Clams in Lisbon - Cacilhas, south of the Tagus River

If you are in Scotland right now, you would miss sunshine desperately.  It's 15 degree outside and dull.  I start thinking of holiday to sunshine me up.

Late August last year my husband and I went back to Lisbon.  I do love Italy but there is something really fascinating about Lisbon - people are lovely, the city is full of amazing history especially about their maritime history in 16 century when the brave discoverers went all the way as far away as to China and Japan!  Food is excellent (see my earlier blogs), there are so many places to see, weather is gorgeous - in the middle of summer it can get really hot yet with wonderful seabreeze you can easily get used to their summer.  We may go back there again.

Thinking about Lisbon already makes me feel like we are having sunshine although it is still dull outside and only 15c, so I don't look outside.

When we were in Lisbon last year, we took a short ferry from Lisbon's Cais do Sodre, the main departure point for ferries over the Tagus River, to get to Cacilhas.

The reason was to go and see the statue of Christ the Redeemer or Santuario do Cristo Rei, which was modelled on the more famous Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro.

We arrived at Cacilhas ferry right next to a little village (?) like streets of  cafes and seafood restaurants. As you walk along, you see the glimps of  head of Christ between the siluette of of houses. We innocently thought we could walk all the way to the statue following the wee main street. So we kept walking, looking for a sign to the statue which was nowhere to be found. We came to the very last restaurant on the street, beyond there were just more houses and some buildings and still no sign of statue. Maybe we were on the wrong track. By then it was noon, the sun was very strong, the temperature soaring despite constant seabreeze.  Yes, time for a nice cold beer!

So we just took our seats at one of tables outside of the very last restaurant we came to on this old fishing village's main street.  We ordered beer and, why not, fried clams to go with the beer. This was the right thing to do. Clams (ameijoas)  were just amazing - so many fresh clams with lots of chopped garlic and parsley yet garlic was never overpowering.  I think the whole portion only costed  something around 10 euro!!!

We also ordered a side salad which was refreshing, especially in such an intensive heat even if we were in the shade with nice sea breeze.  We ate it with local olive oil and white wine vinegar for a dressing.

We mopped up the clam juice with the bread - beer was nice and cold. Everything was perfect.

When you eat in at restaurants in Portugal, they always bring some wee nibbles to the tables. They are not freebies that the restaurants are giving you whilst perusing the menu. They are covers. If you don't ask them to take them away, even if you don't touch any of them, it would be included in your bill. Here at this restaurant, there were slices of Portuguese cheese with tuna spreads. Tuna spread did not look appetising nor inspiring but we were curious about local cheese so we kept them. I think we were charged for 5 euro for these. I think we could do without them but it was all about trying different things.

We finished off with Portuguese strong uma bica, short black coffee, which I enjoy with  a sachet of white sugar.

Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the restaurant - it was family run place - nothing fancy but they serve nice, simple and honest dish.

We went through this street with full of restaurants and cafes on both side,
The place where we had the delicious clams was the last restaurant on your left through this street.

We passed by this church....

And here it is ....

Anyway, after the lunch, we gave up going to see the statue, so we headed back to the ferry terminal.
We took some pictures of the Tagus River and city of Lisbon beyond with a wee green fishing boat passing by..



At this point, I consulted with my guidebook just to check if there are anything else before we ferry back to the City. I then realised that we could take a bus No.101 from the bus terminal by Cailhas ferry terminal which was right behind us!!  Phew, we could still get there.... but definitely not on foot.

We took the bus that drove through houses, flats, modern shops and traffic, and we finally made it.
The giant statue stands with arms outstretch on the south bank of the Tagus River, mounted on a hugh pedestal built by Francisco Franco in 1949-59 at the instigation of Prime Minister Salazar. There is a lift taking you up 82m (269ft) to the top of the pedestal where the observation deck at its feet.

Cristo Rei

So we went up in the lift to the observation deck (of course, not taking stairs!) and looked up the Christ - Wow, he is 28m (92ft) tall and looks amazing. 

From the observation deck, you can see Lisbon's suspension bridge, Ponte 25 de Abril to the left, which was built to commemorate the revolution of 25 April 1966 that restored the democracy to Portugal. The guidebook informs me that the bridge, inspired by San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in the US, is 1 km (half a mile) long.

To the far left, you can also see Torre de Belem and beyond. 

To the far right, you can see the city of Lisbon and Cacilhas below.

Lisbon close-up from the observation deck of Cristo Rei

We came down from the observation deck and walked around the park, admiring the beautiful views of the City of Lisbon.  I turned around and looked up the statue - literally awe inspiring....

