EATING OUT IN LISBON

MONTE MAR

As much as our goal was to relax we did manage to get out to explore but not a whole lot farther than our hotel's neighborhood. I'm sure Lisbon has much more to offer than what we could manage to tackle in the few days we were there but we were by this time a bit travel weary and glad to stick by the hotel for the majority of our stay.
We did manage to get out for two great meals. On our first night it was way to late for us to even think about food but on the second night we were ready. Lisbon means fish and fish is what we were looking for. Rick's usual process is to do a ton of research on restaurants in the cities we're going to; this trip for whatever reasons, not so much. In Lisbon we laid ourselves at the feet of our hotel staff to direct us to local restaurants where we could eat as the locals eat. There were times in the past where this worked and other times when we were directed to restaurants where a kickback was involved. We trusted Julie so we asked her for a good fish recommendation; this time it worked.

The restaurant she recommended was located right on the water and came with a view of Lisbon's Golden Gate Bridge.  The bridge is an exact replica of San Francisco's iconic landmark minus a few hundred feet.

At the Monte Mar Lisboa we were seated at a table right on the water. The waiter placed menus in front of us before he retreated to give us time to look at their offerings for the evening.  The menu was exactly what we had hoped for, a fish menu that sent us on a sailing ship of oceanic sized appreciation.

I started out with melon and prosciutto. A pretty simple dish but one that can be pretty mundane if the melon isn't at that precise point of sweetness. This rendition of prosciutto and melon was pitch perfect. Rick chose the calamari. It was the only disappointment of the evening.

For the main course there was no way we weren't going for the fish, but I need to qualify this. I'm not a real fish eater. I'm a one bone and I'm done kind of guy but I really wanted to try while in Lisbon. Rick wanted Branzino and the only way to get it was to order it for two. We went for it. We asked to have it prepared with a salt crust the same way we had it done at Nana in Rome.

We waited and waited almost coming to the edge of being upset with the length of time between courses when the branzini finally showed up. It came out in a blaze of flames. They flambéed the whole the fish and then paraded it out to our table in a head turning moment., forks dropped and diners at adjoining tables stopped eating and talking to stare at the presentation. It was a wow moment!

Our waiter than deboned the fish and plated the fillets.

It was served with boiled potatoes and steamed spinach.

Our verdict: It was a tie with Nana for best Branzino ever. I doubt we'll be able to match this experience back in the United States but we're ready to lay down the gauntlet. Did you hear that America? Look at Rick's face if you need a clue as to our seriousness. The challenge is on.

And you thought we were done. No. We both decided we weren't getting up from that table without doing dessert. I had a caramel meringue topped with berries that was served warm. It was both lite and smooth

Rick is normally out of the restaurant before dessert but he's always deferential to my sweet tooth. This time he ordered as well and chose a chocolate mousse. He licked the bowl before we left.

Sated and tired we had the staff call us a cab and we were back in our bed before the next day began.
















SANTELMO

On our last night we really wanted to find something that would seem local and particular to Portugal. We also wanted an early dinner and something close by since we still needed to pack and get ready for our flight back home. We asked the hotel and they gave us a suggestion that was just down the hill but still required us to get out our GPS to talk us through the streets and alleys we'd need to walk to get to the restaurant. Lisbon was not our favorite city. Maybe we never gave it a real chance. It's a huge city and we were restricted by the amount of time we were going to be there and the fact that we weren't really willing to travel much beyond our hotel. Lisbon reminded us of New York in the eighties. It always felt as if there was a layer of dust and graffiti over everything.

Once we got to the restaurant we started to wish Julie had been behind the concierge desk when we asked for a recommendation. It looked more like a Dallas BBQ joint than someplace that was going to serve traditional Portuguese fair. Besides it was seven and it wasn't going to open until eight. We decided to chance our culinary divining rod and hit the off streets.

That's how we found Santelmo, a tiny little restaurant with no more than a dozen tables, dimly lit with the quintessential Portuguese tiles lining the walls.

By the time we arrived they had only one table left at the back of the room. Our table sat in front of a small garden housing one lonely table. A set of French doors that could be closed separated the garden from the rest of the restaurant.  The table in the garden was reserved for smokers, the French doors closing preventing their smoke from disturbing the rest of the diners.

The menu was varied and definitely Portuguese. Our waitress spoke perfect English and knew what to order and what we might not find satisfying. She suggested the wine then disappeared saying she'd return for our order.

When she returned she not only had our wine but the Portuguese version of a muse bouche: marinated Portuguese olives, pickled carrots, a cheese board with several local choices, a plum gelee, prosciutto and melon bites, bread and crackers and an amazing soft cheese with a pumpkin jam. This would have been more than enough to qualify as an appetizer but we weren't about to stop there, at least not on our last holiday meal.

It's called Pica-Pau that translates literally into "woodpecker" because traditionally you are to use a little spear to pick out the pieces of beef and pickled vegetables. The version of Pica-Pau from Santelmo added parsley and olives all swimming in a delicious sauce. We wanted regional and we got it and it was worth the wait.

