I’ve not written for a long time because I’ve turned 30 which was an excuse to be ever so indulgent and go on a few trips/hotels/nights out etc. I will put some more recipes up soon but not before mentioning a few of my favourite snacks/drinks I’ve had recently. 

Chicken

In Lisbon, I ate sardines and drank port like the best of them but the meal of the trip had to be chicken and chips. We had crushed a few too many 2 euro beers the night before and sardines weren’t going to cut it that day so luckily I’d spotted ‘Casa da India’. It’s one of the places Rick Stein mentions in his ‘Long Weekend’ shows but I can safely say there wasn’t a tourist in sight! 

We squeezed into the restaurant next to a Portuguese family and had half a chicken each with some tomatoey rice and chips. The only sauce was the juice from the flame-grilled chicken. It was just such a simple and authentic meal/setting which beats any fancy-pants restaurant hands down. The entertainment was the incredible waitress serving 50-60 people at once! She really put my ‘not being able to hold more than two plates’ waitressing career to shame! I didn’t get a picture of the meal but look at the lovely men on the table next to us below. One of them held up their plate of cod and chips and recommended it to us (I think). After their dinner, the waitress brought them a bunch of sharp knives and a bowl of apples and I just loved watching them chat and dissect them slowly. 

Port

My grandad buys my mum a bottle of port every Christmas and I just associate it with that. However, drinking free-poured port in a quiet restaurant while watching Fado music is my new favourite way to do it! My friend and I wanted a female Fado singer to provide us with a bit of cultural feminism but we made our peace with possibly the most beautiful man we’ve ever seen in the picture below! Be careful though- port is stronger stuff when you’re not drinking it in a teeny-tiny granny glass! 

Bologna

Or should we say the centre of the food universe! It’s a small city so you only need to go for two days tops (plus you’d have to be fitted with a stent if you spent any longer there). But go. It’s rude not to visit the region where Parmesan cheese, mortadella and Parma ham was born. We ate: tortellini, tortelloni (big), Parma ham, mortadella, tagliatelle Bolognese and saucisson- in two days! Here are some pretty pictures of food shops to help labour the point…

Campari Spritz

FINALLY! A cocktail I can get on board with. As a bit of a real ale drinker (which is pretentious in its own right) I can find the whole cocktail scene a bit ‘wannabe’. Pornstar Martinis, Espresso Martinis and a Lavendar Martini I once had which tasted like pond scum honestly do not float my boat one iota. I’m a pretty clumsy person too so those tutti-fruity glasses are just not good for my chi. However, each night in Bologna and Rome I joined in on the tea-time ‘aperitivo’ and it was a genuine pleasure. Aperol Spritz is delicious but I find it tastes a wee bit too much like Iron Bru. So I opt for the more bitter Campari. I just loved them. For me, I got the real chic-of-the-week feeling others must get when they break their bank balances purchasing the aforementioned frothy, sweet pond scum creations. After trying to pay for the crisps, olives and other sundries a couple of times, I got used to the free buffets that came with each drink! I felt like Kit in ‘Pretty Woman’ when she’s scoffing the olives and cherries. 

Here is a picture of possibly the most ridiculous free snacks we got in Rome! Yes, they’re olives on dry ice. Dry. Ice.

And there we have it. Turning 30 has given me a lot of sore heads, good memories and an unfortunate layer of ‘podge’ that will have to be addressed for the upcoming nuptials next year!