This was a very worthwhile visit for both the statue and beautiful clams!

How can you resist this.....

I now looked out the window and yeah, it is a bit hazy but sun is now out a little bit in Scotland too. 

I could have another plate of ameijoas just now....

That's all forks!

Greengrocer cafe in Stirling

As I am writing this, my friend Wendy and her family are enjoying sunshine and great food in Sicily! That has reminded me of the wonderful roasted pepper open sandwich I had when I met her a few months ago for lunch in Stirling. 

It was a lovely gorgeous sunny day and we met at The Greengrocer Cafe at 81 Port Street, Stirling, FK8 2ER.  The cafe is tuck down a lane close to Stirling town centre, part deli and part cafe with different products on the shelves that surround customers having lunches.

I love roasted or grilled vegetables so without any hesitation I ordered their open sandwich with roasted peppers.  I did debate myself if I could manage eating this without any of the roasted black bits of vegetables getting lodged between my teeth. Well, who cares, I got to try this. 

And so I did. This was really delicious, lots of vegetables - underneath warm roasted peppers hid slices of equally perfectly roasted courgettes, aubergines and sweet potatoes! This came with side salads with lots of sun dried tomatoes. It was really yummy.  I can't remember how much it was but I think it was less than £6 (if not, it was definitely less than £7!). 

Outside the sun was shining, unusually warm yet pleasant for April in Scotland and the dish also brought me with sunshine to my stomach and soul. We did not have time for coffee nor any room for anything else as we both had to head back to our offices after this.

As we were leaving I quickly took some photos of this cafe. I noticed there were some people sitting outside having lunch too. As it is off the busy street, the location provides a lovely sanctuary with relaxing atomoshere being away from bustling and hustling of many day time shoppers and traffic.  

Outside of Greengrocer Cafe

Inside - selling fresh vegetables too - toward the back there is a counter with glass case
with lots of delectable home made cakes. 

Having had a lovely lunch in the lovely sun-shined afternoon, I went back to my office. I took out my compact to check my teeth in the mirror whilst applying a lipstick and found a black chargrilled bit stuck in my bottom tooth.  Poor Wendy, being ever so polite,  must have had a difficult time to refrain from bursting into laughter and managed so well to keep straight face whilst talking to me.  You know what, I don't care as the open sandwich was so good it was worth sacrificing my vanity here.

I am looking outside, it is grey and dull, probably it would rain soon.  Typical Scottish summer.  So I think of Wendy, imagining her having Sicilian food under the Sicilian sun, which brings me back to the Greengrocer's roasted red pepper open sandwich to give me sunshine to my soul, even if it's dull and grey outside and is about to rain.

That's all forks!

Fish Tacos at las iguanus in Glasgow

Well, this blog could have been about another afternoon tea deal but I am done with it now.  Those online afternoon tea vouchers .... either I have too much high expectation or you just get what you paid for ... 

So last Saturday, five of us went for the afternoon tea. Right after that, Maria and her boyfriend Dale went to see a movie and Emily went for shopping.  My husband and I were not hungry obviously because we had just been to afternoon tea. I thought going somewhere to sit and relax for the rest of the afternoon with a glass of vino would be nice, perhaps with some nibbles. So we went to newly opened las iguanas http://www.iguanas.co.uk ) on West Nile Street in Glasgow to try. 

I loved this place. They have Latin Tapas to share, 3 dishes for £14.40 or 5 dishes for £24.

They also have lunch menu and taco sharing tray.

We went for 3 tapas and chose Gambas (greedy whole prawns, split and cooked in a garlic, lemon and chilli sauce, served with ciabatta), Calamares (whole baby calamari, sliced and coated in crisp crumb cassava with creamy aioli) and Spectacular Fish Taco (crackly battered sustainable white fish caught in soft heat and corn tortillas, topped with a corn and sweet chilli salsa).  We really enjoyed them all and they were what they are described in the menu.

My favourite was the fish tacos. I had been looking for Mexican restaurants in Glasgow that serves fish tacos but I don't think I have ever found anywhere till we came here so I got to try theirs and I really enjoyed this. I could go for anther one right now!

They also have good cocktail menu (http://www.iguanas.co.uk/menus/las-iguanas-glasgow-drinks-menu.pdf).  There are some drinks I would like to try next time I come here. I also read in Tripadvisor that they do very good Churros for dessert so I need to try that too.

