Food in Avignon

Day 1 in Avignon was short, so we only had dinner there. Our first night we did NOT go to the place our hotel recommended (30+ a plate), and instead went to a little creperie. I was still a little veggie-starved from Spain, so I got the Legumes a la Provencal, which was basically grilled veggies served with oil and garlic, a stuffed tomato, and potatoes au gratin. Also got a ginormous sundae, but I have no idea what was on it (asked the waiter what he liked, and he knew enouh english to answer but not say what it was). 'Twas delicious, though!

The next day, we were in a hurry, so I grabbed a basic sandwich made with ham, provolone cheese, and some French butter. Sounds kind of "meh," but the butter made it taste great. For dinner, we went to a Provencal restaurant, where I got the honey roasted duck (which actually tasted like honey, and not just generally sweet, like most honey roasted things in the States), which came with fried gnocchi and sautéed mushrooms. That was excellent, but dessert (a biscuit topped with slices of grapefruit and thyme) was so-so.

Lunch the next day was another ham sandwich and coffee near the market in Avignon. Went to a little pub that had one poor waitress running the entire place (waiting tables, making food, and taking deliveries). To save some money, for dinner that night, we just grabbed some bread, sausage, jam, and cheese at the grocery, and ate that. French bread and cheese continued to be delicious, particularly with jam made from melons from provence. We also split a bottle of wine from Chateuneuf-du-Papes, a wine-making region that used to serve the pope. We had grabbed that earlier at the papal palace.

The next day, we grabbed a weird burger-type thing with a fried egg on top on the way to catch the bus to St. Remy. Not exactly gourmet, but it was cheap and filling. Dinner that night was bread, super super runny cheese, and tapenade (Wasn't really hungry. It's amazing how filling a slab of meat topped with a fried egg can be).

Lunch on day 5 was actually swankier than dinner. We went to a place called Newground while we waited for our tour to start, where we got the daily special, which was salad, saffron rice, prociutto and melon with a few drops of really sweet wine, baked chicken in mushroom and pear sauce, and mango tart. Dinner was way more low-brow, but just as tasty. We went to a place called Tartine, which served everything on toast. So, we got some with pate, some with goat cheese and honey, and some with gorgonzola and prune compote, which was actually our favorite. I also got a glass of pastis, which is an anise flavored liquer you drink mixed with water and ice. Tasted like a glass of licorice flavored lemonade, but in a good way.

 

Our last day, I just grabbed a kebab and a coke for lunch, but we splurged for dinner and went to a really high brow French place, where the husband cooked and the wife waited tables. I got a salad topped with balsamic vinegar and goat cheese in pastry for the first course, and a tuna steak and sautéed veggies after that. I actually like the veggies better than the tuna (though that was still quite tasty); they were basically a ratatouille without the tomato sauce. Anyway, the next day we headed to Nice, and I didn't eat a bite until dinner, where I may or may not have pigged out a bit. But that's another post.

Food in Barcelona

‘Twas good to be back in Barca; I was ready for some good Catalonian food.

Anyway, the first night, we took the hosteliers advice and went to Hugo, a Chilean restaurant that specialized (oddly enough) in Catalonian specialties. I got pork sausage and white beans, and Sean got the sirloin. Spanish food continued its streak of being tasty, but heavily underseasoned. I had to reapply salt 3 times before I could taste any of it. Was quite tasty after that =) Dessert was Crèma Catalonia, a (very large) crème brulee.

Day two, we grabbed some Durum kebab (basically a gyro wrap) between the train station (where we split a muffin) and Sagrada Familia. Quite tasty, but not up to my high durum standards.

For dinner we decided to satisfy some bad vitamin deficiencies. Spanish and Portuguese food are kinda chintzy with the vegetables (you pretty much get a large hunk of protein and some form of potatoes), so Sean and I went to Vegetalia, a vegetarian café in the old city I found last time I was in Barcelona. We split an order of hummus (om nom nom), and I got the mushroom, asparagus, and quinoa risotto, with a brownie for dessert.

Day 3, we went for Italian pretty much around the corner from my old residence in the Carrer de Ribes neighborhood. I got tortellini carbonara, which was tasty, and we apparently impressed the waiter, as we both got a free glass of cava. Dinner that night was a bit different. We tried to find a tapas place that I remembered, but it was closed (Sundays in Spain; plan meals around them!), so we ended up at a place called Mosquito, which specialized in “tapas exoticas.” What does that mean? Dim sum! We got some fried duck, grilled beef, and 3 kinds of dumplings, as well as two red bean paste dumplings for dessert. I also got a schooling from one of the waitresses for ordering my aperitif AFTER my meal (I thought it was a digestif! I’m sorry!). She mimed how it ‘opens up the stomach’ by miming the alien exploding out of her chest.

