Extraordinary Adventure 2018 Day 15: Canned Fresh
Before we left on this extraordinary adventure the weather seemed like it was going to be in the 90’s from beginning to end. We lucked out and had very mild whether in our first three stops, but the sun was out in full effect today in Lisbon. We woke up around 8 AM and I went for a run while Jenn got ready for the day. Right around 10 AM we took an Uber to the Campo de Ourique where we picked up our third and final food tour of the trip.
When we were dropped off it was 10:30 on the dot and the rest of our ten person tour was waiting for us. We met the rest of the group (mostly from the East Coast and one couple from New Zealand and another from Norway) and were on our way. For the next three, almost four hours we toured seven different food establishments in the Campo De Ourique neighborhood.
We started off with MBCM where we had the “worlds best chocolate cake” along with an espresso. I’m never a fan of any establishment saying they have the best of anything, let us be the judge of that. It was a very good chocolate cake, I’m not sure it was the best but it was a nice start to he tour.
From there we went to our second and third stop which were all housed within a giant marketplace. It was completely odd because here we had canned sardines and tuna along with a codfish and chickpeas salad with some Rose wine. What was odd about this was that we went to the giant marketplace with fresh meat, fish and produce but we bought canned sardines and tuna because its very popular in Portugal. It was fine and the rose wine we had with it was nice, but we would have much preferred some of the fresh fish over the canned.
Our fourth stop was my favorite on the tour and it was called Pigmeu. It’s a place that I’d highly consider going back to for a full meal. There we had a trio plate with pork croquette, tomato crackling and a slow cooked pork sandwich. I loved all three especially the croquette, Jenn liked everything except for the sandwich. We did have a decent red wine with it, but it was no where near as good as the wine we had in Madrid.
From there we went to the groups favorite stop on the tour called Moules & Beer where we had mussels with craft beers. The mussels were beautifully prepared with an amazing garlic and olive oil sauce. The craft beers were fine but not really my or Jenn’s style of beer (well Jenn really just hates all beer).
Our last two stops were also a bit odd. We went to the Flagrante Delitro which is a restaurant within a museum. For some reason we sat on the top patio where we just baked in the sun for thirty minutes. It was the peak heat of the day and even with some shade from awnings we were all getting toasty. Here we had a Portuguese rice (which they call soupy rice) which is there version of chili, not necessarily what you want on a hot day. We also had codfish fritters and a glass of sparking Portuguese wine. Our final stop after the baking was at the Hotel Da Estrela where we had some iced tea and sponge cake. It was also here we said our goodbyes to the rest of the tour and went about our day a little fuller and having had a good feel for the neighborhood.
Jenn and I made our way out of Campo De Ourique and went through a beautiful small park and walked back to our hotel. Along the way we stopped to get me a cappuccino at a beautiful little cafe which also had one of the better chocolate chip cookies we’ve ever had. What was easily my favorite part of the day though was walking the streets of Lisbon and seeing all the beautiful tile on the buildings, and watching Jenn in her beautiful yellow dress stop for pictures more times then you can probably imagine. What was scheduled to be a thirty minute walk took us almost two hours. We arrived back at our hotel warm and sweaty and decided to rest before going back out later in the evening.
We left our hotel a little after 7 PM when the weather cooled off and it made it far nicer to walk around the city. We made our way to dinner at IIImpar a small but beautiful Portuguese restaurant somewhat near our hotel. We started off our meal with a white wine for Jenn and a red for me and their bread service which had olive oil and a really nice vegetable spread. We then ordered their cheese and charcuterie board which was phenomenal. The spread of cheese and meat with the wine was a perfect way to start the meal.
For our entrees we both went with a steak. I went with their classic preparation which came with french fries, a fried egg on top of the steak, and what tasted to me like a slight shift on a classic bearnaise sauce. Jenn had the rib eye which was a nicer piece of meat that came with fries and their Peruvian rice (that was a bit undercooked). For dessert we ended up splitting a delicious fried ice cream that was one of the best desserts we’ve had on this trip.
We left this phenomenal meal feeling great so we walked around the city a bit more and enjoyed the beautiful evening. When we got back to our room we watched an episode of Ozark before turning the lights out and closing the door on what was a delicious first full day in Lisbon.
