Culinary Backstreets Food Tour - Food, Glorious Food

Tuesday October 17 was a wonderful day for walking.  It had rained hard during the night - a much needed rain and the humidity was gone.  It was sunny and the high was a comfortable 22C.

We had a rendez-vous with Célia from Culinary Backstreets at 9:45 a.m. for our food tour called Lisbon Awakes: A Culinary Crossroads, Reborn.  Alain and I have taken Culinary Backstreets tours in Barcelona and Athens.  Their first city for tours was Istanbul.  We had wanted to take a tour there but they were booked when we were in Istanbul.

We have found them to be extremely informative and the places they choose are quite interesting and often off the beaten tourist path.  The tour guides have built up a personal relationship with the shopkeepers. They also focus on the intersection of food, culture and the history or a city or country.  They do a lot of research into the local cuisine.

We had a 30 minute walk to the meeting spot at the front gate at the Jardim da Estrêla (Estêla Garden) in the Estrêla neighbourhood.  The Garden is one of the city's most beautiful parks and is opposite the Basilica da Estêla, founded by Dona Maria I in 1779 as an offering for the birth of a son.  It is a neoclassical masterpiece.

Entrance into the Garden

Basilica da Estrêla

Our first stop was a small bakery Doce Estrela, where we had a coffee and some local sweets.

First stop-Doce Estrela

Cinnamon treat

Célia asked one of us to draw a map of the world.  Ann, who has a map business in the Algarve, drew a fabulous map.  Célia traced the roots and extent of the Portuguese empire and the foods that became part of today's Portuguese diet.  We learned a lot--- for example, the chilli peppers found in Brazil (found by Portuguese discovers by accident) entered Portuguese cuisine and also found there way east to Gao (another Portuguese colony) and entered the cuisine of Asia.  Coffee, of course came from Brazil.  Fascinating food history.

The food map with Portuguese empire

We took a short walk through the park, where there was a wonderful bandstand that is still used for concerts.

Bandstand

Hibiscus Tree

Old tree trunk 

Cacti

En route to our next food destination, we passed A Tentadora, a café which Célia told us had been a place where refugees hung out during the war.  We had walked into the Campo D'Ourique neighbourhood that used to be its own village.  It is a lovely neighbourhood and has an interesting history.  It did not become part of Lisbon until the 18th century.  Initially it just had workers' homes for the Alcantara factories.  The revolutionary movement of October 5, 1910 that overthrew the Monarchy and implemented the Republic began in Campo D'Ourique.

Célia explained that the food tour had moved to this area as the Chaido area downtown had become overrun with tourists.  It was wonderful to have the tour in a real neighbourhood.

Outside of A Tentadora Café

Lovely tree-lined street

We stopped at a tiny corner neighbourhood store where Señor Antonio minded his shop.  He has been there since 1945 and is now 88 years old.  The store dated back to the 1920s.  He drives to work everyday.  His secret to longevity was three meals a day, a glass of red wine and keeping active.  We sampled a sweet cherry liqueur called Ginja, which originated in Lisbon.  It is a Portuguese favourite and was considered a wonder cure for all manner of illnesses.

Senor Antonio with the bottle of Ginja

Mid morning drink

Showing us the cherries in the bottle

Mercearia Celta

Doorway to the small shop

We headed to the Mercado de Campo de Ourique, a wonderful market that was renovated in 2012, before the Time Out Market which we visited on Sunday night.  Lots of wonderful stalls with treats.  

Mercado de Campo de Ourique

Our favourite fish- Dorade (sea bream)-- note the bright shiny eyes on the Dorade and red snapper- gorgeous fish

A big monk fish

Lots of choice and very fresh

Cleaning fish

Cuttle fish (a delicacy and more expensive) and octopus

Modern stalls, very clean and good lighting

Honey purveyor

Lots of chilis

Roasted nuts -- we had a few samples and
I bought some nuts in flor de sal

We bought some canned sardines in tomato sauce here

Our next stop was a small place in the market where a few old-timers were having late morning small glasses of red wine. We sat down for a plate of canned sardines and canned mackerel.  The canned fish industry is huge in Portugal and people will eat canned fish for lunch or an appetizer for dinner.  The fish was excellent.

