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!

You gotta eat seafood in Lisbon

If you are fish or seafood lover, you must go to Lisbon, where you can eat fresh fish or seafood, often available at affordable price and from so many selections or varieties to choose from. What I love about Lisbon is that you can find so many restaurants that serve fish or seafood cooked simply but perfectly to retain the freshness and tastes of the sea.

Anyway, one night we were looking for somewhere different to try but not too far from our hotel. We saw this eaterie with menus in different languages on windows, clearly catering for tourists but somehow appealing to us because of blue and white azulejo tiles on the walls depicting some Portuguese agricultural scenes from the past. The restaurant was nothing fancy and foods on the menu seemed cheaper compared to other restaurants near-by. We thought, 'Surely they would not serve anything bad, after all this is Lisbon and this place is in area full of restaurants where lots of tourists come and go.'

We went in, sat down at a table and ordered beer. My husband ordered a bacalhau (dried salt cod) stew type of dish while I ordered calamari with rice. When the foods arrived, my face fell. They looked like school dinner. My husband bacalhau was full of fish bones although he said that it tasted fine while my calamari was tough and dry. "How can Lisbon go wrong with these!" I thought any restaurants in Lisbon serve fresh seafood and I just could not understand the logic of my calamari. I even started feeling sorry for this restaurant that served this quality of food, the chef who cooked it and the waiter who served this to us. My husband asked if I wanted coffee after the meal.  I just wanted to leave this place as soon as we could. ... Ok, it was cheap after all so maybe I should not have expected too much but how could any restaurant go wrong with calamari! Well, in the end we were the one to blame as we wanted to try this restaurant. The problem I have is that if I had something that I did not enjoy, that would ruin my whole day.

So, the next day, we decided to splash out and upgraded a restaurant. The restaurant was Ribadouro on Avda da Liberdade 155, Lisbon. This place is often listed in many guidebooks and seems very popular with tourists ordering lots of fancy looking seafood as well as locals standing by the bar ordering beer with quick bite to eat. Surely it can't go wrong this time.

Well, we ordered grilled tiger prawns between us. It was really extravagant but so as the bill! Still, it was our last night in Lisbon after all, and we had cheap but bad, bad meal the previous night, so that would justify it. And justified indeed. Our tiger prawns were really good. They were like mini-lobster, rather rich but very tasty.

Our grilled tiger prawns came with garlic butter sauce.

Close up - Mmmmmm, it was a seafood lover heaven!

Before cooking. Look at the sizes of tiger prawns!

They bring you fresh seafood to show you before they cook. Well, our tiger prawns were really big. We did not expect the platter to be so big so we also ordered clams cooked with olive oil, coriander and garlic for starter.  They were really good, perhaps a bit salty and lots of chopped garlic that could ward off vampires, however it was tasty and we mopped up the clam juice with lovely bread.

We also ordered a bottle of local vinho verde ('green wine') wine. I did not know what was the difference between normal white wine and green white wine at first, only to discover, after we came back from Lisbon, that it is a slightly sparkling wine, lowish in alcohol (from 8.5%), made from immature grapes, hence being called 'green'. I should have read the guidebook properly before we went to Lisbon.

Anyway, the same guidebook also informs me that if a bottled vinho verde (apparently many are not bottled!) says Alvarinho anywhere on the label, it will be a good one to try. Well, having checked my holiday photo now, it does say 'Alvarinho' so we chose the good one after all. I don't remember it was hugely expensive neither.

Vinho Verde that we had to go with food!

Well, after all these foods, our stomachs were really satisfied and we also had uma bica coffee, a small cup of strong coffee like an espresso. I was never a fan of espresso much but during our trip to Lisbon I became very fond of this Portuguese strong coffee and I also developed my fondness of adding sugar in it. Strong coffee and sugar were never my thing before. Now I am drinking espresso with sugar, alas, it's just not the same - I do miss uma bica in Lisbon....

Damn fine cup of coffee... (without a cherry pie)

I can forget about and forgive calamari disaster in Lisbon as I got so many delightful memories of food we had in Lisboa!

That's all forks.