When on vacation eating and drinking in a new city is extremely important. When it is a city, I have never been to before, I want to make sure that I experience the true city, not the tourist areas. This is why I was excited to take a tour with the Culinary Backstreets (www.culinarybackstreets.com). They were going to help me experience the history of food and wine in Portugal.
We met our tour guide Kika at the entrance of Jardim de Estrela (Estrela Gardens). This is a green space that was created in 1852. It is loaded with palm trees, flowers, cacti, and at the center a giant banyan tree. What Kiki explained to the group is that all these trees and plants located in the park are from all over the world. As the Portugues traveled the world, they always brought something back with them.
This kicked off our lesion about the Age of Discoveries in Portuguese history. What better way to have the discussion than over coffee at a café located in the park, Café Banana.
The most helpful thing we were taught was the types of coffee that can be ordered at one of the many cafes and pastry shops around the city. I ordered a Bica (espresso). I enjoyed the coffee a lot on this trip. It was smooth and had a rich flavor.
While I enjoyed my Bica, Kika explained how the Portugues explored the world, setting up colonies and bringing food and spices back to the country. From Brazil, Africa, India, Japan, and even China, the Portugues fell in love with sugar, pepper cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and star anise, just to name a few.
These ingredients added to their abundance of eggs, olive oil, wine, grains, and vegetables. With a combination of all these components, these created some of the signature dishes that still exist today. Even the salted cod that is a staple in the diet, is imported from Norway. It was these ingredients that we were going to be experiencing on our tour today.
Our first lunch brought us to O Lavrador. This traditional neighborhood restaurant has expanded over the years to three different buildings because it is so popular.
We were greeted by the owner and brought some freshly made bread, olive oil, and a cheese called Queijo de Serpa. The olive oil was mild and had a creamy taste. It was an amazing accompaniment to the bread. I kept dipping every bite of bread. The cheese was made from sheep’s milk. The rind has a brunt orange color to it because of the paprika that is brushed on during the aging process. The paprika gives the cheese a slightly spicy taste, but nothing overwhelming.
While we were enjoying this snack, we learned about some Portuguese wines, specifically the Verde Wine. This is a green wine that really does have a green tint to it. This wine is produced in the Northern region of Portugal. The wine has a low alcohol content (around 7% for what we tried) because the wines are bottle and released shortly after the grapes are harvested. The wine we got to enjoy was called Bico Amarelo (Esporao). This wine was so smooth and went down so easily I had to be careful not to drink the whole bottle myself. It was really refreshing.
The fresh salad came out, along with the Salted Cod. The cod was sauteed with onions and had homemade potato chips on the side. The flavor of the fish was savory. The fish was flakey, every now and then you had to watch out for a bone, but other than that it was delicious. The sauteed onions were tender and sweet. It washed down wonderfully with the Verde wine.
If the fish wasn’t enough, we also got some rotisserie chicken. This was similar to what I enjoyed the previous day. The seasoning on this chicken was a little different, but I could taste the fresh salt and pepper that was sprinkled on top. Simple ingredients but full of flavor.
Now came dessert. I was not going to pass this up. The dessert was a Custard with cinnamon on top. It was very similar to crème brulee just without the crispy sugar topping. The custard was very sweet with a hint of vanilla. It was the perfect complement to the salty, savory dishes we enjoyed previously.
I enjoyed my meal at this restaurant, and I could not believe that we were about to walk around Lisbon to try even more goodies.
Enjoy!
T
