We had an amazing food day today, in Lisbon and Sintra!
Breakfast at The Folks in Lisbon: Turkish eggs (poached eggs in yogurt), French toast with berries, tiramisu latte
Lunch at Paco Real in Sintra: mushroom risotto, gigantic beers, and the most perfectly cooked octopus I have ever encountered. It was almost flaky like lobster. Fes was generous enough to give a few bites to various people in our group, and every one of us rolled our eyes back into our heads as our brains grappled with perfection.
Dinner at Taverna Alfacinha in Lisbon: Fes, hoping for another religious experience with octopus, ordered a delicious octopus rice thing. I saw a photo online of something that looked astonishingly cheese-laden on the restaurant’s Google reviews, so I wound up with an astonishingly cheese-laden pan full of shredded cod that had the comfort power of macaroni & cheese and the density of a dwarf star. The waitress suggested adding some piri-piri sauce to it, and she was absolutely correct. At the end of the meal, she treated us to a desert of a certain local treat called Ginjinha!
Ginjinha cups: I have long heard about Ginja cups, from everyone I know who has been to Portugal before. Fes and I made our first full encounter with them earlier in the day, in a souvenir shop in Sintra. Fes saw some nice hats inside and decided to buy one; while we checked out, I saw the shop offered Ginjha cups for 1.50 Euros each. I declared it was time for this grand experience!
Ginjinha cups are made of two components: a shot cup made out of dark chocolate and a Portuguese liqueur (ginjinha / ginja) made of sour cherries. The booze goes in the cups, the cups go in your mouth. They are absolutely delicious and now Fes is hell-bent on finding this liqueur in the United States so we can share it with everyone we meet.