Yes, we went for afternoon tea earlier (to my defence, I only had 1/2 of sandwich, 1 scone and 1 mini muffin, I mean literally 'mini' and a cup of tea so it was not much...) but 3 tapas to share between us was just right.  (Maria and Dale had hot dogs at cinema, ha ha ha.)

The restaurant is nice and airy, brightly decorated with lots of tables. Oh, finding toilet was a bit like a maze. You follow the sign and just as you feel you get lost, you believe yourself and keep following till the end of the corridor and you then suddently see there is a stair going up to take you to the toilets.

Anyway, I would love to go back there and have another fish tacos, and some.

That's all forks.

Tamie's Bake-off - for novice cake makers

I have never baked a cake in my entire life until a few months ago ....

It all started when my older daughter Emily was doing a bake-off at her work earlier this year, which got me thinking ... could I try one too???  Then Emily and Maria did an afternoon tea for me and my mother-in-law Mary at our house for Mother's Day this March. I thought, why not try making something for that.

Since then, I have been baking almost every Sunday and my family and my mother-in-law Mary are my Guinea pigs.

The most successful cake I have baked, I think, was this Strawberry Sponge Cake with white chocolate cream.  Sponge was quite nice and moist, sandwiching fresh strawberries and white chocolate filling. At first I thought white chocolate was far too sweat for me however after a day it settled and turned out to be very nice.  I thought it looked cute too.

The very first cake I baked was this Lemon Drizzle Cake by Raymond Blanc recipe, which was for Mother's Day.  The taste was fine but it looked disaster.... it looked nothing like the one in his recipe on-line!  In fact it looked like a Thanksgiving Turkey without wings and legs!

To my defence, the taste was not bad. The problem with this funny shape was because of having used silicon cake mould that went floppy once the cake mixture was poured and put into the oven to bake.
The recipe used some dark rum. I think I sprinkled it rather liberally but this was actually alright.

Ok, sponge had air holes in them but for the first try, it was edible.


After this, I then invested on 2 cake tins and decided to try baking cakes.

2nd cake I baked was this strawberry short cake. I thought if the sponge did not turn out to be perfect, I could hide it with lots of strawberries and cream....and it kinda worked!

Maybe the oven was a bit too hot as sponges turned rather dark brown instead of light brown.... however the taste was lovely.  Fresh strawberries and cream never go wrong.  I think my husband had most of it so I did not have any slice to give it to Mary... sorry ...

3rd cake I tried to make was this Cappuccino cake with walnuts.  Finally I also managed to make the best use of blender that had been hiding in the corner of the kitchen, collecting dusts, in britzing walnuts into pieces. 

The cake looked disastrous indeed and sprinkling of cocoa power did not work, which made the presentation even worse while coffee cream was too soft. It looks like coffee 'lava' like cream was about to over flow from the volcano cake and spill over the plate. It is literally disastrous!

It tasted ok, yap, you can taste coffee alright. It went with a cup of coffee, obviously (ha ha ha!) 

My husband does not like coffee cake, Maria, Mary and I had a slice each and the rest went into a bin as this was just a boring cake.  

The 4th cake I made was this Boston Cream Pie cake.  The photo looks like a small donut. It is actually a proper cake of 20cm in diameter!  This actually turned out to be very good cake. Think of giant donut with custard cream except baked, not deep fried!

The sponge was very nice, soft and moist, sandwiching 'home-made' custard cream with melted chocolate on top!  I was quite surprised and chuffed myself to have made this this well.

This cake was everyone's favourite so far.

Having tasted the success of cake baking for the first time, I then decided to bake chocolate cake.

The 5th cake was this Chocolate Marble cake - made of two types of sponges, chocolate sponge and orange sponge, covered with chocolate icing.  

The taste was fine but the apprearance required a lot of improvement. It looked more like a children's mud-pie and I literally mean 'mud' pie!

I did not manage well in swirling chocolate and orange sponge mixture to mix to create 'marble' effect. When you cut a slice and see inside, you can see that swirling did not work well.

My husband does not like chocolate cakes in general so again Maria, Mary and I became guinea pig. After slice each, the rest went to the bin also the icing went harder after a day or so and it became less appetising although orange sponge tasted nicer. Oh, well, I just try baking something else....

Then came the 6th cake, Strawberry and white chocolate cake that I was talking about earlier.
I thought I did quite well with this!

Then next, the 7th cake was another type of Lemon Drizzle Cake. This one does not use dark rum.
To tell you the truth,  the sponge turned far too dark. I reckon the oven temperature was too hot. The taste was fine but I was not happy with the result so I baked this again the following Sunday.