We weren't about to veer from what we knew was Lisbon's forte. It was going to be fish again and we weren't disappointed. I went for the Sea-Bream. It earned me my badge in fish filleting and I conquered my fear of tiny bones. With a little guidance from the master I filleted this one on my own. I still eat fish really slowly and I chew each bite a minimum of fifty times. It may not make me the best dining partner especially if you're in a hurry to move on to dessert but it works for me.

In our meager meandering around Lisbon it became visually obvious that octopus was as typical to the Portuguese as fried chicken is to the South. It was an important part of most menus and there were restaurants that specialized in the Jules Verne giant of the sea.

Rick, the most adventurous and diverse eater in our family had been dying for the tentacled delicacy and he finally got the reward at Santelmo. At Santelmo it came roasted in a buttery sauce and laced with pea shoots and surrounded in a ring of a balsamic reduction. It was sweet and meaty like lobster but without the work involved to dig the meat out of a shell or a claw. It wasn't fibrous or chewy but had more the texture of a scallop. There are certain dishes that one should only eat in the area they come from. For Rick octopus was one of those dishes. That night Rick was very content that I was a slow fish eater. It gave him the time to savor his Portuguese octopus.

By the time we finished our dinner a line had formed outside the restaurant. It was after ten in the evening, a time when many American restaurants have already closed their kitchens. Not in Lisbon on a Monday night.

SLEEPING WITH MADONNA

PALACIO RAMALHETE

We decided well ahead of time that Lisbon was going to be about nothing more than our hotel, sitting by the pool and food. We pretty much stuck to our guns. Originally we had made reservations at a heritage site hotel. Online the hotel looked regal. It sat high on a hill in the old section of Lisbon. No cars were allowed and the path to the hotel was only accessible by a golf cart. This time I did read the fine print. It didn’t have a pool. This just wasn’t going to work. At the very last minute we canceled that booking and booked another hotel. It had a pool. We were sold. Turns out it had a lot more. 

Since we had been delayed way beyond our scheduled arrival Julie, one of the hotel’s concierges, was waiting for us standing at the landing in the vestibule when we did drag ourselves in. The hotel is small. Though its website states sixteen the hotel only has twelve rooms, twelve beautiful rooms, along with  exquisite common rooms. It had been built as a residence for some Portuguese royalty back in the late eighteenth century and converted fairly recently into a hotel.

History permeated the grand manor house. Julie wouldn’t let us go to our rooms without first taking us on a little tour. Even as tired as we were we acquiesced.

The original tile work alone was enough to make us fall in love with the hotel. All of it was kept the way the original royal inhabitants had so beautifully had it appointed. The effect was both elegant and comfortable all at the same time.

With only twelve rooms the hotel relies on a small staff that seem to do everything. The reception area is nothing more than a desk and chair with a small table from which Julie poured us a welcoming glass of Prosecco before saying, “Follow me”.

Our first stop, glasses of Prosecco in hand was a series of lounges on the same level as reception. Julie guided us through each with tidbits of information along the way.

The first sitting room contained a built-in hutch that served a dual purpose: one purposeful and the other secretive. In addition to being a display area for royal treasures it also opened to reveal a hidden staircase for servants or a secret tryst. 

In that same room on another wall a portrait of young woman holding a cat stared blankly across the room.

I don’t know if it was the Prosecco but the girl in the portrait bore a strong similarity to Madonna’s daughter. Whether it was intentional or a coincidence is actually a real question. Julie wouldn’t say for sure but she had a story to go along with it. The hotel only reopened as a hotel several months ago. For eighteen months prior to reopening the entire hotel had been rented out to Madonna.  Yes that Madonna. Either she was doing some house shopping in Lisbon, or had already bought something and needed a place to stay while work was being done, or she was contemplating buying the Ramalhete and redoing it for herself. We don’t know. All we knew was we were going to sleep with Madonna that night … well sort of. 

With existing details like the ones that run through the hotel, it’s no wonder the style icon, Madonna, was interested in the Ramalhete. This is a hotel that could make a garden hose look stylish casually draping it in front of a tiled niche with a stone sculpture of a young maiden.

Lisbon is built on a series of hills. Walking around the neighborhoods of Lisbon is similar to trying to navigate a walking tour around San Francisco. Fifty percent of the walking you do in Lisbon is directly up hill, the other fifty percent is down.

The buildings of Lisbon seem to follow the same vertical pattern and our hotel was no different. Because of the age of the hotel and the slope of the hill it is built on getting to some of the rooms and the hotel’s pool required climbing several flights of stairs all leaning back to follow the upward and backward thrust of the landscape. There was no way of adding an elevator so the staff happily trudged each guest's luggage up to their rooms. It was a task we were very thankful the staff took on.

There were two suites right off of the pool. We got one of them. Our room came with a patio and lounging chaises making a place by the pool always available to us. The pool might have been small but it was a short hot skip into its cool waters.

The Palacio Ramalhete should be on everyone’s radar. We got lucky and caught it early but I’m guessing once the word gets out booking a table in the breakfast room is going to have to be done well in advance.

