Portugal!...

I was kind of sad b/c food in Portugal was rather MEH. I was expecting near-Spain level seafood (not so much) and/or at least same vibrancy in flavors. Moving on. I did have two good things in Lisbon: grilled sardines, and pasteis de belem (also pastel de nata). I forgot the name of the place I had the sardines but it was on the way to Castelo de Sao Jorge right off where the tram 28 drops you off near the miraduoro.

Yum diddly dum yum. Kind of a lot of food and very little greens (MY GOD i was proteined-OUT on my trip). One thing annoying in Portugal was also the couverts--appetizers that kind of seem like typical bread spread or free like the Korean stuff, but NO, not free, priced, and no mention that you can decline them (or that they aren't included in your meal).

AAAAND of course obligatory bones shot a la my Bastille Day post fr a few yrs ago :)

The other good/amazing thing was the pastel de nata/pasteis de belem.

Egg custards. NOT JUST ANY EGG CUSTARD...amazeballs eggs custards w/ cinnamon and sugar and the best puff pastry I've ever had.

Just look at that gooooooooo. Good stuff. Redeeming things for Lisbon--other than it's whole omg I'm such a quaint little place with unbelievably cute looking, classically old houses, narrow, winding alleys, random guitar/accordian music wafting in the air and lively people bursting into the alleyways all happy and dance-y and being all cinematic and all. PFFFFFFTTTT. Lisbon.

;)

Bistro 61 @ Bastille Day Festival!...

Grilled sardines with some kind of salsa of onions, tomatoes, pine nuts, lemon juice..I don't even know but YUMMAAAAAY!! :) I DON"T EVEN KNOW. but It was nice--good charring, nummay num num.

I was gonna open with the fish bones but well--that might be a bit gross :P so...there! And here's the sardine bein' eaten, with my Merguez sausage sammich w/ ratatouille!! :) Not enough ratatouille if u ask me, but tasty. I'm not a big fan of sausage but this was nice--I think it was lamb? Didn't taste too gamey, very minty, a bit of heat--there was some bit of veggie in the ratatouille that was particualarly citrus-y and explosion of tastiness in my mouth! but I couldn't discern :(

I really liked Bistro 61's booth--mostly b/c they were so jocund and feisty and effervescent. The chef made me take a picture of him serving me :) What I loved watching was the grill--one side had a nice smolder going to grill the sardines...the other was...ON FIYAAAAAAAH!!!! :D

Secret pyro in me was hypnotized. Made me want to...burn things. HEHE. You can see the contrast in 2 grills below :):

We had to take pause b/c Albee got some curried beef with potatoes & olives from Le Souk--which was suprisingly very very very good! I mean...not that it was mindblowing, but I don't think much of curried stewy things but this was delightful. This will be in another post with other misc foodthings from the rest of the festival. Picked my sardine clean @ central park, and washed it down with orangina! :) Viva la France! :P

YUMMMAAAY. will for sure be going back to Bistro 61 :) Maybe I can stalk them to participate in Project by Project :)