Friday, July 13, 2012

A Taste of Portugal Part 2

Restaurant with a view

Another day trip we had was to Serra da Arrabida  . First stop a visit to the village of Azeitao...home of the Queijo Azeitao and some special Tortas de Azeitao. Of course we needed to wash it all down with something so 2 sorts of muscatel were on offer,   a young one followed by a more mature version.  Last time I had muscatel was some homemade stuff on a Greek island camped in someone’s vege patch about 30 years – it was pretty terrible. The Azeitao versions were much more palatable.

Queijo de Azeitao
Tortas de Azeitao
Later in the day we stopped for lunch at a restaurant perched high above a beach where a few surfers were trying their luck. On the menu for starters was mussels and the area speciality choco frito – fried cuttlefish.....delicious. Then came another speciality Cataplana, cooked in a special dish, it was a lovely stew of fish, mussels and other shellfish.
Mussels

Luis serving the Cataplana
Choco frito










And finally, no trip to Lisboa is complete without a visit to Pasteis de Belem for some Portuguese custard tarts. These are the very special ones from the shop in Belem where they have been making them since  1837. Usually there is a long queue of tourists outside the shop to buy them over the counter, but it is nicer to enjoy them sitting at a table inside the cafe. Someone told me that they invented these tarts to use up all the egg yolks they had left over after using the egg whites to starch nun's habits. That is just one theory though.   Bon Appetit!
Pasteis de Belem

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