The next day, we tried to go to my favorite restaurant in Barca (Café de l’Academia), but it was closed for Spain’s equivalent of Memorial Day. ‘Twas quite sad, but couldn’t be helped (closed on the weekend, so it’s not like we could have gone any other time while we were there). So, instead, we went to Tapas Lonje, around the corner, where we split some prawns stewed with mushrooms, skewered chicken, jamon croquettes, and grilled sausage. The prawns were my personal favorite there.

Dinner that night was simple. I was a bit tired of eating out, so, while Sean ran to a Donor Kebab place, I just got some bread, meat, and cheese at the convenience store and made a sammich. Quick, simple, and cheap.

Our last meal in Barcelona was…amusing. I’ve sworn off American chains while I’m over here, as has Sean, as this photo of him chowing down on a Big Macadillo proves. I can’t judge really, though. I ran to a pastry shop across the station and got the largest chocolate filled pastry I’ve ever seen. Seriously. I’ve seen baguettes smaller than this! ‘Twas quite tasty, though!

And now, on to Provence!

Food in Santiago, Madrid, and Toledo

So, I figured I’d cram food from Santiago, Madrid, and Toledo into one post, partly because they fit together nicely and two are fairly short, but mostly I’m ‘cause I’m a wee bit lazy.

Santiago

We only ate three real meals in Santiago. Dinner the first night was the fanciest and, true to form for me, the one I enjoyed the least. I got the roast lamb, which was so-so, but really dry and waaaay too much. Thought that was funny, as most meat in Spain moo’s (or baa’s or bleats) when you cut into it. Dessert (chestnuts cooked in chocolate with whipped cream) was excellent, though.

Lunch the next day was HYSTERICAL. The restaurant/bar we stopped at was managed, waited, bused, and cooked for by one Spanish man who didn’t speak a lick of English and didn’t have the time (or patience) to repeat himself. I asked him to repeat the options for the first plate, and he just patted me on the shoulder and said (in Spanish), “I bring you the soup. It’s good.” Then scurried off. He did the same thing for the second plate (grilled ham). Funniest part was later. I understand Spanish quite well when I’m not on the spot (i.e. it’s not being spoken to me), so when the table of tourists next to us was ordering, I heard him say, “I’ll bring you the ham. It’s good! I just ordered it for them (points at us) too!” Dessert was Santiago tart, which is like a slightly lemony, slightly nutty pound cake covered in powdered sugar.

Dinner that night was tasty, if somewhat hard to find. It turns out the ‘third holiest city on Earth’ kinda shuts down on Sundays, so we had trouble finding an open restaurant. We ended up just eating at the café in our B&B. Sean and I split an order of croquettes (one of my favorite things ever, by the way), and I got an order of morcello, Spanish sausage made from blood and rice).

Lunch at the train station the next day was basic, though special, ‘cause it was my first Iberian ham of the trip. I kinda had an addiction to that stuff last time I was in Spain.

Madrid

Dinner the first night in Madrid was…interesting. Asked our hostelier for a rec (which had worked PHENOMENALLY up til then) and he sent us to a strip of Indian restaurants nearby. Now, I love Indian food, but the Spanish don’t really like spices and ABHOR spiciness (‘spicy sauce’ in Spain means ‘tangy’ to someone from the States). You can’t really do Indian food that way. The curry was ‘meh’, not bad, but way too sweet. The wine also tasted like it was equal parts bad white wine and water.

Lunch the next two days was just bocadillos (sandwiches on crusty baguettes) at cafés en route to the art museums. Tasty, but nothing special. The dinners were both great, though. For my birthday, we went to an Asturian restaurant called Casa Lustra, that I’m convinced was trying to kill me. Got the Menu de la Casa, which was a pot of Asturian stew (chorizo sausage, pork fat, beans, and kale), grilled salmon, a half-bottle of wine, and a Asturian pastry (whose name I didn’t pick up). Quite tasty. Especially since Sean bought it for me =D

Next day was less tasty but more fun. We went to the Market de San Miguel and wandered around grabbing up tapas. Was a bit pricier than going to a restaurant, but it was a lot of fun just wandering around picking stuff that looked tasty. I got seafood paella (meh; he scooped some up and microwaved it), venison sausage (meh; microved again), tinto de verano (dry red wine mixed with lemon soda on ice; sounds weird, but is really tasty), a salmon and crab salad pintxo (tapa on toast; not bad), a pistachio cookie (om nom nom), and lemon gelato with chocolate chips (=D).

