Food Review: Pabe

We dined at Pabe, a darkly-lit and cozy Portuguese restaurant with a striking (and strange) medieval-knight decor. Fellow patrons were enraptured by the televised “football” game while we feasted on salty, dried codfish cooked with onions, and grilled sea bass lightly seasoned with lemon. For desert we had the chewy chocolate and almond cake that was more almond-y than chocolate-y but delicious nonetheless.

East of Baixa

The walk uphill to the Castelo de Sao Jorge was worth it; exploring the castle which is situated so far from the city was a peaceful way to spend the afternoon. The castle’s perfectly manicured grounds, the monument’s stone walls and open-air spaces as well as the views of the city made it a serene place to admire all of bustling Lisbon beneath us. While visiting the Miradour de Santa Luzia and nearby Largo des Portas do Sol where the statue of St. Vincent, the city’s patron, stands holding a ship in his hand, we explored Alfama. A neighborhood where damp laundary hangs outside to dry, streets are so narrow they are pedestrian only, and children run along dogs without a leash or collar, Alfama felt, in a word, dodgey.

The natural light was perfect as we approached Se Cathedral; its stone exterior looked yellow as the sun set behind us. Built on top of a mosque, I expected to but didn’t find any art work or architectural details betraying the building’s Moorish predecessor.

Food Review: Casa do Alentejo

On the Rua das Portas de Santo Antao, we lunched at Casa do Alentejo. The restaurant’s two vastly different decors give it its unique cultural flavoring: Moorish, as well as Old World Communist. The restaurant’s entrance is easy to miss, but upon pushing the heavy doors and climbing up the scarlett-carpeted stairs one enters an open-air, indoor courtyard decorated with palm trees, a small fountain, and blue & green tiles. However, the restaurant itself was once a Communist ballroom and feels like one- smoke infested and in need of a facelift. The menu lists authentic Portugese seafood dishes. After cheese and sausage starters, we dined on the grilled turbot with tarragon butter and friend codfish with potatoes. The turbot was simply prepared whereas the codfish was the opposite: drowning in a spicey tomato and onion sauce. Both dishes were a great introduction to Portuguese cuisine for Americans eating their way through Europe.

Lisbon

Soon after arriving in Lisbon, M and I began our visit by walking down Avenida Liberdade to Praca dom Pedro IV, around which central Lisbon revolves. It is an expansive plaza which later in the evening was swarming with locales eager for the weekened festivities to begin. Blue and white tiles, azulejos, are sold in what seems like every other shop in Lisbon, but only in Lisbon did I notice the outside of buldings decorated with the same tiles that decorate the interior. Whereas tile work is an integral part of Spanish and Turkish design as well, only in Lisbon are a smattering of houses designed with tiles from the outside as well.

The Rossio, partly due to the fact that it is closed for rennovation, is perhaps the prettiest train station I’d ever seen in our travels. Baixa is close to the water, and after walking through the Rua dos Portas de Santo Antao, a pedestrian-only street, we approached the Rio Tejo, dodging street merchants along the way. The highlight of our trip to Lisbon was taking a ride on the Elevador de Santa Justa. From the highest point in Baixa we could see Se Cathedral and Castelo de Sao Jorge in the distance and the Praca Dom Pedro IV below us. Next door was the Carmo Church whose flying buttresses reminded me of the Cathedral de Sevilla or the Haghia Sophia but on a much smaller scale.