Tuesday 21 October 2014

Food trip to Lisbon

Salt cod & potato cake

Garlic prawn

Clams with parsley

Grilled tiger prawn

Mosaic on the road

Cabbage & potato soup

Lisbon city

Oysters

beef filet steak sandwich
Arriving Lisbon , rainy dark miserable evening was not an ideal for our short break but friendly, chatty , football loving ( Porto ) taxi driver made us very optimistic mood.
Hotel is small and minimalistic Hilton, beautique  hotel, Double Tree, near the metro and central of city, great location.
Very nice with black and white only colour scheme, very modern but too modern for us as an old couple, specially dim lighting of bath room ( ha---)

Next day still drizzling with rain ,took Metro to the centre of River side, busy with tourist and locals, went up the hill see old church, along the narrow hilly road, had shops, small wine bars , snack bars, all very quiet as it is out of tourist season.
Pop in the wine bar, surprised the price 2 euro for the wine and beer, it seems cheapest ( one of ) price we paid in Europe, Still Portugal seemed cheaper than any other capitol in Europe unless you are in Algarve.

Wherever you walk on the road, always typical mosaic pavement, which is quite pretty, I think  Lisbon has a kind of shabby chic beauty with old tile decorated buildings but they are left empty.

Tasted the most famous cabbage, potato soup but rather bland for me, more like our potato & leek soup, had potato& salt cod cake, very filling , tasty and good for a hungry lunch customers, I guess.

Finally we went to Ramiro seafood restaurant, it is in rather edge of the city, looks more like Chinese town. It is well known to the foodies and tourist and do not take reservation ( this is a good sign) .
We joined the queue, still rainy but has good atmosphere , we talked with locals and tourist.
We had to wait an hour but one tourist from USA, behind us were not amused by this queue, complaining to his poor wife, why has to be here, well, hope he enjoyed as we are and apologized to his wife.

We started with Garlic prawn, you can not imagine how many garlic pieces in this, quickly cooked in olive oil and chilli, and sweet Clams and parsley were equally tasty.
Followed by grilled 2 huge Tiger prawns, with butter sauce, wow ! what can I say!!
All washed down with mild  local beer. cost: 60 Euro !

We had to visit again to Ramiro, on the day we were leaving.
We went for very early lunch, got in without queuing, lucky!

Start with oyster, very fresh and clean ocean taste, loved it. Iberico ham , very good again garlic prawn ( I will try at home soon), and 2 beef filet steak sandwich, again perfectly cooked as medium rare and a few garlic pieces, it is a custom to finish with beef sandwich after seafood for the locals, who can ague with this?? and beer. cost ; 45euro, how good is it????

All very quick and served by efficient but friendly stuff. no wonder all foodies love this restaurant.

All I can say I had memorable food break in Lisbon  specially at Ramiro.
Had to have the most famous sweet pie, Custard pie , it is too sweet for me, I'd rather have our custard pie , specially from Marcus Wearing's recipe.



Saturday 4 October 2014

Meat Free Dinner

Baked whole cauliflower

Cauliflower


Red lentil& squash dal

Tofu stew

Veggie pancake

Kimchi
All well known chefs seemed campaigning to have Meat Free Monday, but for me it is not all practical,  reason, I always seemed to have left over meat from Sunday roast.
I've decided have meat free Wednesday .
Meat& fish free meal needs  more work unless you have Vegetable stir frying, which is too often use by all. I needs something more to impress to my family.
It is a good idea to mix with Indian and Korean dishes as they are all eaten with rice.

Resent our family favourite is baked cauliflower, boiled as whole for 3 minutes and transfer in a oven proof dish , season with salt,pepper, curry powder, sprinkle over with cheese and bake until topping is cooked , make crispy crust.
They are so pretty to look at.
Dal is another , red lentil cooked with onion and cumin, chilli , so simple but tasty , and provide protein. Adding butternut squash was my idea.

Tofu stew with chilli & bean paste , courgette and chive, shiso leave Korean pancake , I use as a sort of starter as they needs to be eaten when they are hot.

Being Korean food writer meat free meal is not one street menu, I can make many kind of Korean side meat free dishes and they are delicious. Mix up with Indian, Chinese makes more interesting.

Do not make single meat free dish, just mix and match, your family won't notice they are meat free meal.