Another early start for a foodie walking tour Rita had organised.
I hadn’t slept that well, with vivid dreams of trying to get fertility treatment. This is an old dream I used to get, I think it was triggered this time by the story our Spanish friend told at dinner last night of finally getting pregnant after 15 years of trying, just as they had finally been approved to adopt. Anyway, my headache had gone so I was all good to go.
We had one guide between the six of us, so that was nice. She was a tiny lady, originally from Argentina, so actually a native Spanish speaker. That was helpful for our friend from Barcelona. Spanish and Portuguese are obviously related but they aren’t the same.
The tour was three hours of walking around downtown Lisbon, trying lots of different local foods and drinks. Our first alcoholic beverage was just before 11 so I wasn’t joking about how seriously they take their drinking here.
Our guide, Cecelia, said that there are three religions when it comes to food in Portugal: sugar, fish, and pork. As far as drinks go, coffee is as important as the alcoholic drinks.
The things we ate and drank:
A tiny strong coffee with a filled doughnut called a Berliner, which was brought by immigrants during WW2, and an icing sugar coated sweet bread/cake
thin slices of dried cured ham, similar to prosciutto
a cherry liqueur, nicer than it sounds, inclusive of the cherry
Slices of hot pork in a bun
for lunch: rice with fish; cod in a ball with potatoes and onion (a gateway dish to get children into eating fish); and fake pork sausage that was actually chicken and bread (so that Jews could hide the fact that they were Jewish), all eaten with wine.
Tinned sardines (for later)
custard tarts.