Lisboa

Finally getting a chance to catch up and write this long post about my recent spring break trip to Lisbon. The city was old yet modern, beautiful, welcoming, and VERY hilly. And plenty of good local eats, of course. We hit up most of the touristy sights and also ticked off quite a few recommended activities by the NYTimes “36 Hours in Lisbon” article.

Food was quite pricey by my frugal college student standards, but we managed to eat well on a reasonable budget by taking utmost advantage of the free breakfast buffet at our hotel, snacking lightly throughout the day, and saving up for nice dinners.

Much of the food wasn’t quite my cup of tea, especially the locally popular dry and salty codfish, but it was fun trying different dishes, and many of them were very tasty. Pork alentejo style (above, at La Trinidad in Bairro Alto) - pork with clams and delicious sauce - was one of my favorites.

Dinner at La Trinidad that night also featured milk cream with absinthe on top for a flambe style dessert.

And of course, always plenty of great bread, seafood paste, cheese, butter, and wine to go around (for a usually unspoken and unpredictable price, we discovered…)

The LX Factory in Alcantara was full of hidden quirks and goodies, including this weird pop artsy restaurant/fashion museum/club with very expensive dim sum.

5 euros for these shrimp dumplings. Which comes out to about 2 bucks a pop. They were good, but not THAT good…

Landeau bakery, also in LX factory,  was one of the best finds of the trip. From my preview post:

Amazing chocolate cake (the only thing on the menu) at Landeau bakery, newly opened in the LX factory in Alcantara. Warm and gooey, rich yet light and not too sweet, melt-in-your-mouth delicious perfection. Wowed even the non-chocolate lovers in our group! Not in plain sight so we had to look hard for the place, but it was well worth it, especially with a pretty reasonable price tag of a little over 2 euros per slice.

Landeau 
Lx Factory
R. Rodrigues Faria, 103
Alcantara, Lisboa

I also loved the decor in the small shop, tucked away in an eclectic industrial-looking loft that houses various other shops and offices.

Adorable kitchen!

Another super cute bakery and gelato shop next door.

As a port city, Lisbon is obviously known for seafood, so I was surprised to discover that pastries are just as, if not more, popular and delicious among locals. Small and not too sweet or expensive, pastries were perfect on-the-go fuel for our daily adventures. I loved the queijadas (cheese pastries) with cinnamon (not really cheesy at all despite the name) and chocolate biscuit and mousse pastries we tried in Sintra, a beautiful World Heritage town with castles, palaces, mountains and parks,  after climbing up to the Moorish castle.

The climb was a lot steeper and longer than expected but well worth it!

Amazing view

Beer pastry (made with beer but doesn’t taste like it at all, a nice almond-y flavor instead) and a traditional Belem egg tart. Probably my favorite pastries from the trip.

Probably the weirdest dish ordered on the trip - little fried fish with their tails in their mouths at a seafood restaurant across the river in Almada…fortunately they tasted better than they looked.

Dinner at a fado restaurant in Bairro Alto our last night in the city. Bluesy and mournful, fado definitely isn’t upbeat music (aka my kind of music), but it’s very Portuguese and thus a must-see while in the city.

Brought home some cheap and yummy seafood paste with mini toast (tuna paste above, already all gone :P). Didn’t think I would like the taste or consistency of seafood paste, but we had it almost every day with bread at dinner and I actually really liked it. The tuna paste is pretty mild, but the sardine version is much stronger and fishier tasting.

Some canned sardines in olive oil brought home from A Vida Portuguesa, a super cool shop in Chiado that sells very cute, affordable, and beautifully packaged soaps, stationery, chocolates, packaged food, perfume, etc. I’ve never been a huge fan of sardines, but in olive oil, these were quite mild and tasty.

Some final non-food highlights:

Beautiful Jeronimos monastery in Belem, where Vasco de Gama is buried.

Ridiculously adorable otters massaging their cheeks, sleeping, and playing at the Oceanarium.

MUDE fashion and design museum - bizarre and fascinating, free and definitely worth a visit.