Thanks Linda,
With your great help, I got a grip on the system of blog, which is totally now to me. It looks like an electronic newsbulletin where members post their messages and photos. In this new system, I believe my message will be exibited on our site and it automatically annouce members that there is new message on the board. Am I right or should I click or tick some button to give you guys a notice?
I'll try to learn it at my pace. So, please do not espect me to be an expert in a short period of time.
Here is another chapter of my trip to Portugal. This time, I want to share my experience with you about gastoronomy and cuisine. La comida portuguesa. Like other Latin European countries, it is difficult to generalize the style of cuisine as it varies in each region. However, there are some common aspects : They use a great deal of olive oil for salad dressing, sizzling vegetables, base for soup, rice and even frying. Unlike North Europeans, they eat a lot of rice which generally confort many Asian travellers. They traditionally eat cod and there are various cod dishes even though they do not catch codfish in their area. You will find dried cod at a local dried foodstore. This custom originated the trade of salt and cod between Portugal and Britain and Ireland handreds years ago. It would be interesting for you to read a little bit about the related history. You may understand why Dr Nuno always gave names to each cod when he cooked it at the Northterrace.
As I told you in the earlier chapter, during my stay he took me to Alentejo to try a black pig steak. We went into a local restaurant with an empty stomach and went out with big belly. At table I conquered all the dishes. At a very local restaurant, they normally serve a few small dishes which is usually included in a table charge (at least I didn't notice I had paid extra or not)
When we went into, a waiter served olives, chorizos (spicy sausage) and quejo (cheese).
To order a black pig steak, I asked a help to Nuno because different parts of meat takes a different names and for a foreigner, it is impossible to decide which is which. The steak was simply grilled and seasoned with pepper and salt. No sauce. But this simplicity enhance the real taste of black pig. It was more chuiy than normal pork. It was tasty.
Back to Lisbon, while Nuno was working, I spent my day in the city centre. At Colombo Centre, after a long quest for shopping, I went into a restaurant called Serra da Estrela. At that time, my stomach had already stretched to the size of ordinary Portuguese, I thought I would have no trouble to eat all on a plate. I ordered only Pataniscas Polvo. Polvo is octopus. Octopus rice with deep fried cake of octopus. As my earlier experience, a waiter brought three appetizers (Pataniscas bacalhau (cod cake), Quejo Serra (half melted cheese), presunto (raw ham) and mixed bread (boa and rye bread). I thought it was included in the table charge. I tried conquered all. After finishing main dish-octopus rice, I only finished cheese, presunto and a half of cod cake. I could not eat much of bread. Those bread were really delicious. I would never be able to find such bread in Japan. What a pity. In the end of meal, I was very much pleased with the meal which is different from Lisbon cuisine. However, there was a bit surprise in the end.
Those appetizers were separately listed on my bill. Although the bill itself cost about 20 euro, it was a bit disappointing result. Note that restaurants in higher rank(with star), waiters serve some appetizers but customers do not have to take all but they only choose ones they want. A good lesson. Anyway, I would say it is worthwhile to try some food from Serra de Estrela. This region has some specialty in bread, cured meat and cheese. Dishes also are delicious.
In this trip I also discovered new food. My favorite is quejo picante de estrela. I left Portugal after 10 days of pleasant memory and a full of grocery ( 5 litre of olive oil, 3 package of coffee, a bottle of wine, jam etc)
I probably told you all of my experience in this trip. Next time, I will probably talk about someting else.
Cheers,
Yasu
