Lisbon Snack-Bars

After the UK road trips something slightly further afield ... LISBON!!! one thing that I love about travelling is sampling the local food culture and my current favourite is the Portuguese "Snack Bar". These are like a mixture of social club, bar, pastry shop and cafe. As an introduction to Portuguese life it was fascinating sitting and watching the patrons come and go, nipping in for a quick espresso and custard tart before heading back out to street.

My first experience was at the Milu restaurant where the local speciality sausage Alheira was recommended. This was a tasty sausage dish with chips, pickled cauliflower, shredded carrot, rice and topped with a fried egg. Very nicely spiced sausage and English chip shop style chips. The pickled vegetables were a bit of a shock if you were not expecting them! ;)

Alheira, ovo, batatas frita

To be honest I wasn't that sure what to make of the Alheira ... or what was in it! It was tasty and filling though.The proper chips were a revelation, I kind of expect everywhere to do the healthier fry style chips outside of the UK. These weren't quite to the standard of beef dripping fried chips that you get in the North East, but not far off a decent Southern chippy back home.

The next experience was the Pastelaria Snack-Bar O Farnel Restaurant where the lunch menu included a hot plate and drink for €5. I chose the pork chops that were marinated and grilled. Served with chips and carrot salad. The meat was surprisingly tasty and well cooked, part of the charm of the Snack-Bar is that it has a rough and ready unpretentious nature .... I'm sure back home this dish would be presented a bit better and charged out at about £10 

Pork chop

Further Reading

Alheira on Sausage Wiki

Alheiras de Mirandela recipe