creamy with lovely and warm roasted peppers with balsamic glaze 

Ok, we are not going to have a pizza for a while but we can still look forward to going Sarti's pizza when we come back from our holiday in Lisbon, unless they create another scrumptious dish that would make it difficult for us not to have their pizza...

That's all forks!

Dinner at Browns in Glasgow

I have just gone to Glasgow for haircut yesterday. Every time, I explain how I want my hair done to a hairdresser.  Each time I ask for a different hair-style, specifically request that I DO NOT WANT A BOB. I even sometime produce a magazine clipping to show to make a point; I know you can't make my hair exactly look like this but you get the idea...? They all give me a nod of perfect understanding. Then every time I leave a salon, I end up with the same haircut - bob! Why is this happening to me?  What have I not explained properly? So I go home, wash my hair to style it in my own way. Somehow I manage to have my hair style look less like a Bob. At least my current hairdresser gives me a very good cut so I can fix it to my liking later... she is the best one I have ever found in Glasgow so far....

Never mind, the difference of bad and ok hair cut is only 2 weeks, after that no one cares including me. I can handle it.

Why am I talking about this whereas my blog is about food? No reason, other than that on my way to the salon I have passed by George Square and have noticed that Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games logo is still there, which reminded me that I have forgotten about talking about Browns Bar & Brasserie (http://www.browns-restaurants.co.uk/locations/glasgow/) which is right on George Square as we went there before the Game started.

Glasgow's George Square.  Browns is at the corner of the building on the right.

I subscribe Browns e-newsletters and one day I got an email about 3 course dinner for two just less than £30!  So my husband and I decided to try this restaurant.

It was a lovely Tuesday evening with warm sunshine. Being during the week day, the restaurant was not too busy but there were some graduates celebrating their graduation day with their friends and families in the restaurant, so there was happy atmosphere.

They do live Jazz on Thursdays - we must try it!

We were seated without any problem and were also given a normal a la carte menu to peruse. The menu looks nice, with lots to choose from (http://www.browns-restaurants.co.uk/media/ugc/menus/2014/05/01/Browns-Main-Menu-U.pdf). 

We first of all ordered a glass of wine each - Mamaku, New Zealand's Sauvignon Blanc, described on the wine menu as classic kiwi Sauvignon with gooseberry, passionfruit and a racy citrus finish. It's great with goat's cheese, it says. I don't like goat's cheese but apart from that, it sounds nice.  £6.2 per glass, it'd better be more than nice... and yes, it was a lovely wine.

For starters, I had Crab & Avocado Stack with mustard creme fraiche and a mildly spiced coriander and chilli salsa with an avocado and potato salad.  My husband had King Prawn Cocktail with fresh seeded wholemeal bread and butter. 

My crab & avocado was nice, refreshing.  For some reason my husband pictured king prawns to be decorated around the rim of a cocktail glass, instead they came in a bowl with endive leaves sticking out like a rabbit's ear. I think the taste was fine, and they were king prawns not wee shrimps, though funny how the perception or presentation of a dish could influence one's palate.

Next, for the main course, I had Lobster Tagliatelle with flaked lobster, parmesan, cream and white wine topped with grilled half lobster tail.

Your eyes are always bigger than your stomach - you think there was not much in it but actually the portion size was just right, especially the sauce was rather rich.  It was lovely, I actually enjoyed it and managed it all.

My husband had Roast Fillet of Fresh Cod with a brown shrimp, caper and parsley butter served with spinach and sautéed potatoes.  This one looked really nice and he said it was delicious. He finished all too with his stomach satisfied. We did not even need to order side dishes and just as well.



By this time I was full, but determined to go for a dessert since this is a 3-course meal deal and I am too greedy not to find out what they are offering.

I decided to try something simple and straight forward, so I ordered Dairy Ice Cream of choices of three scoops of strawberry, pistachio and chocolate with a home-baked cookie.

My husband had Peach and Cherry Crumble served with custard. Perhaps crumbles were too crumbly and dry but he said custard was nice.

Yes, I also did the toilet check. It's in downstairs. The toilet was very clean with lots of cubicles but each cubicle size is rather narrow. I thought I would become claustrophobic and nearly passed out as the toilet room was far too hot as if the heater were full on.  I had to go back upstairs quickly to get fresh air rather I powder my nose to refresh myself.