This one is the 2nd attempt.  The sponge is still a bit dark but the taste was nice and sponge was quite nice and moist. I think this one might have been Maria's favourite as I think she kept going back to it, which meant that she had to put her SlimmingWorld on hold too, ha ha ha.

There are lots of lemon inside, outside and on top of it!  I call it Lemon Drizzle Dazzle Cake!
This went very well with a nice cup of tea.

And the 8th cake which I made last weekend was this, Almond with Cherry Cake.  I love this, especially toasted almonds are lovely.  This should have been 'Cherry and Almond' cake. I could not get dried cherries from M&S so I decided to use dried cranberries instead along with glace cherries. My husband said that cranberry does not work with almonds and went out his way to get me a packet of dried cherries from Sainsbury whilst I was measuring ingredients.  

After putting the cake mixture into the oven, I then realised that I forgot to put dried cherries completely, stupid me!!!   By then it was too late to add them into the mixture so I used them to decorate the cake with almond slices.  So it should have been Cherry and Almond cake but it turned out to be Almond with Cherry Cake. 

Next time, I will make sure to use both glace and dried cherries in the mix. Nevertheless the cake tastes lovely, maybe a slight dry because of almond powder but I love this cake.

You know, it says cakes are really fattening. It's really true if you realise the amount of sugar and butter going into them. However, at least with home made cakes you know what's inside. I enjoy the process of baking and how it turns out rather than eating it, so I don't feel bad about it. And I also enjoy thinking of what to bake next.  Not bad for a novice cake maker, I think.

That's all forks!

My Family's Favourite - Tuna Potato Cakes

This is a recipe of the savoury snack which my family loves.  Very easy to make, just a little bit cumbersome and you need to be patient but the effort is worthwhile.

Tamie's Tuna Potato Cakes

You need these and 1/2 bag of potatoes to start with.

Oh, you also need these ... including Japanese breadcrumbs, which you can buy most of supermarkets nowadays. If you can't find them, you can use normal breadcrumbs to make fish & chips or go to Chinese supermarket and head for Japanese food section. 

First,  you boil potatoes with some salt. Mash them and add chopped parsley, coriander, 1 - 2 chilli (deseeded) and spring onions.  I like a little bit of kick so I usually leave little bit of chill seeds.

Add a tin of tuna steak, not tuna chunks (they are awful...).

Squeeze lemon juice to the mixture. Mix again and taste. If you want you can add more salt.

Now, the next step - you need flour, egg and Japanese panko breadcrumbs for coating.

Take a small handful of tuna potato mixture to make into balls and coat them well with flour.

Next, dip these into egg.

Then dip them into Panko breadcrumbs.

1/2 kg of bags of potatoes make about 12 - 14 potato cakes.

Fry them in oil. I don't have deep fryer so I just shallow fry them. Deep flying them would probably result better.

Fry them until golden colour...

And that's it! Easy. Best eat right away whilst they are still hot. You can eat them with any sauce you like. We like to eat these with mixture of tomato ketchup and Japanese brown sauce or mayonnaise.

Try making these this holiday weekend!

That's all forks.

Hands and Arms with Champaign and chocs @ Jo Malone

It was my younger daughter Maria's birth day recently so I booked Emily, Maria and myself for a lovely (and complimentary) Birthday hands and arms massage for Maria at Jo Malone (http://www.jomalone.co.uk/index.tmpl) in Glasgow's  Princes Square.

I love this experience - we were surrounded by lovely smells of Jo Malone's fragrances, enjoying a glass of bubbly and chocolate whilst the staff worked on your hands and arms with their lovely products. This is just soooo relaxing.

Jo Malone has just launched a new limited edition fragrance, Silk Blossoms. It has, unlike usual Jo Malone's bottles, pink labels with pink-fringed pompoms, representing silk blossoms.
According Jo Malone's website, it describes the fragrances as apricot-fresh with a touch of spice, airy with clouds of power-soft heliotrope, nestling on a bed of moss; fruity and enticing.

http://www.jomalone.co.uk/images/content/mpp/limited-edition-silk-blossom.jpg

Yes, it is lovely fruity and enticing indeed. Maria got this fragrance with another fragrance to pair it for her birthday gifts from me and my husband whilst I have given myself a wee treat to the small bottle too....

I wish you could smell this - it's just divine. Feeling lovely with mix of bubbly and chocolate and silk blossoms in our hands, we left Jo Malone shop with high note.

May forks be with you .....



p.s.  My husband has just pointed out that yesterday (May the 4th) was Star Wars Day. It's geeks' thing apparently.... ha ha ha.