We can be artists without drawing, painting, dancing or playing music. All we need is to see the world with child-like wonder. Here’s how Lourdes de Castro, a great Portuguese artist, demonstrates the art of seeing:
“When the tide is low, I hear the sound of the waves pouring over the stones, rolling them day and night, for years, centuries until pieces of basalt become smooth. A pebble is a work of art!”
Portugal’s landscape is an immense canvas inviting you to become an artist. Come and see!
The Earl of Sandwich is credited with the idea of placing food inside two slices of bread. But it was Portuguese peasants who turned this aristocratic whim into something sublime.
In ancient times, peasants in Mealhada, a town in the Bairrada region, used to offer their largest pigs to the nobles who owned the land. The peasants were left with small pigs called “leitão” (“laytaoum”). They roasted them in wood ovens, seasoned with garlic, bay leaves, olive oil, and plenty of white pepper. The meat, cut into slices and served inside country bread, produced amazing sandwiches.
One of our favorite side trips from Lisbon is to drive the 90 km to Mealhada to enjoy a freshly-made “leitão” sandwich, accompanied with local sparkling wine. On the way there, we visit the beautiful Batalha monastery. On the return, we stop by the enchanting Bussaco Palace for coffee and pastry. The delicious food and beautiful scenery always make for memorable trips.
There are many good restaurants in Mealhada serving “leitão à moda da Bairrada” (leitão Bairrada style). Two of our favorites are Meta dos Leitões (IC2, Estrada Nacional 1, Sernadelo, Mealhada, tel. 231 209 540, email: casadesarmento@gmail.com) and Pedro dos Leitões (Rua Alvaro Pedro no 1 Sernadelo, Mealhada, tel. 231 209 950).
The name of this restaurant on Rua das Flores (flower street) combines the Portuguese word for tavern with the title of a famous novel: Tragedy on Rua das Flores, by the great 19th-century writer Eça de Queiroz.
The Taberna serves traditional home cooking. If you’re adventurous, try the excellent “iscas” (marinated liver). Otherwise, you’ll find many other great choices, such as carrot and coriander soup, pork with sweet potato and zucchini, duck rice, and codfish with chickpeas. The quirky antique furniture helps create an unpretentious atmosphere. Prices are modest, so every meal has an happy ending.
Eça de Queiroz complained, through the words of one of his characters, that Lisbon lacked a fun place to eat supper after the Opera. One century later, this place exists. It is called Taberna da Rua das Flores.
The Taberna is located on Rua das Flores 103, tel. 351 21 347 9418, email: tabernadasflores@gmail.com.
Olive oil bottles make great gifts. We recently tasted two interesting, delicious, affordable olive oils. The first is Gallo Azeite Novo. It is made from olives that are still green, giving the oil a spicy, fresh taste. The second is Gallo’s Moonlight Harvest. It is made from olives harvested at night and pressed while they are still cold. It has a smooth, fruity taste.
The quality of olive oil can vary greatly from crop to crop, depending on rainfall and temperature throughout the year. That is why, to ensure consistency of quality and taste, Gallo blends olive oil from different regions.
Each year, Portuguese farmers wait nervously to taste the new olive oil in a ritual called “tiborna.” They dip warm country bread into the oil and, to bring out the flavors, season it with a pinch of salt or a pinch of sugar and cinnamon.
You can invite some friends and enact the same ritual at home. Which olive oil do they prefer? The freshness of young oil or the smoothness of midnight oil? You can peer into their souls by observing their choices.
It is generally a good idea to buy the olive oil at the airport’s free shop and take the bottles inside the airplane as a carry on.
Aveiro is a picturesque town in the center of Portugal, known for its canals on the delta of the Vouga river. In ancient times, Aveiro lived from the production of salt and the gathering of seaweed that was used to fertilize the land.
Aveiro’s claim to fame is its “ovos moles” (soft eggs). To make this dessert, pastry chefs separate the yolks from the whites. The yolks are combined with sugar to make the filling. The whites are used to make the same wafers that, once blessed, are served in holly communion. The filling is placed inside two wafers, which are then molded into various shapes. And that is how the profane yolk reunites with the sacred white to make divine “ovos moles.”
Beaches are like people, they have different personalities. Portugal has 1,115 miles of coastline, but no two beaches are alike. Some are popular, always crowded with sun worshipers. Others are shy and choose their friends carefully. One of these shy beaches is Ericeira, 40 miles north of Lisbon.
Everybody loves Ericeira when the sun is shining and the sea is balmy. But Ericeira tests its visitors to make sure they deserve its beauty. So, there are cooler days to discourage those who complain that Winter spends the Summer at Ericeira. And foggy days to see who appreciates the joy of walking on a misty beach. Sometimes the sea is rough to see who is in awe of the ocean roar. Other times, the wind blows to see who feels invigorated by the ocean smell.
If you fail these tests, Ericeira is not for you. If you pass them, you understand the true beauty of Ericeira and you’ll never trade it for any other beach.
Physicists think that traveling to the past is impossible, but Catarina Portas, a Portuguese entrepreneur, proved them wrong. Through painstaking work, she brought back to life many Portuguese products and brands that had disappeared: beautiful baskets, blankets, ceramics, glassware, pottery, toys, and much more. In her wonderful stores we can be archeologists without dealing with dust and visit the past without giving up our smartphone.
Catarina Porta’s stores are called A Vida Portuguesa (the Portuguese life). There are two in Lisbon, one in Chiado (Rua Anchieta, 11, tel. 213-465-073) and the other in Intendente (Largo do Intendente Pina Manique, 23, tel. 211-974-512). There is also one store in Oporto (Rua Galeria de Paris, 20, tel. 222-0220105). Click here for A Vida Portuguesa’s web site.
Tasca do Joel, a great restaurant in Peniche, teamed up with a wonderful wine estate, Quinta do Monte d’Oiro, to make wine that celebrates the joys of the Portuguese Summer. They called it “surf wine” and the label reads:
“To those who didn’t go out last night and those who didn’t sleep, to the tourists and the locals, to the crazy ones who plunge ahead and the ones who hesitate, to the ones who like the right and the others who prefer the left, to lovers of the beach break or the reef break, to those who came out of the barrel wave and those who tasted sand, to all of these, and to the surf in Peniche we make a toast!”
We don’t know what magic went into the production of these wines. But it is impossible to drink them without longing to spend the summer in Portugal!
Click here for the Tasca do Joel web site and here for the Quinta de Monte d’Oiro web site.
Pastelaria Aloma, a pastry store in the Campo d’Ourique neighborhood, became famous after winning the competition for the best “pastel de nata” in Lisbon in 2012 and 2013. With so many pastry stores and coffee shops vying for this honor, it is a remarkable achievement.
We set out to investigate, on behalf of our readers, whether Aloma’s pastries are indeed a cut above the rest. Our first two visits were in the afternoon and, by the time we arrived, they had run out of pastries! Why don’t they make more? Were they told by a business guru to use scarcity as a marketing tool?
Our third visit was in the morning. We were so eager to try these little pastries that we ate the first pastel very quickly. By the time we noticed the taste, all that was left was a happy hint of lemony sweetness.
We asked for a second specimen. This time we used a scientific approach, taking small bytes and writing detailed notes. Yes, the dough has the perfect crustiness, flakiness, and flavor. Yes, the sweetness of the filling is perfectly balanced by the taste of lemon and the sprinkle of cinnamon.
It was only when we ordered a third pastel that we realized that these pastries have a major flaw: it is hard to stop eating them!
Pastelaria Aloma is located on Rua Francisco Metrass, 67, Lisbon, tel. 21-396-3797.
Salt of Portugal 