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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
