Lunch in Portuguese style, Lisbon - O Triguenrinho

We are in Lisbon right now. We arrived at our hotel mid morning however as it was too early to check in, we decided to go for a wonder around the city. Last year, we found a quirky cafe that served affordable but good vinho verde in Mouraria district so we decided to head there and then have a lunch at Restaurant Ze da Mouraria (see my last year's blog about Lisbon).

June is the festival time for Lisbon so traditional neighbourhood is cheerfully and colourfully decorated alongside with every day laundries of ordinary folks and is very interesting to walk through....

We turn into Escadinhas De Sao Cristovao to walk up the stairs to get to the quirky cafe.

The walls are full of graffiti however, in Lisbon, they actually add charms to the ambience and you don't think of them as vandalism ...

There are always many tourists led by walking tour guides who explain about the background to these graffiti or murals, often associated with Fado music which is what Mouraria is famous for.

We arrived at the cafe, found a nicely shaded table to sit down and enjoyed nicely chilled vinho verde (green wine).

I also notice that there seems to be more graffiti around here than last year ... 

After that, we tried to trace our way back to Restaurant Ze da Mouraria for their big pot of Portuguese cuttlefish and potato stew, and of course, we took the wrong turn and could not find the place. Typical ....

However, that turned out to be good as we then found an interesting back street with some photographs on the walls, titled "A Tribute" by Camilla Watson.  

A lady carrying a mop on her shoulder ...

Unfortunately, by the time we got to Restaurant Ze da Mouraria, tables were fully booked and waiter told us in Portuguese, which we do not comprehend at all, to come back in an hour and a half ... well I am sure that's what he said, I think ... We were starving so we decided to try another restaurant which we passed by earlier and traced our way back ... walking through traditional neighbourhood with lots of colourful and cheerful decorations ....

.... and we found the restaurant ...

It's called O Triguerinho at Largo dos Trigueiros, 17, Lisbon.

Owned by two ladies serving traditional Portuguese dishes

We had no idea what this place would be like but decided to try. Clientele seems to be a mixture of local office workers who are on lunch break and some tourists. We were seated right away and given a menu which is in Portuguese. The menu was just one page, with either fish or meat ... simple and price seems really good....

I know very limited Portuguese words for food - sardine, fish, grilled, tuna ...

While we were trying to decipher the menu, this nice local business man who was sitting at the table next to us, offered to help.  He said that dishes on the menu are traditional Portuguese and since we are in Portugal we should eat fish. He then said, sardines do not have much fat (or meat?) on them this year and therefore recommended we try tuna or fish stew. That sounds good to us.

We were looking at the wine menu and he said Muralhas is good so we ordered a bottle too.

The business man said that the restaurant serves very good food but the service is very slow, so not suitable if you are pressed for time. Clearly he did not have to worry about his lunch hours. He was eating beef steaks with chips and a half bottle of red wine to go with his lunch. This is the different attitude from the UK. He then called over the waitress and placed an order for our lunch. What a nice man....

The next thing, the waitress brought us a basket of local bread (Portuguese bread is really good!), olives and cheese. (By the way, these are not free; if you eat them, they charge for them but you can also tell them that you don't want them.) We thought we ask the waitress to take them away and the next thing, the business man said we should try the cheese as it's really good. We kept them cheese, olives and bread; just as well as we did have to wait for the food for some time. The business man said that the locals pre-order their food so that they do not have to wait.

The business man told us that he works at a bank and since we are from the UK, naturally the conversation centred around Brixit. He was quite knowledgeable about voting results across the UK and showed keen interest to know about 'Remain' Scottish voters. He said that he does not live in Lisbon but commutes by train from Cascais, a lovely seaside resort. I instantly pictured a lovely big white house overlooking the sea under the beautiful blue sky.

I nearly wanted to ask him if he would not mind me taking a picture of him for my blog but I resisted such temptation so that he could finish his lunch in peace. When he left, he wished us a good holiday. I did not take his picture but I took the picture of his table, hahaha....

I looked up from his table and saw a Portuguese flag proudly displayed on the wall. This is so apt, given that Portugal had just won semi-final the previous night.

Our lunch then arrived. My husband's tuna steak and my fish stew.

The business man was right - they were really delicious; such a hearty meal.

After that, we finished our lunch with bica, in which I add lots of sugar to it.

We thoroughly enjoyed our lunch, thanks to that business man from Cascais. The bill was reasonably priced.  A bica was only 0.60 cents!!!

By the time we finished our meal, most of customers had gone too.

Stepping outside, the afternoon sun was getting stronger. We saw people taking shelters from the sun under the trees whilst having coffees.

Even a tree is getting some shelter  - tender loving care ... 

