Spain & Portugal: The Last Bite

I’m milking this travel experience for all it’s worth.  I decided to share additional notes about food and also something about flamenco.

DANCE IN SEVILLE

Flamenco originated in the south of Spain and is particularly associated with Seville.  Performances are usually in small halls seating around 50 people, and there are numerous venues around the city.  We went to one venue that offered several one-hour performances that day.  It was our first real exposure to flamenco.

Chairs at the ready on the stage or low platform

Seating was in 2 rows around three sides of the stage or tabla.  We were in the first row very close to the performers.  Five people in all: a guitarist who played or beat the entire time; two singers, a man and a woman who alternated singing or providing percussive sounds with their hands and feet; and two dancers, male and female.  The show was dramatic, moving, and fascinating.  

Taking bows; the dancer with three of the musicians

The man and woman danced together in one number, and then each danced separately with a lot of fancy footwork and emphatic facial expressions.  She used castanets part of the time, while he swaggered and expressed a full range of emotions. 

Male dancer on the right with part of the troupe

 Like Irish dancing, the footwork is fast and loud.  We didn’t understand the lyrics, of course, but we still caught the mood.

DINING

For Americans, the later times for meals in Spain can be challenging.  Lunch, eaten sometime between 2:00 and 4:00 pm, is the big meal of the day, with dinner at 10:00 or later.  Spaniards will sometimes have a drink or snack in the early evening around 5:00 or 6:00.  

We were pleased when we arrived in Lisbon to discover that even though our hotel didn’t serve breakfast until 8:00 am (late for us), lunch began at 12:00 or 12:30, and many restaurants started serving dinner at 6:30 or 7:00, some even as early as 6 pm.  These times were much more to our liking.

FOOD

In our travels around the world, the Chief Penguin and I have frequently enjoyed food tours with a local guide. They are a great way to sample the particular cuisine of a city or country. In Hanoi, we savored warm bowls of pho in a small cafe on a cold morning; in Rome, we queued for pizza slices at a wildly popular place and ate them perched outside against a wall.  And, as you know from my earlier posts, we had a marvelous pinxtos tour in San Sebastian, a tapas tour in Seville, and finally have ended with another tapas tour in Lisbon.  This army “travels on its stomach.”

With Federico, our engaging guide from Eating Europe, we made stops in several neighborhoods in Lisbon.  It was easily one of the more unusual food tours we’ve done anywhere with a wide variety of tastes.

Chicken skewers with peanut coconut sauce
Firemen’s sardines
Caldo Verde

The chicken skewers were our first stop with white wine to accompany them. We tasted sardines that had been doused in grappa (or the equivalent) and then lit, at a tiny grocery market cum cafe. I tried the local beer with my one sardine.

Our third stop was a rustic bar and restaurant in a church basement. Caldo verde is green soup made from collard greens or kale and onion in water thickened with potatoes and topped with several thin rounds of chorizo. The soup was excellent and, along with it, we had a pork steak sandwich with piri piri pepper sauce. Here, I sampled the local hard cider which had a slightly sour taste.

Our last stop was a fancier restaurant where we each sampled a cod cake and a croquette with some Portuguese white wine. Meanwhile, our guide went out to the pastry shop and brought back their famous pastel de nada or egg tart. It was custard sitting in a croissant-like shell.

Cod cake and Jewish sausage croquette
Egg tart

For the record, I didn’t finish every bite and certainly not every drop of alcohol!

SUNDAY LUNCH

On Sunday, our last full day in Lisbon, we opted to try one of renowned Portuguese chef Jose Avillez’s restaurants.  

Interior, Cantinho do Avillez

Based on reviews, we chose his more casual Cantinho do Avillez, which was a short walk from our hotel and not in the trendy section.  It was a delicious meal with fried green beans and croquettes to start, followed by a lovely shrimp dish topped with cashews for me and codfish cakes and tomato rice for the Chief Penguin.  

Deep fried green beans with truffle tartar sauce

We ended with an everything hazelnut (hazelnut ice cream, foam, and crumbles) dessert that was called “life-changing.”  That with a bit of sherry topped off the experience. 

Toasting at Cantinho do Avillez

We ate very well throughout our entire trip, so much so that I must quickly get back to some vigorous exercise.

Note: Photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Portugal: More Lisbon

SQUARES, SHOPS, & TREATS

In our two days plus in Lisbon, we explored four major neighborhoods with Tiago, a guide who is also a former architect. He was brimming with facts and enthusiasm for his city.

Rua Augusta Arch at end of Commerce Square. This arch stands where the royal palace was before the 1755 earthquake. The square is very large abutting the Tagus River at the other end. It was “the door to Lisbon” and where commercial ships used to dock to unload their goods.

We learned about the history of Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake, visited several traditional shops (sardines, anyone?), walked some of its most famous and beautiful squares, and saw numerous monuments to historical figures from politicians to poets.

For tourists, Lisbon’s most famous square is most likely the one known informally as Rossio, but officially Plaça Dom Pedro IV, after the column of this king in the center.

Feel the motion?
Rossio Square

Its cobblestones have a wavy pattern which makes it look like they are rolling or moving. The square has been in existence since the Middle Ages. Today, it is surrounded by cafes and shops and is a meeting place for locals and tourists.

Pillory of Lisbon, national monument, 19th c.
Shop selling only tins of sardines and other fish
Facade detail, Rossio train station, 1891. Was central train station, now only goes to Cintra.

There were surprises like the pink street overhung with multi-colored umbrellas. There’s also a street with blue painted pavement, unusual, but not so colorful.

