Need info on native dishes of Lisbon and Portugal
 

Can anybody help me with some info about the most delicious treats in Lisbon? I am interested in Lisbon street food, main courses, desserts, drinks, etc.

http://www.virtualtourist.com/.../Li...rink-BR-4.html

Food and FADO just perfect!

When I think Lisbon I automatically think Pastéis de Belém, or Pastéis de Nata (puff pastry with custard). Available in every pastelaria (pastry shop/bakery).

I'm really hoping Lobo sees this. He introduced me to such delicacies as camel spit (a dessert, not from actual camels) and pigs' feet (a main course, from actual pigs).

Portuguese Pork Alentejana-clams with pork

Ameijoas em Salsa Verde-Clams in green sauce

Vitela Almondina-veal in almond sauce

Also the Portuguese make very good breads

Bacalhou is a favorite national dish. It's made with salted cod and potatoes. They say that there are a thousand recipes for this dish. I've made it with fresh cod and find it much better tasting.

I don't know that there are any real street dishes although we bought a cheesy kind of flat bread made on a skillet at one of the open air produce markets.

Not sure if there is "street food" as Americans know it but...best pasteis de nata are only at the pasteleria in Belem where they are the only speciality. Oves de moles, creme caramel (or pudim flan), tarta das claras, arroz doce, tarte do amendoa, molotoff, and there are many more, are some of the wonderful desserts....mostly based on eggs and sugar.

We are exposed to a lot of Portuguese home cooking of the south as we have a home and great friends there who cook for us. You might find in Lisbon area cataplana, arroz marisco, caldo verde (a form of cabbage/ potato soup), cozido, feijoada, arroz com ligerao, lulas caldierada and you must have the grilled sardinhas. I never like canned sardines but there they are from a different world...especially best and delicious in the summer months when they are fat and juicy. Balacao a braz is one of my favorites as the strong salty cod is mellowed with fried onion and potatoes all stirred together with the cod.

As far as drinks most mixed ones would probably be of Brazilian origin. The Portuguese as far as I have seen are wine, whiskey, coffee and beer drinkers. The wines are beautiful...check out the ones from the Douro, Alentejo and Setubal area. Vinho verde means green wine ...or young wine, is from the north very light, fruity, crisp and very refreshing when hot and has a very slight "bubble"

Most of what I mentioned is based on seafood which is not a strength of Lisbon cooking. Our friends have a fabulous home style restaurant in the Algarve so we are probably exposed to food and quality that the average tourist would not get.

@ lowcountrycarol
May I ask you where your friend has this home style restaurant? We'll be in the Algarve from June 14th upto 24th. We do a lot of driving in search for good/typical restaurants.

Avoid the following
White soup (disgusting)
Frenchmen (a stack of 4 types of pig, tomato and cheese) just not a good way of killing yourself

Portuguese cooking is relatively unknown in the United States and underappreciated. I hope you are adventurous and find your way through the menu. Ironically enough, the last meal we had in Portugal was a restaurant in the middle of woods near the gallego border which offered side of dinosaur.

<i>Bacalhou is a favorite national dish. It's made with salted cod and potatoes. They say that there are a thousand recipes for this dish.</i>

All of them delicious. Very under-rated cuisine IMO.

For MyriamC:

The restaurant, named A Tasca, is located in Armacao de Pera, off the walking street, just up from the fisherman's beach on a tiny street called Rua do Tresmelho.

Feel free to email me at [email protected] and I can give you more info....reservations are a must.

The restaurant has been in business for 22 years with yearly repeat customers from all parts of europe in the off season and filled to the brim with Portuguese in the summer months when they take their holidays.....tables spill into the street. It is very simple but charming and food is wonderful. I just returned last week from a month there, being "fed" daily by these people and now must restart my dieting....

Now how fresh do you suppose a "side of dinosaur" could be.

There is a great cookbook by Jean Anderson...The Food of Portugal...which would be a great start at discovering how to cook Portuguese dishes. She adapts them for the ingredients found in the US but stays very true to the cuisine with some minor substitutions.

Piri piri chicken (so much fun to join in this Southern Portugal BBQ-usually served under a big canopoy where you sit on benches with Portuguese family groups and eat super spicey chicken)

Grilled sardines (and don't turn up your nose at the marvelous sardine paste that is offered in many restaurants as an alternative to butter for that incredible Portuguese bread!)

Caldo verde in all its infinite variations

I have that Jean Anderson cookbook-it is a great source of bringing back some wonderful holidays we enjoyed in Portugal.

Just about any seafood is good. Avoid any place that carries a British name. The only *street food* I saw was roasted chestnuts but that is only in winter.

Now how fresh do you suppose a "side of dinosaur" could be

It was still younger than the waiter.

Living in Portugal for almost 50 years, I've never heard anything like white soup or frenchman.
For the adventurous, there is feijoada (beans stew with pork meat), dobrada (cow stomach with white beans), cozido a portuguesa (vegetables and pork meat cooked together, similar to French pot au feu), caracois (snails), moelas (gizzards), mao de vaca com grao (cow hands with chickpeas), lingua de porco estufada (pig's tongue), salada de orelha (pig's ears, my favourite), pataniscas (fried cod fish pastry, not sweet).
Soups: Caldo Verde (shredded green cabbage) and canja (chicken soup)
For the less aventurous there is always the bitoque (read beetock), foreigners food, small steak, Freench fries, egg and salad.
For the even less adventurous there is McDonalds, Hard Rock cafe (Restauradores) Burger King, Pizza Hut.
Have fun in Lisbon.

Pork meet: secretos do porco preto
Desserts: arroz doce (rice pudding), serradura (saw dust), baba de camelo (camel's spit), leite creme (creme caramel).
Drinks: Portuguese world class red wines

We loved:
Pastries Belem
Bacalhau A Bras ( salt cod bras style)
Portugese paella
vindaloo (goan style curry)
grilled sardines

Please, go listen to some Fado. Its fantastic!

Nickcooks, loved the "Caldo Verde"- Portuguese cabbage (kale?) soup - also the breads. Enjoy!