Restaurantes e Comida

I thought instead of giving a weekend update (which is already a bit late, I know) I would write about some of the food I have been eating and some really great restaurants I have found.

First off, for my birthday last week, we went to this traditional Brazilian place called Comida de Santo, (Saint's Food) that is pretty close to our house on the edge of Bairro Alto. From outside this place wouldn't call my attention- a little whole-in-the-wall type, it appeared to be like the hundreds of other tiny little restaurants in Bairro Alto. We went early for Portuguese time, around 8pm, and were the only ones in the whole place (the whole place being no more than 1o tables or something).

The food on the other hand was AMAAAZING. The four of us each ordered a different dish and then shared. We had a shrimp dish cooked in palm oil and coconut milk, a traditional Brazilian feijoada, which is black beans and different kninds of meat (chorizo, pork, beef), a chicken dish cooked with coconut milk, mushrooms, tomatoes, and palm hearts, and dish called carne do sol, which is cured salted beef with onions, fired palm hearts, and beans. Along wiht some perfect capirinhas, we had ourselves a delicious little time :)

(the picture is from their website, showing the delish feijoada and a capirinha)

This weekend we also tried this Thai food place we had walked passed various times in Bairro Alto called Naga. I was really impressed by this place. Again we showed up early by Portuguese standards and had the place pretty much to ourselves. Like the website, the interior of the place is really nice, cool east asian decorations, very trendy, tasteful and chic. We ordered an appetizer sampler and also the typical Pad Thai and a chicken in red curry dish. The curry nearly killed me. I would say I have a high tolerance for spicy, but Thai spicy is so different from the suually green chile spice I knwo and love! Apaprently the red curry was only the second hottest, too! lol So after I tried not to die eating it and burned off all of my taste buds it was really good. :) I washed it down with a thai tea, which is tea with condensed milk on ice.. so more like a wonderful slushy! It was a little pricey, but for all the food and atmosphere I'd definitely go back.

I also had a NOT plesant dining experience this weekend. :( We went to this place on our street called Casa México, thinking we could get some margaritas and enchiladas. While I had mexican food here the other wekeend and was pleasantly surprised by how good it actually was, this place not only was not spicy/flavorful/mexican, but they also couldn't make a margarita to save their lives. Unfortunate really, especially since it was pretty pricey. But hey, two out of theree isn't that bad!

ON sunday we went to Belém to do more sightseeing and pass the day in the glorious fall weather and also had a greaaaat lunch. Dalmira found this little whole-in-the-wall place right across from the Palace that served a great (and cheap) Portuguese feijoada, or one made with white beans, cuttlefish, onions, and other seasonings. YUM YUM YUM

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Well besides eating, while that obviously takes up most of my time and energy, this weekend I also saw a very strange movie, and did some more Lisboa sightseeing and shopping with my roomates. I will post pics soon of what has been going on- just been a bit lazy with taking the camera places. :)