When I knew I was going to Lisbon I was excited to see all famous sights but I had no idea Lisbon would be so tasty! I love trying new food, I wont always like it as you will find out below but I’ll give it a go. After eating frog in Vietnam I cant say no to more ‘normal’ new foods in Europe. Our weekend was spent sightseeing but more importantly wandering around grazing on the tasty offerings of local Lisbon. Go on, eat your way around Lisbon too!
How To Get There?
Why not get yourself on Europes railway line? Not only are the prices very reasonable but they actually run on time!
Pasteis De Nata – Literally Amazing!
This should be called the tastiest custard tart you will ever eat! I hate English custard and for some reason even gag at the smell! So I was apprehensive about trying this almost National dish! I needn’t have been worried at all, in fact my husband had to put a stop to my pasteis consumption! I lost count of how many I eat over the weekend. They are best eaten when they are warm with a sprinkling of icing sugar and cinnamon. Oh my goodness you will find it hard not to love this pudding. I can vouch for it also being totally fine to eat it at any time of day!
Sangria Three Ways
I’m not a total Sangria fan to be honest as I think the product you get is not tasty, its a waste of good red wine! But in Lisbon it tasted different, maybe it was the atmosphere and surroundings? Or that I had to wash down my lovely custard tarts with something! A found myself having a few glasses to make sure I definitely liked it!
Sardines Anyone?
Lisbon is very famous for its tasty sardines, and they have tins of them by the thousands! This particular store had tins from every year going back to when my 92 year father in-law was born and beyond. You can purchase your birth year as a keepsake! You just have to find it!
Visit the Time Out Market
This is a foodie lovers paradise, with stall after stall selling top quality foods of every description. We eat here every evening from a different stall (apart from the same desert of the pasteis!). You can find out more on their website.
Port Tasting
Mr C and I are known for enjoying a bottle of red but we don’t really know anything about Port. In the TimeOut Market there are many places for you learn about the differences and obviously have a good taste! This was our ‘Port Board’ before we devoured it, delicious!
Pastel de Bachalhaus
My second favourite thing I eat in Lisbon only to the tasty tasty Pasteis was this morsel of deep fried goodness! Inside this breadcrumbed dome is a mixture of fish and mashed potato with a gooey melting cheese centre. It’s served with a glass of Madeira at this establishment (name it). Oh my goodness, Mr C had to hold me back from getting more! Absolutely delicious! We stumbled upon the best place to try these delicious morsels, Casa Portuguesa Do Pastel de Bacalhau! Check it out!
Tuna Sausage
Here it is, the only nasty thing I eat in Lisbon the whole weekend. Once again we had stopped off at a little local establishment to try their dishes. This place mostly offered fish based dishes; lovely, please bring me some! We thought we would try some things we had never had before so ordered the fish sausage. It came out raw, but that was ok as a fire was promptly lit underneath it in the bowl. We waited until the flames went out and the waiter gave us the ‘nod’. Grim is the only word I can use to describe this dish. In my humble opinion a sausage is not to be filled with fish ever as this is the outcome. A gritting textured, very strong flavoured, overpowering bowl of wasted fish.
Hot sauce
This squeeze tube contains liquid dynamite (my opinion) and was the only way we could eat the above sausage. By disguising it and killing our tastebuds with chilli heat! It did the job, the fish was not wasted and we didn’t appear as silly tourists. The waiter gave us this when he brought the dish over by the way, we didn’t request this upon hating the tuna!
Black Calamari
Another evening in TimeOut Market saw us having food envy at other peoples trays of food they wandered past us with. There are so many food outlets in the building that unless you stalk someone its difficult to see where people have got their tasty Lisbon food from. Not wanting to stalk I announced to Mr C that I would go off and bring him back some luscious looking calamari he had his eye on. I came back very pleased with myself and announced I had found it and my beeper would vibrate when it was ready. So we waited. The beeper went off.
I came back with this plate of what looks like charcoal. Can you imagine his little face at me returning with this offering when he was expecting golden rings of fish??? Well this was in fact calamari; charcoal battered calamari. Despite the horrendous look of this dish it was very very tasty. The drawback though was that your mouth turned black after eating a mouthful! Where’s my wine???
After all that eat a healthy breakfast!
Our apartment was just above a lovely cafe which did a wide variety of healthy breakfasts and lunches. So after an evening of trying many indulgent dishes and drinking wine we could attempt a small detox.
Want More Food Ideas?
Love European food? Visit Seville, another interesting and beautiful place with great food!
