lisbon ii. turning nineteen somewhere else
Last year, on my birthday, I cried for about an hour and a half at 11 p.m. for absolutely no reason. Despite this, last year’s birthday was incredible. I’d have to say, though, that I don’t think any birthday can top what I was fortunate enough to experience yesterday. I absolutely love Lisbon, and eating, strolling, and writing my way through the city is a fantastic way to spend the hours.
The day started with a trip to a local gym. I think that the people who go to the gym I’m temporarily using in Lisbon are quite upset by the pool of sweat I keep leaving under the elliptical machine. But such is life with a stress fracture in the femur.
After the gym, though, was where the fun began. Because it was time for brunch. Sidebar, holy shit, do I love brunch. Brunch is always a time of joy for me. There’s just something about the concept that naturally emphasizes enjoying both large portion-sizes and enjoying the people you’re tackling those large portion sizes with. Writing this is making me deeply miss my friends at Georgetown, many of whom are also brunch fiends. See you guys soon.
Brunch at Neighborhood
Neighborhood, a small brunch spot in Lisbon, is known for their breakfast burritos, but I was really in the mood for pork. I’m rarely in a ham-heavy mood, but being in Portugal means that I want to get as much cured pork in as possible. I had a pork and Swiss cheese sandwich, with a side of scrambled eggs and a PB-acai smoothie. The pork and Swiss sandwich hit the exact spot I needed it to; it was nice and crispy, the cheese was well-melted, and the pork tasted salty and very fresh. The scrambled eggs were fluffy, and definitely a solid side-dish option. However, the smoothie was certainly underwhelming; it didn’t feel very intentionally made.
Sandwich: 8.5/10
Eggs: 7.5/10
Smoothie: 6/10
Overall: 7.7/10
Mini Egg Tart (Pastel de Nata) from Mantaquiera
I wrote in a previous post about the fact that I was looking forward to getting a Pastel de Nata from a more acclaimed bakery. My expectations were met at Mantaquiera. Their Nata was sweet, creamy, and wrapped in a beautiful, flaky exterior.
Nata: 9/10
Dinner at Bairro de Avillez
Jose Avillez is a widely-acclaimed Portuguese chef with restaurants around the globe. His menu features brilliant, fish-heavy dishes. I was particularly impressed by the restaurant’s bravery in terms of olive utilization. Bairro is one of his more well-known restaurants in Lisbon. The ambiance is definitely suited to a birthday dinner- it was lively, but also had a notably refined tilt that made us feel, well, like special little guys (because I am, of course, nothing if not a special little guy). To start, we had an impressive-as-hell bread basket filled with raisin-filled bread, corn-based bread, and a regular ole Italian bread loaf. The butter was excellent here. Next, we had a great tuna tartare. The fish tasted phenomenal, and had an avocado sauce on top which was a pleasant surprise. However, the bread-chip hybrid used for scooping had awful structural integrity. Finally, I had, for my main course, a fantastic combination of Cod and string-cut potatoes, tossed in a heavy cream and delivered in its own brass bowl for serving at-convenience. Atop the dish sat four “exploding olives” which burst in the diner’s mouth upon biting. This was a fabulous main dish. The fries and cod combined into a texture masterpiece, and the flavors balanced each other out quite well. The exploding olives were, as predicted, fun. They tasted like olives, of course— nothing surprising or remarkable, but good nonetheless.
Bread: 8.3/10
Tartare: 8.5/10
Cod dish: 9.3/10
Overall: 9/10
Pistachio, caramel, and chocolate gelato after dinner:
I love gelato. 9.5/10.