We left Largo dos Trigueiros to head back to our hotel to check-in as our room should be ready by now.  We walked through the traditional neighbourhood and found more murals, graffiti's, etc.
Are they art or vandalism.... you decide ...

Lisbon is such a wonderful place - full of surprises. I love this city, everytime we come back, we always find something new to do and see, and most of all, it's a food heaven!

That's all forks!

choquinhos ao alhinho - Cuttlefish with garlic at Ze da Mouraria, Lisbon, Portugal

Continuing on from my blog yesterday, having a lovely glass of vinho verde at the small cafe bar in Mouraria district, we decided to wonder around and see if we could find any restaurant for lunch. This is an area less touristy and further you go it gets more residential than commercial.

You see more washings hanging from windows of people's houses....

Also see more small alleyways ... a bit like Edinburgh but sunny without millions of tourists....

You can still see a bit of castle when you look up ...

We decided to go down a small alleyways. Next thing we heard what sounded like fado-like music and assumed that there was some kind of pub or snack bar frequented by locals, after all the district is meant to be the birthplace of fado music. It however turned out to be just a normal house where its owner was listening to some Portuguese music playing loudly to be heard around the neighbourhood.

We continued on the alleyways and now saw pictures and drawings of fado singers on the walls.

Traditional fado singer, Maria Ivone [1921] grew up and lived
at No.1 Beco dos Tres Engenhos in Mouraria

I was looking at these pictures when my husband noticed that there were some people eating inside of   unassuming premises and we could hear some clinking cutleries. At first we just wondered if this was someone's house and the family was having lunch at home. There was no sign, no menu on the wall or no name ... nothing.... is it restaurant or someone's house ...?

It turned out that it is a proper restaurant after all. It is called Restaurant Ze da Mouraria situated at Rua Joao Outeiro 24 in Mourara district near Martim Moniz Square.

We went inside. The place was not that big and packed with tables. There were only few tables occupied as it was still slightly early for lunch. We had no idea what to expect but decided to try this restaurant.

Menus was all in Portuguese and I could only work out grilled salmon.  Luckly the waitress realised that we could not read the menu, she brought an English menu for us.

She recommended us to try cuttlefish with garlic off the menu, pointing out to a huge steel bowl of dish that a couple sitting at the corner was eating. The price is 16.50 Euro, to which we asked if it is the price for one or two to share. She said it's for two people.  Wow, that's a very good price.... and it looked interesting so we went by her suggestion.

Whilst waiting for our order, we ate some breads, which were really good, along with olives.

Yes, that's another thing - breads are really good in Portugal. Why can we not get breads like this in UK?  I then just remembered about what I have recently heard about bread crisis in Paris. Apparently the law has changed to allow bakers to be able to take summer holidays anytime they want, thus many of Paris bakers taking holidays around the same time as they don't consult each other to ensure some of them open whilst others are on holidays. There are many bakeries closed for holidays, leaving many Parisians breadless that has caused much outcry, especially they would not go to supermarket to buy breads as they are so used to eating artisan breads made by local bakers. Wow, this would never happen in the UK!

Anyway, whilst we were enjoying our breads, more customers were arriving occupying empty tables. We noticed that all we heard was Portuguese around us and they were all ordering cuttlefish. It looked like a good sign.

And then, our order arrived! Huge... and this is only 16.50 Euro, equivalent to approximately £12!!!

This could feed 3 - 4 people!

There were cuttlefish, potatoes, olive oil, garlic and lots of coriander in the bowl. We notice that coriander seems to be used quite a lot in Portuguese cooking. Anyway, this dish was really tasty and great with breads to mop up the sauce, just excellent!

There were lots in the huge steel bowl, we were struggling but managed to finish all in the end (or my husband did, hahaha....)

By this time, there were people (who looked like office workers out for lunch) queuing outside waiting for their tables. The place looks really popular with locals... no wonder why there is no name,  no sign or menu outside as there is no need - people just come to them. Good food for good price.

So we had breads and olives, cuttlefish in the huge steel bowl, 2 small bottle of beer and 2 coffees (bica) and this all costed us 24.50 euro only or equivalent to £18!!!  This is just marvellous!

Later on I checked their reviews on TripAdvisor; the restaurant has very good feedback, and I cannot agree more. This place is a sort of hidden gem, away from tourist trap restaurants, serving really good and comfort traditional Portuguese dishes at affordable price in one of the old parts of Lisbon where even the guidebook would not spend much time writing about.

After this, we walked back to the town centre, which was not that far after all. I hope there will not be too many tourists going to this restaurant, otherwise it would not remain the same, yet I have an audacity to say this as I AM a tourist too.

That's all forks!