Toledo, we pretty much skipped food for whatever reason. Only thing we had to eat was some espresso and pastries at a bakery (which I think had its baked goods supplied by nuns in a convent), where Sean got a waffle with ice cream and I got a mazapan (no, not marzipan) cake. When we got back, we were kinda starving, so we went to a tapas bar called Lateral that the front desk recommended. Awful waiters (the guy said it was over an hour wait outside, without mentioning that the inside of the restaurant was empty), but great food. We got jamon croquettes, patatas bravas, stuffed peppers, and a pintxo that was essentially tuna salad on toast, except it was made with bonito instead of tuna, and had grilled asparagus on top. For dessert, I got “crepes castellanos con dulce de leche,” which is a fancy way of saying mini pancakes topped with caramel and whipped cream.

Don't know what my last meal in Madrid will be, but sammiches at the train station are a strong contender.

Things we don't have in the States, but should

Jamon Iberico

Spanish ham is NOTHING like ham in the States. Ham in the states is sugared, salted, and cooked, but Jamon is instead salted and cured for several months. As a result, all the water gets drawn out, and you get ham that just tastes hammier. It’s dry, oily, and a little chewy (and hard to eat in a sandwich sometimes), but it is tasty stuff. This prosciutto, but less salty and more hammy.

Jamon flavored chips

To paraphrase my friend Cristy: It’s fun to watch people when they taste these for the first time. They’re faces go from ‘Ewww, it tastes like ham,’ to ‘Hey, ham!’

Café bombon

2-1 espresso and condensed milk. It’s like a really sweet and really creamy cappuccino without the foam.

Lemon Fanta

WHY DON’T WE HAVE THIS STUFF?

It's like lemon-flavored San Pellegrino, except about twice as sweet.

Like an old western

You know a restaurant is going to be good when you walk in, guidebook in hand, and all conversation stops as a group of locals look you up and down with a "How the hell did you get in here?" look on their face.

Anyway, Casa Lustra was a tasty place for a birthday dinner. Thanks Sean for picking up the tab!

Food in Porto

Salmon steaks

I know I touched on food in previous posts, but figured I’d make one dedicated to just the tastiness in Porto. In a nutshell, the food in Porto was excellent. Didn’t have a meal that I didn’t like, and I had a ton of great seafood. 

Day 1, we just grabbed  pastry and coffee near our hostel for lunch (we had a late train, so we didn’t get in until a bit too late for lunch). I had a flaky pastry stuffed with custard and coated with chocolate. Quite tasty, and quite cheap too.

For dinner, we walked down to a restaurant we had passed on the way from the train station (didn’t catch the name), which had some very tasty fish. I got a “grilled” salmon steak, which was more sautéed that grilled, but very tasty.

Francesinha

Day 2, we had a MASSIVE sandwich that would put the Coronary Bypass at the Vortex to shame. After our tour ended, Sean and I got a Francesinha at Café Santiago. The Francesinha is two pieces of bread, a grilled steak, two slices of ham (like from a ham at Thanksgiving, not deli ham), and two hunks apiece of two kinds of sausage. Dip it in the secret sauce, melt four slices of cheese on top, and serve with French Fries. We weren’t hungry for a loooong while after that.

Dinner rolled around eventually, and Sean and I found a place on the waterfront. I got something our tour guide had recommended, but is guaranteed to gross out my Aunt Ivery: tripe and bean stew. Even our waiter made a face when I got it, but it was good! It was like very mild red beans and rice from New Orleans.

Day 3, we built up a bit of an appetite hiking to the port cellar (and, you know, drinking port), so we grabbed lunch across the river in Gaia. I got the grilled sea bass (which was tasty, but a little too bony, so it wasn’t quite my cup of tea), and Sean got the grilled chicken. Oddly enough, the potatoes were the best part; a little vinegar and olive oil can make plain boiled potatoes quite tasty. We also stopped at a café on the way back for coffee and a pastry (but mostly to escape the rain). After that, we met up with Anita, and eventually ended back up at the waterfront, where we split some sangria, and I got a dessert made with ice cream and espresso.

