Giraffe in Glasgow, Scotland

(Almost) Every Saturday morning, my husband and I go to Glasgow, buy The Guardian newspaper and then go to Starbucks to read the paper whilst enjoying our coffees. Recently, whilst heading out toward Buchanan Street after our morning coffee fix, we noticed this new restaurant called giraffe (http://www.giraffe.net/locations/glasgow-west-regent-street).  We checked the menu on the window, which looks quite good so we decided to try today for lunch.

Inside is quite airy, specious yet with warm and friendly atmosphere.

Looking up the ceiling ....

Whilst we were perusing our menu, we ordered ourselves Fresh Lemonade with Mint - 'cloudy & refreshing, made fresh every day' they say. We liked the sound of it. When we tasted it, it was indeed quite refreshing and tasty.

Here are their menus - drinks on the left, food on the right ...

They do Brunch until 4pm ....

My husband ordered Falafel Deluxe Burger - grilled pepper, helloumi, carrot, beetroot, mixed leaves, tzatziki, red pepper and harissa hummus.  It sounds really good....

He enjoyed the burger. He also add some chillis sauce to his burger to make it tastier and spicier....

I ordered Sharing Mezze Platter - tabbouleh, hummus, Tunisian ratatouille, baba ghanoush, tzatziki, falafels, grilled halloumi skewers and mini pitta breads.

From top left to clockwise - falafels, grilled helloumi skewers, mini pita breads, baba ghanoush,
Tunisian ratatouille, tzatziki, tabbouleh and hummus.

I have never tried baba ghanoush.... having tried off my plate, it tasted like aubergine but quite tasty. I then googled to find out what baba ghanoush is. According to Wikipedia, it is eggplant salads starter, mixed with onions, tomatoes, olive oil and various seasonings, popular in the Levant (area covering Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria) as well as in Armenia.

Baba Ghanoush with pomegranate seeds and olive oil (right)

Anyway, my Mezze offered me choices of colours and flavours. As this was meant to be a sharing platter, I could not finish all so I shared it with my husband. He is not usually keen on aubergine yet he did enjoy baba ghanoush on the plate.  He said that if I made this, he could eat aubergine.

Whist I was eating this, I also remembered about the TV programme I was watching last night, 'Rick Stein's From Venice to Istanbul'. In this programme he finally got to Istanbul and was eating Mezze with his friend which included mushed aubergine dip kind of dish, so that might have been baba ghanoush.  Maybe that's why I semi-consciously chose to have the mezze platter for lunch today at Giraffe....

My mind and head is now full of all these colourful and flavoursome dishes from Levantine region with images of wonderful food from Risk Stein's TV programme last night. Looking at our lunch picture makes me hungry now. And guess what, one of our neighbours who are Pakistani British, seems to be cooking for dinner and I can smell wonderful aroma of curry and spices ... Mmmmm. It's almost like smell-vision to me right now.  

We enjoyed our lunch today and we would definitely go back to this restaurant again. I think, next time I would like to try Miso & Lime Grilled Salmon with wasabi rice, teriyaki greens and fresh lime with sesame crunch, or Tofu & Squash Laksa - fragrant spiced coconut broth with snap peas, broccoli, red chilli & rice noodles as I like tofu. I have seen some photo on Instagram of Thai Duck Stir Fry and it looked delicious too although I don't eat meat so I won't order this.  It also have nice cocktail menu too.

I have also done toilet check - of course it has passed - it's a new premises so everything is clean and new.  It's in upstairs, going up this step ...

It's a bit of a maze but just follow the sign and you do get there.... and don't get confused with doors to Staff Only.


Throughout the premises walls are decorated with colourful framed prints that also add to the friendly and warm atmosphere ...

That's all forks!

Rosa's in Cascais, Portugal

Whilst we were in Lisbon, we decided to go to Cascais (pronounced 'Cashcaish'), a holiday resort, for a day trip by train, which departs from Cais do Sodre Station every 20 minutes. It takes about 40 minutes and the train runs along River Tejo to the West.

Once you get off the train, you just follow the crowds as everyone goes to the same direction walking through the pedestrian precinct with shops, restaurants - and quite a few Indian restaurants!

Religious shop selling figurines  - Josef, Mary and Jesus riding on a bike!

Even graffiti looks wonderful as wall art!

Walking through the paved street leads to the centre square with open view of the harbour....

Also notice a few British and Irish pubs ....

Look at the colour of the sky - pure blue without any clouds!!!

From here you walk along the promenade where you can see  sandy beach ....

... and boats, yachts and fishing boats beyond ...

Even King Carlos I is commanding a fine view ....

After that we walked around the town to explore a little bit whilst looking for a place for lunch ... of course, always thinking of food .... 

Portuguese tiles everywhere ... even for street signs ....

Being watched by a cat .....

Anyway, having consulted with my guidebook, we decided to try a seafood restaurant called Restorante O Pescador on R. das Flores near town's Fish Market. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed whilst the rest of other restraints were open with full of tourists. We could go into any of these restaurants however they were all in this rather narrow street with outside tables closed together without much of sea breeze coming through, we decided to look for somewhere with open space with nice breeze where we could sit outside.

Well, just as well, from R. das Flores we turned into Largo Cidade de Vitoria as that's where we found this cafe/bar/restaurant called Rosa's situated in a small quiet square.

 

 

 

 We sat outside, under the big tree that acts as a huge natural canopy ...

 

It was lovely and hot day but we picked the perfect table where we could sit, well shaded under this canopy with lovely sea breeze as natural fan to cool us down.

We ordered half bottle of vinho verde.... and what did we order for lunch?

I like the colour of table cloth, table mat, little flowers in the pot ....

.. Tuna Salad!  Nothing Portuguese about this but we thoroughly enjoyed this despite we originally had an intention to have good seafood meal at a proper seafood restaurant for lunch since we were a seaside resort.

And of course, we always have uma bica to finish off our meal!  Mmmmm.

I really like this table mat .....

After the relaxing lunch, we headed back to Lisbon by train again. We are not beach & sun bathing type people so this was fine for us however I can see attraction for people coming here for a quick day out from Lisbon for beach and seafood relaxation.  We did enjoy our day out to Cascais!

I envy people living in Lisbon - it's such a beautiful place with great food, great shopping, lots to see and do, with beautiful weather and now they even have easy access to lovely seaside resort within 40 minutes by regular train rides!  Not just that, I see from the train ever continuing clean and nice beach along River Tejo running parallel to the railway line, so they don't even need to travel that far from Lisbon for sunbathing.  Not that I like sunbathing (in fact I don't do sun bathing) however I do envy their good life ....

That's all forks!

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!