In the fall of 2022 I hopped on a plane to Lisbon, Portugal where I
would stay for a month. This was the first international solo trip I'd taken since 2016,
so I was feeling a bit out of practice but I was as prepared as I could be.
I arrived in the capital of Portugal on a beautiful sunny and warm September morning.
The Airbnb I stayed at was a little studio apartment very close to the Baixa-Chiado area.
Even though the apartment door is at street level,
when I look out the window at the other end I'm on the second floor because of the hills.
All the neighbours on the street know each other and I could always hear them hanging
out outside and the kids playing ball, which I loved because it had such a community feel.
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There were two little convenience stores or corner shops on my street run by some
very sweet and friendly locals who lived on that street. During my stay
I went a number of times just to grab some breakfast. [Music]
One of the first things I did upon arriving in Lisbon was to take one of
the free walking tours to get myself oriented and learn a little bit more about the city.
As many of you know, Lisbon is the capital city of Portugal, but did
you know that it's the second oldest capital city in Europe after Athens? Over the years,
many different groups of people have inhabited the city, including the Celts, the Romans,
and the Moors. The streets of central Lisbon, I felt, reflected its age. In many areas the
cobblestones are uneven, sometimes slippery with wide crevices in between the stones. It's
not an easy city to walk in when you add in the hills - you definitely need good walking shoes.
The walking tour ended in the Baixa district which is Lisbon's downtown
core and really the only flat part of Lisbon.
It's also very touristy and you can tell that many of the restaurants down the main street are
tourist traps, but there was a restaurant here a little more tucked away that the tour guide
recommended so I headed here for lunch. [Music]
Also in this area is the Elevador de Santa Justa, a lift that connects the lower streets of Baixa
with Carmo Square. If you don't want to pay the fee to ride the lift up you can actually
access the viewing platform if you go up to Carmo square and walk around behind the Carmo
Convent. The Carmo Convent is worth noting as it was damaged in the great Lisbon earthquake
of 1755. The roof collapsed and was never rebuilt and as such you now see the ruins of
this building built in the 1300s. We'll talk about the earthquake again in a later video.
Reaching the platform you get an excellent view
of Baixa, the Tagus River and St George's Castle up on the hill.
From Baixa I walked through Chiado, the shopping and theatre district. Here I found the oldest
operating bookshop in the world, declared by Guinness World Records. Founded in 1732,
the majority of the books sold here are in Portuguese but you can find a small selection
of books in English if you were so inclined. I was tempted to buy a Fernando Pessoa book here,
especially since they would put a stamp in it saying it's from the oldest bookstore,
but unfortunately it wouldn't have fit in my carry-on bags. In Lisbon it's almost impossible
to escape climbing the hills. There are, however, a few funiculars to help with the steepest hills.
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The funicular is a pulley cable railway system featuring two counter-balanced cars
on a hill. When one goes up, the other goes down.
The upside to the hills, however, is the multiple viewpoints you can get over the city and the
river. Speaking of the Tagus river I would highly recommend taking a boat cruise here. I took one
at sunset and it was absolutely stunning. I've heard you can see dolphins in the river as well.
Because I was in Lisbon for a month, there were a couple of other things to take care of:
laundry and groceries. My Airbnb didn't have laundry but luckily there
was a laundromat only a one-minute walk away. Down the hill, no less.
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With groceries I went to a few different places. [Music]
Mostly I got some microwave meals because they were easy and the small kitchen was not inspiring
me to cook much, but this I think makes for a good segue into talking about some of the
food I encountered in Lisbon. Let's start with the pastries. When you think of pastries in Portugal,
the first thing that will likely come to mind are the pasteis de nata, the Portuguese
egg custard tarts. The shell is crispy and flaky and the filling is sweet and creamy.
I had quite a few of these while I was in Lisbon and I think I narrowed it down
to two places that were my favourites. One of them is at Manteigaria. While this is a
popular place for the custard tarts, I managed to go early in the morning and
didn't have to wait at all. You can watch them making the tarts right in front of you. [Music]
And of course, don't forget to sprinkle on the cinnamon. My other favourite was from
the famous shop in Belém where the original recipe passed down from the monks who started
making them is kept a secret. You'll see this in my next video where I visit Belém,
but apart from the pasteis de nata there are countless other pastries that I saw in the
bakeries and there was no way I was going to be able to try them all in such a short time.