“Pink” Street
Looking toward the cathedral

Later, we stopped at a hole-in-the-wall, but well marked, counter for a taste of ginjinha, a deep red liqueur made from small somewhat sour ginja berries.

Facade of ginjinha shop

You can get it with or without a berry in the glass—extra cost for any berries! The drink was fine, the berry sharp almost bitter.

TILES OLD & CONTEMPORARY

When you wander in Lisbon, it’s inevitable that you will see ceramic tiles. Old ones on building facades, contemporary designs on a restaurant wall, and tiles on signs or floors. Patterns range from the familiar blue ones to elaborate abstract designs to more representational styles with faces on them.

Classic tiles, Fado singers
Floor, chapel Miradouro de Sao Pedro de Alcântara
Delft style on walls in Miradouro de Sao Pedro…

Note that the chapel floor is flat, but appears to be 3-dimensional. This church was one that survived the 1755 earthquake.

Below are several contemporary tiles by the French mixed media artist, O Gringo.

Eye in blue Delft-like style
Horse
Veiled woman

Lastly, here is another set of contemporary tiles, one political.

Skelton, Barrie Blue
Flowers, Anne Rolskaya
”Facism Nevermore” for 50th anniversary of overthrow of the dictatorship. Carnation was the symbol of the uprising.

Note: Photos ©by JWFarrington and GCFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Portugal: Traveling to Lisbon

SEVILLE TO LISBON

Spanish countryside

We traveled to Lisbon by car, and for Europe, it was a long distance, about 6 hours total which included one stop in a picturesque hill town. We passed olive trees, groves and groves of cork trees, and also pine nut trees. Some of the cork trees were very old and still producing. Every 9 years, the bark is stripped of a tree and the number of the year, 25 for this year, is put on the tree to be an indication of when it will be ready to be “harvested” again.

Monsaraz

About halfway to Lisbon, we stopped at Monsaraz, a village perched high up built on stone with small shops and restaurants. The shopkeepers and restauranteurs don’t live here, making the town a tourist attraction with no full time residents. It was stunning with its white-washed buildings, dark lattice-like stone streets, gates, and views of the fields below.

Arch and gate
Detail of thick stone layers
Path to the fields below

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Lisbon suffered a major earthquake in 1755 which destroyed buildings and caused fires. Many buildings one sees in the older part of town, consequently, were built in the late 18th century or early part of the 19th.

Once we had checked into our hotel, we took a short walk around Chiado, the neighborhood in which we were staying. We noted the archaeological museum, buildings in the French bourgeois style with balconies at the windows, and of course, the mosaic patterns on the stone sidewalks.

Museum in Chiado
Typical building facade
Sidewalk pattern, square black and white stones laid on the diagonal. In parts of Lisbon, the stone squares are basically cream colored and, some might say, even more attractive. When it rains, the stones get slippery, making sneakers a must. In this city, you are always either going up steeply or coming down slowly. Lisbon is built on hills and not flat.

After our day of travel, we dined at a fish restaurant nearby up the hill. We enjoyed a salad of chunks of tomato and lovely fresh sea bass and grouper, simply prepared and delicious.

Fresh sea bass, Lisbon

Note: Photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Spain: Jerez & Sherry

JEREZ

One of many posters about an upcoming festival

Jerez is a city of about 200,000 people not quite an hour away from Seville. It’s in the province of Cadiz and is the capital of the sherry world. For Americans, the city name is pronounced nothing like it’s spelled, and my rendering of it is, “Hreth.” Also the Spaniards aspirate the ‘j” in a way I have never mastered. Many sherry producers have their headquarters in the middle of Jerez including Tio Pepe, one of the best known in the U. S. There is even a statue of Tio Pepe which translates to “Uncle Joe.’

Statue of Tio Pepe

We spent about two hours with Carmen, a local guide and a native of Jerez. She was warm and engaging and, we learned abut the history and architecture of the town along with some anecdotes and legends which might or might not be fact.

Back view of cathedral, considered more elegant than the front which is a mix of styles
Plaza de la Asuncion
Attractive facade, likely apartments today

There were few other tourists around, and we felt like we were seeing the real world, the locals out shopping and going about their business.

Fountain in center city
Beginning of long street of shops

We also visited the big local market everything from clothing and produce in outside stalls. Inside, a whole hall devoted to fish and seafood next to a much smaller one for meat and poultry. I always like seeing the markets in other countries, and this one was a treat. I was surprised to see so many female fishmongers.

Wide variety of fishes
Head of a tuna
Fishmonger creating steaks

SHERRY BODEGA

After a lunch of shared small dishes (potatoes, tuna two ways, Iberian ham, anchovies on ratatouille toast, and a bit of fino sherry), we visited Lustau, a noted and historic sherry producer.

Sherry being aged

Over the years, the Chief Penguin and I have drunk a lot of Lustau amontillado, so visiting their cellar was a pleasure. The cellar buildings are old, 1840’s and 1860’s, and cathedral-like with arches and very high ceilings.

Church-like wine cellar

Our young tour guide was excellent as she recapped the history of the company. Then in various galleries, midst the barrels in various stages of aging—it takes at least 4 years to make many sherries—she introduced us to 4 different wines ranging in taste from astringently dry to sweet: amontillado, fino, and olorosa among them. She ended our tour with a taste of a lovely vermouth, a more recent addition to their line-up. Hands down, this was the most elegant wine cellar we’ve ever visited!

TOUR GUIDES

We have had a series of excellent guides in Spain, and our last two were equally stellar. They were informative and personable, and we enjoyed our time with them and at lunch this day.

Carmen & Manuel

Note: All photos by JWFarrington and friends.