Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Sardines, Bacalau & Fado













I recently vacationed in Portugal - Lisbon, Porto and the Douro wine region. My husband, Tony and I were joined by long time friends who live in England. Martha was my college roommate and I've known her husband as long as she's known him - since 1970. We like vacationing together.

We shared a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment in the Baixia neighborhood of Lisbon on a pedestrian street lined with restaurants and stores, very near to lots of public transportation (Metro, buses, trolley, trams) and the harbor. We also had access to the very affordable taxis.




Lisbon is fantastically hilly with meandering streets in the older districts. Luckily our neighborhood was flat and the streets were on a grid - a result of the area being totally destroyed by earthquake and fire in the mid 1700's. Unlike Italy where the building and houses are stuccoed in gorgeous colors - sienna, ochre, umber, pink, blue, etc, the facades of Lisbon's buildings are covered in ceramic tiles. Each house is different so the effect is a crazy quilt of different patterns, colors and textures - wonderfully riotous. Although Portugal faces the Atlantic, the red-tiled rooftops present a rather Mediterranean look.


I ate lots of fish, especially sardines and cod - which makes sense for a nation with so much ocean coastline. The sardines were just coming into season as signs in all the restaurants informed us. I mostly ate them grilled and doused with Portugal's splendid olive oil, however the best I ate - lightly floured and sauteed in olive oil were at a roadside dive on our way to the wine country. Usually the sardines were served with boiled potatoes that were salted and bathed in olive oil. Simple but incredibly delicious.

The cod was pretty much always baccalau - salted cod, but unlike what I usually find here it was thick cuts of cod that had been salted, then reconstituted with rinsing. I love fresh cod, but the baccalau had a smokey flavor and a much meatier texture than fresh cod. Sometimes I had it grilled but the best was baked in olive oil with a crunchy corn bread topping. It was luscious with interesting textures. The bakeries served lovely croissants and rolls and a really wonderful dessert called tart do Belem (a puff pastry shell filled with a creamy custard with a burnt sugar topping. A little like a creme brulee but not so egg custardy.)
We went to Portugal for Fado - a bluesy vocal music that began in the dockside bars of Lisbon a hundred of so years ago. The musical accompaniment is guitar and a Portuguese 12 string guitar that looks a bit like a viola da gamba (a medieval guitar.) The singers, mostly women, usually sing torchy, bluesy songs about love, loss, Lisboa or simply fate (fado) and there is often some improvisation with the lyrics. The best Fado clubs are in the Alfama section of Lisbon - the oldest neighborhood that still has vestiges (especially the tile work) of the long Muslim rule in Portugal. Everyone recommended Club do Fado - a venue for mostly younger, up and coming Fado singers. The next night we went to a Parreinha Cafe, a restaurant/club owned by a retired Fadista Argentina Santos. We listened to older, more established singers - a good contrast from the performers of the previous evening. The food was exceptional and I tasted a suggested aperitif: white port. The flavor was somewhat reminiscent of a dry sherry and made a terrific pre-dinner cocktail.

I loved riding the tram on a roller coaster like ride up and down Lisbon's steep hills. On one early morning run I found myself in a little courtyard festooned with laundry hung overhead. One line had all lacy panties, another brassieres and the third was socks. Oh, I wish I had carried my camera, but I usually run as unencumbered as possible. One evening after dinner I decided to check out the Red Line on the Lisbon Metro. It's the newest line and each of the six stations is decorated by different artists in different motifs. The terminus is a three tier construction with soaring steel trusses designed by the noted Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava.










Most of the artwork in the stations was painted tile installations: cartoon images or amoeba swirls or a fabulous crazy quilt design that also incorporated a 3 dimensional quality in the way it was installed in recesses and pop-outs. There were also terrific iron-work railings and metal sculptures. My friend Sharon had a similar experience exploring the art filled stations of the Moscow Metro. Then it was on to Porto for more art and Fado and wine. Lots of good wine.