A few of the ones I did manage to try were the bola de Berlim which was like a sugar dusted donut
slash bun with custard filling; the Portuguese croissant which is very different to the French
ones in that the dough is much more like brioche; and the bolo de arroz, also known as a Portuguese
rice muffin because it is made with part rice flour. It tastes like a combination of muffin and
cornbread. When it came to breakfast it was fairly simple: a sandwich with a slice of ham and cheese
and some coffee or a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice is enough. In Lisbon pastelarias are
everywhere and they are a combination of a cafe, pastry shop, and a restaurant and are extremely
convenient. This particular one was close to where I stayed and I went there a few times. These shops
also usually had a prato do dia or a dish of the day, which is generally quite affordable.
Portugal is a great place to be if you like seafood. Another fish that I saw everywhere was
the sardine. At restaurants you could get grilled sardines usually served with boiled potatoes.
Canned sardines are popular as well I got some at the grocery store and ate them on bread.
I also had seafood rice, a hearty and saucy tomato-based dish with
lots of scallops, clams, and prawns in it.
Lisbon's Time Out Market is a popular tourist attraction and I visited it
near the end of my stay. Opened in 2014, it was the very first Time Out
market and it proved to be a great success. It features stalls from a
selection of what they've determined to be some of the city's best restaurants.
I went to one of the stalls hoping to get razor clams but unfortunately they didn't have
any that day so I just got regular clams.
Lisbon is not just about seafood though, one of the first meals I had in Lisbon was
at this tiny little restaurant tucked away on a wedge-shaped street corner which was near
my Airbnb. It was a simple and tasty meal of roast chicken, rice, fries and salad.
You might be wondering about piri-piri chicken at this point and yes I did have
it. I got mine with a side dish of Brazilian chicken liver rice,
and of course more piri-piri sauce because what really makes this dish is the sauce.
The sauce's origins are debated but it seems to have both South American and African influences.
Next, two popular Portuguese sandwiches. The first is very simple. The bifana is a
traditional cheap and quick sandwich often eaten standing at a counter paired with
a beer. It's basically marinated pork in a bread roll and in Lisbon and the
south of Portugal it's often paired with mustard. It really doesn't look
like much on camera but I promise you it was tasty and perfect as a quick lunch.
The second sandwich, however, is a lot more decadent. I showed up
at the restaurant as soon as it opened and ordered the original francesinha.
The sandwich actually originated in Porto and is made up of layers of meat topped
with melted cheese and egg and beer sauce and often served in a bed of fries. Wow.
This next one isn't food but a drink. Ginjinha is a Portuguese liqueur made from sour cherries
and this little bar A Ginjinha is supposed to be one of the first bars to sell Ginjinha in Lisbon.
You get the drink in a shot glass and you can choose to have it with the cherry or
without. Though I'm not usually a fan of cherry-flavoured things I actually
enjoyed this very much and would definitely drink it again. [Music]
This next place isn't exactly Portuguese but the story is somewhat unique to Lisbon
and of special interest to me. It was after reading an Eater article that I discovered that
Lisbon had an underground network of Chinese restaurants. When they first opened they were
secret unofficial restaurants that ran out of apartments. Nowadays, they aren't so secret
anymore and most of them are now legitimate but I still wanted to go check one out for myself.
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Last but not least, Lisbon also has its fair share of super trendy places
to eat at. I had brunch at Seventh, a restaurant that I walked by almost
every day as I headed out. The day I finally decided to try it,
It was pouring rain. Once I finally got in I got the Lisbon brunch which included scrambled eggs,
Portuguese green or cabbage soup, and Madeira traditional flatbread served with a hot beverage.
Stay tuned for the second part in my Lisbon series where I explore more of Lisbon's districts,
including the home of the original pastel de nata as well as the oldest neighbourhood of Lisbon.
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