Carlos serving canned sardines in tomato sauce

It was then on to a lovely restaurant called Europa which had recently been remodelled.  The staff were very friendly.  We shared plates of octopus salad, chick peas and cod, and three different sausages (blood sausage, chorizo and one other).

Europa restaurant

Wonderful octopus salad

Chick pea and cod

Three different types of sausages- wonderful flavours

Alain and Célia at Europa

We had a very good bottle of Vinho Verde called Vila Nova, that was crisp and dry.  These appetizers were followed by grilled sardines and potatoes.

Célia showing us the wine

Grilling our sardines over charcoal-- so good

Alain with his sardine and salad

It was a wonderful stop, but we were far from over. We needed a bit of a walk.  We passed a lending library in an old phone booth.  A bright new coast of red paint and a small book shelf that people can either take books out or put books in.  Very cool.

Cabine de Leitura (reading booth)

We also saw a beautifully equipped playground in one of the neighbourhood parks.

Well-equipped playground

Another old tree

Turtles and a pigeon standing on one of them

Swimming turtle in the small pond in the park

We passed two of the old houses that workers from the factories had occupied.  One had been remodelled and the other was unoccupied and rather dilapidated.

Our next stop was a small restaurant called Xurrex, which served chicken piri-piri.  The owner had emigrated from Angola in 1975. during a period when many Portuguese returned to Portugal from the former Portuguese African colonies.

Xurrex

The chicken was roasted over charcoal and served with delicious french fries.  Yum!!

Célia, Grace and Ann with the chicken piri-piri

We walked some more, passing many buildings with interesting tiles.  One had two different patterns on different floors.

Our next stop was an amazing old 19th century pastry shop called Panificacao Mechânica.  There was a beautiful chandelier, many intricate tiles on the wall and fabulous pastries.  I just had a café, but the others had treats.

Treats at the wonderful bakery

Wonderful old setting

Detail of tile with grain pattern

Our next stop was in a building run by a Cooperative called A Padaria do Povo  (People's Bakery).  The building dates back to October 17, 1904. Starting in 1959, it operated as a bakery for many years-- now there is no more bread baked in the old ovens.  The upper floor has been restored as a restaurant with a lovely patio with grape vines.  There is also a hall that can be used for weddings.  The owner whom we met briefly wants to eventually restore the bread ovens.  A very cool hidden place as from the ground floor one would not know about the upper floor use. 

Building that houses A Padaria do Povo

Unassuming entrance on main floor

We stopped for samosas (a Goan specialty) and Carne de Vinha D'alhos (the Portuguese name for a meat with wine and garlic dish).  Vinha d'altos was taken by people from the Portuguese islands of Madeira and the Azores to the Americas.   The curry dish vindaloo is an Indian interpretation of carne de vinha d'altos, which had its origins in the former Portuguese colony of Goa in Portuguese India. 

Célia with the food map and our treats

Outside part of the restaurant with Grapes

The Adega & Sabores Cheese and Wine store was next. We had a goat and sheep cheese tasting with a lovely bottle of red wine.

Lovely cheeses, wine and craft beers

Our cheese tasting

Célia, Ann, Grace, me and Alain- Cheers to Lisbon

Our final stop was the Aloma bakery for a final café and a pastel de Nata.  The bakery had won the best Pastel de Nata award for 2015.  While the Pastel de Nada wasn't our favourite of the trip so far, they were still very good. A perfect way to end a wonderful food tour.

Célia kindly walked us back to the park where the tour started.  We passed a bookstore called Livraria Ler.  Célia told us that the bookstore had a secret room in the basement where banned books were kept and sold to trusted customers. during the Salazar regime.  Apparently, the police raided the store a number of times, but never found the secret entrance.

Livraria Ler with secret hidden room for banned books

The tour was superb-- a great mix of history, political, social and food-related, and wonderful food, from venues we would not have found on our own.  It was also great exploring neighbourhoods far from the maddening crowd of tourists.  We would highly recommend Culinary Backstreets.

Toiling worker in the park

We were all tired and absolutely not hungry.  We headed back to the apartment to relax.  A few hours later, we just had a small snack and called it an early night.