BREAKFAST

Normally breakfast would warrant a line or two in a blog post for most of the hotels we’ve stayed at but the setting and the spread at the Ramalhete was so enticing here that I decided to break it down and give it its own lead in.

Breakfast was served on three different levels of the hotel. There were two sun drenched patios were you could sit and then the main dining area that spilled into two rooms

We took our morning repast inside in the room next to the serving area. It kept us out of the sun and closer to the food. Rick’s breakfast was pretty similar each morning with eggs over easy, stewed tomatoes and mushrooms, a crusty loaf of bread and fresh orange juice. He usually followed up his first course with a slice of orange cake and a tall glass of iced ginger tea with lemon and honey made specifically for him. You can take the boy out of the South but you can't take the South out of the boy.

I'd hit the fruit cups that varied from day to day with whatever was freshest in the market. I’d spill the fruit into a bowl and then smother it with the contents of those little canning jars.  I’m guessing here but I think the jars contained creamy yogurt laid on a bed of honey and chia seeds and then sealed with a berry jam. I have no idea if this was some traditional Portuguese dish or not. I did see the same thing in the window of several pastry shops that gave me the impression that maybe the dish wasn’t as healthy as I thought.

The hotel bar served as a buffet for some of the breakfast offerings The bar top was lined with cheeses and meats, fruits, breads and some of the sweets Lisbon is famous for. There were two additional tables where the hot meals were set out in chafing dishes along with various drink options. All of this was spread out on white linen tablecloths.

It was certainly a step up from Motel 6.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, however I can find no way that a beholder would have been unable to find the beauty in the Palacio Ramalhete

Certainly Rick and I were total entranced by its beauty and found the relaxation we were looking for under a Portuguese sun.

THE STAR ALLIANCE LOUNGE

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU'RE DELAYED

To get from Barcelona to Lisbon was going to take two flights. In concept it didn't seem too daunting but in the real world things don't always turn out as planned. First we were going to have to go from Barcelona back to Rome. We had purchased our original fights to and from the United States to Rome with points through TAP Portugal Airlines. Flying TAP meant we wouldn't have a direct flight but traveling TAP also meant that we could take advantage of their stop over option. The airline allows you to stop in Portugal for an indefinite amount of time between legs of your flight. Since the flight we paid for was to Rome and since we were now in Barcelona and since we were taking advantage of the stopover option we needed to fly back to Rome to get on the first leg of our flight back to the U.S. Our flight from Barcelona to Rome was on a different airline and was to leave Barcelona at 9:40 in the morning arriving in Rome at 11:30am.  Our connecting flight in Rome going to Lisbon was scheduled to leave at 5:05 in the evening. It meant we would have a substantial layover. We calculated that adding the time necessary to pick up our luggage, transport it to another airline that might be in a different terminal, recheck our bags, and clear security for a second time might take up a good portion of that time. The extra time was our safety net. It was a necessary evil. We might have to sit around the airport for an hour or two but we were resigned to that fact. We were set, right?
Everything with the first flight and transfers went as planned. We got to the airport on time. We got our bags checked in. We found our baggage return area. We got to the correct terminal for our TAP flight and checked our bags to Lisbon. At the same time I found our flight listing on the departure board Rick's phone buzzed with a new text message. Delayed. 5:05 had been moved to 6:05. We've been there before. We had an instant plan tucked in our back pockets from similar delays in European airports.

TAP is a Star Alliance member airline. If you're traveling on an airline that is a Star Alliance member you can gain access to their lounge. If you are flying first class or business class you have free access to the lounge. If like us you're only flying economy plus you can still pay to get into the lounge. Since we were now looking at around six hours of sitting in one of the airport waiting areas we decided the cost of entry into the lounge far outweighed the discomfort of hard airport seats in the holding pen. We anted up for what would have been the equivalent of a cheap hotel.

Now nothing was going to bother us and the pain of a delay would only be a nuisance. The lounge in Rome came with quiet areas where we could kick back and rest uninterrupted.

There were areas set up for working if you found yourself with enough layover time to pound your computer or write that novel you've been promising to do.

The lounge was beautifully appointed with an amazing food bar and coolers filled with soft drinks, water and beer. All of this is included in the fee we paid. A luxury hotel like setting, all the food you could eat, all the specialty drinks and alcohol you could swallow, free wifi and a waiter that would come around every fifteen minutes to clean up after you was by far worth the price of admission!.

As time went by and it was announced that our flight would be delayed an additional two hours we emailed our hotel in Lisbon to let them know they should notify our driver to make him aware of the delay. Then we headed for the pizzas and bruschetta.

We had way surpassed the cocktail hour so Rick started in on his vodka and seltzers and I stuck to some white wine. The bartender got to know us way too well. He started regaling us with stories about how all his boyfriends were Brazilian. That was an eye opener.

Travel can be as difficult or as fun as you want to make it. The quote on the wall by S. Augustinus is how we like to look at travel. "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."

At 9:05 in the evening we finally boarded our plane to Lisbon. With the hour we got back by traveling west we were in Lisbon by 10:30 and in bed at our hotel before midnight well fed and hydrated thanks to the  Star Alliance Lounge in Rome.