Fried peppers, olives, wine and fried sardines

Anyway, dinner that night easily took first prize for best meal so far in Europe. We got a recommendation for A Casa dos Brenlhas from our hostel, and figured we’d give it a shot. I mentioned this place in an earlier post (which they apparently saw and liked on their FB page. Hi guys!), but I’ll go a bit more into detail here.

Anyway, Sean, Anita, and me all split a carafe of wine (it evolved into a carafe and a half, but who’s counting?). We all got a small plate and a big plate, and figured we’d share everything. For small plates, we got some small fried sardines (which were MUCH better than the large ones in Lisbon), fried peppers (not spicy, but quite tasty), and grilled chorizo (my personal favorite; Sean laughed when I lunged for the last bite).

Tasty, tasty stuff

These were all excellent, and we could have made an easy meal out of those, but we still managed to save room for the main course. I got the bread stew with seafood (clams and shrimp) which was excellent, though I could easily have split that alone with someone and been stuffed. Sean and Anita both got the grilled beef and fries, and polished their plates, if I remember correctly (and Anita tried to help me polish mine, too!).

After that, the extra half-carafe of wine made an appearance, and we got dessert. Sean and I got a custard tart of some kind (think flan, but cut from a cake) and Anita got a slice of very tasty-looking ice cream cake. Somehow, Anita sweet-talked a bit of mine out of me. I’m a sucker for a pretty smile, what can I say?

After that, we finished the meal off with a glass of port, and paid the (astonishingly low) check. Total damage for dinner, dessert, and drinks was 33 euro, which was a steal! I’ve seen individual meals in the States go for that much, wine and dessert not included! For how great the food was, I’d say that’s definitely worth the cost! Definitely give Brenlhas a try if you’re ever in Porto!

Food in Lisbon

So, it’s a little late now, but figured I’d put up the rest of what I ate in Lisbon.

I forgot to mention that our hostel did a free breakfast every morning, so Sean and I just ate there mostly. Typically, it was just bread, jam, nutella, and cornflakes, though they had crepes too about every other day. I’ll say this though: I’m looking forward to a glass of COLD milk in the states; they prefer room-temp, ultra-pasteurized milk in Portugal for some reason.

Grilled sardines. Tasty, yet pokey. Dem bones hurt.

Our second day, we stopped for lunch while walking downhill from the castle. Saw a place that had a 10 euro meal of the day, and figured why not. We both got a glass of wine and some fava bean soup, then we got a choice between fish or meat. I continued my trend of really only eating seafood in Portugal, and got the fish option, which was grilled sardines and potatoes. They tasted good, but were really boney and hard to eat. Dessert was just a fruit cup.

Grilled cod and potatoes

Anyway, after that, we came back and passed out, then left for dinner around 9 for a place whose name I’ve already forgotten, though it was quite tasty. I got the grilled cod and potatoes, and Sean got the filet (which was only 2 euros more).

Cod’s actually really big in Portugal and is normally the most expensive (or one of the most expensive) options on the menu, as much as twice as expensive as the salmon or swordfish. It’s funny that it’s such a huge part of the diet here, because they don’t even grow in Portuguese waters. They fly it in from Norway as salt cod and have to rehydrate it for 2 days.

Cod stew

The next day was the trip to Sintra, where for lunch we had a lot of bread, cheese, sausage, and jam for appetizers, then some cod, zucchini, and bread stew made by Sofia, which was far and away the best meal I had in Lisbon and the second best in Portugal (more on the best once I get to writing about Porto). On the way back, we stopped in Belem to get a pastel de Belem, an egg custard tart that’s kind of THE secret recipe of Portugal. No one knows what’s in it, they just make good guesses. That night, we all ate at the hostel, where we got some soup, home-fried chicken, olives, and mango sorbet with berries.

Lunch the next day was pretty basic, since we were leaving around lunchtime: just a pepsi and a ham and cheese sandwich at the train station while we waited to go to Porto.

Dinner 5/13

Dinner 1 in Lisbon: Grilled Octopus, boiled potatoes, and stewed greens.

Snack 5/13

First food in Portugal: um nata (a custard pastry sprinkled with cinnamon) and um galao (think a cappuccino with less foam).

Total cost: 2.50 euros. Totally worth it! Can't remember the name of the cafe, but we were the only non-Portuguese people there. It's near the cathedral, so I might try and find it again tomorrow.