Over all, we enjoyed our dinner and the evening. Do we go back and try other dishes from the menu at full price?  Well, not sure yet but they are doing Afternoon Tea for two for £15 and its menu sounds nice (http://www.browns-restaurants.co.uk/media/ugc/files/afternoon-tea-menu.pdf). I am also interested in their Lobster Thursday, and all that Jazz!

We completed online survey once we came home and we got free desert voucher.... Ooops, I have just discovered that it expired on 4th August. Not to worry. I am sure I will receive further emails about other offers from Browns. I can wait. Just like I can wait for my hair to grow back a bit and settle down over the next 2 weeks. I am not looking forward to go back to their toilet though ...

That's all forks!

Fish & Chips in Falkirk

It was my mother-in-law Mary's birthday last Sunday. We were looking for place to go for dinner with her. Mary lives in Stirling. We live in Glasgow and Peter's sister family lives in Edinburgh. It has to be somewhere central for all.  Mary then suggested to go to benny t's (http://www.bennyts.net) in Falkirk.  It's a family-run fish and chips restaurant and takeaway place, not too far away from Falkirk Football Stadium.

I checked the reviews on Tripadvisor before we left home. Some said they do very good pizzas. That's tempting but we are in fish & chip restaurant so I decided to stick to their main products and ordered Classic Haddock Fish Supper (£9.95) that comes with 2 fillets (the menu says approx. 100g each) in crispy butter, served with benny t's tartare sauce, chips and was garnished with benny t's coleslaw.  Also ordered were two picked onions.




2 full fillets were a bit too much after all. My eyes always bigger than my stomach, however I managed to eat 1 1/2 fillets and the rest became a doggy bag for Robbie, Mary's beloved dog.
benny t's coleslaw lacked some sharpness and flavour, I thought, however overall I enjoyed the supper.

Mary's grand daughter Bekky is vegan at the moment so she ordered Vegetable pizza without cheese. It looked really good and was generous in size, smelling of proper stone baked oven pizza. Unfortunately I don't have photo of that. There were 9 of us at the table and Bekky was sitting the opposite end of the table from me. I did not have audacity to ask her not to start eating till I position her plate of pizza to be at the correct angle to take a photo for me.

There is extensive list of pizza on the menu (http://www.bennyts.net/uploads/files/bennyts.seesites.biz_--_590511914.pdf).  Pizza Amalfi sounds nice. If I ever go back there, I may try their pizza next time.

The restaurant decor is bright and colourful. Take away bit and restaurant stand side by side. It also has good size car parking facility.

We arrived at the restaurant at 4pm (it opens at 4pm on Sundays) so we did not have any problem to get a table for 9. By the time we were leaving, the restaurant was getting busier with people waiting for their seats. There are also people driving in to pick up takeaways from the chippies.

After this, Mary, my husband and I went back to Mary's house in Stirling.  I had earlier baked strawberry sponge cake with white chocolate and cream cheese icing for her birthday.  So we decided to eat some slices as dessert at her house. I think I did a fairly good job of this; the sponge was nice and moist, strawberries married well with white chocolate and cream cheese icing. I hope Mary enjoyed it too.  Well, I enjoyed it, blowing my trumpet here.... ha ha ha. 

Scotland has so many great fish and chips shops so to be honest benny t's is not a place we would go to drive all the way from where we live in Glasgow however, we could go back there for pizza next time as there are now The Kelpie near Falkirk,  300-tonne 30m high Kelpie horse's heads, Scotland's biggest art installation built by the artist Andy Scott's.  I fancy go and see them properly.

You can actually see the Kelpies from the motorway.  I am sure they look amazing from the Helix park where they are situated, however even from the motorway, they look awesome.  The stainless steel sculptures look so alive.....

Yes, we shall go and see the Kelpies and then go back to benny t's for pizza!

Anyway, hope Mary has enjoyed her birthday. Bekky and her boyfriend Don gave her a lovely card which they bought when they were travelling Vietnam.  I could not resist taking the photo of this. It's just so lovely and intricate.

Anyway, it was lovely for the family to get together. Happy Birthday, Mary.

That's all forks.