Time Out Mercado da Ribeira

Last week was my elder sister's last weekend here in Portugal before she went back to University, so we made a family weekend out of it. We had amazing breakfast together, we went to the beach, visited friends, and we also watched old family home videos. For the last dinner on Sunday we wanted to go to a good restaurant and so we went to a place which is one of the best places I have ever been to. It is the Time Out Mercado da Ribeira in Lisbon. This big hall used to be a fish market (from the 13th century) and now it is like a big restaurant or stylish food court which has Lisbon's favourite food shops and restaurants.

When you walk in there is a big bright open space full of people (especially on the weekends). The outlook of the shops and restaurants have the same style, but they all have different food and drinks. You can walk around and look at all the open kitchens of the different stalls, and see, smell and experience all kinds of Portuguese specialities.

It is really hard to choose from all of the lovely looking food, but whatever you pick you can't go wrong.

Soup:

There is this fantastic soup place where every day there are 4 or 5 soups that you can choose from. We tasted a mushroom (with cheese and toasted onions), a mango (with almond) and a pepper soup(with toasted bread and bacon). All of them were amazing, but out of the three soups the mango was the best, because it was just the perfect combination of sweet and salty. Also I loved the titles of the soup containers. :) 

Mushroom soup

Mango soup

Pepper soup

Main cours:

For the main cours we decided to choose from various places. My older sister had pork (from the Alentejo region) with mashed potatoes, cabbage and bacon. I have never eaten pork that was so soft and heavenly and the bacon was just perfect with the cabbage. This dish was my favourite out of all. My mom decided to order a portuguese Bacalhau com natas which is an oven-baked dish made out of layers of fish (bacalhau), onions, potatoes and cream. My younger sister likes to keep it simple so she had a cheeseburger with fries. It is so simple but they managed to make something so mainstream so delicious. My dad ordered something more adventurous a Ceviche made from fish. :) It is made of raw fish with mango and some tortilla chips and salad on top. I tried the bruschetta wich was also very tasty. We shared all the food and tried everything we ordered and everyone agreed that the pork was the best of all.

Pork with mashed potatoes, cabbage and bacon.

Bacalhau com natas

Cheeseburger with fries

Ceviche

 Bruschetta

Dessert: 

We ate a lot of different food and so by the time we got to dessert we were full, but we couldn't miss out on the best ice cream. Santini has the best ice cream I have ever had. I always recommend it to people to try this place when they come to Portugal and nobody has ever regretted tasting it. I decided to have mango and raspberry and they were amazing, because they both tasted just like the actual fruit. My older sister had peanut and cantaloupe and my younger sister asked for a pancake with two scoops of ice cream on top (chocolate and chocolate chips).

We also tasted some macarons from another shop and we tried the peppermint, the chocolate and the coffe.

We had a blast, we laughed a lot and ate a lot and it was just great.I just loved everything about this place, the design, the food, the atmosphere the idea and the concept of it. I know that this wasn't the last time I went to Time Out Mercado da Ribeira.

A little father daughter arm wrestling

When you find out you are going to eat ice cream at Santini

I hope you've enjoyed this post and feel free to comment here on the blog, on facebook, on instagram, or on twitter. Have a lovely sunday! :) 

instagram: @breakfast_at_katas

twitter: @breatkatas

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/breakfastatkatas

Carbonara

There are so many times when I want to eat something filling but I'm too lazy to spend lots of time in the kitchen. These times I make an easy carbonara pasta, just like I did this weekend. I was tired from my week at school and I just wanted to eat something delicious so I made this quick and yummy dish. This pasta is also my little sister's favourite so she was more than happy when she came in to the kitchen and saw what I was making for lunch. 

I actually don't like this pasta in restaurants so I just make it  here at home the way I like it and now you can also make it if you feel like. It is a simple pasta so I recommend using a cheese with stronger taste like parmesan. 

INGREDIENTS:

0,5 kg pasta

2 cloves of garlic

5-6 stripes ham or bacon

250 ml cream

1 egg
salt and pepper

your choice of cheese ( I used parmesan)

Add some salt to boiling water, and cook the pasta in it. In a large saucepan on a medium heat fry your garlic and then add the sliced ham or bacon and let it fry also. Pour in the cream and add salt and pepper. Let that simmer for a 0,5-1 minute and to make it thicker add 1 egg. Strain the cooked pasta and put it in the saucepan and mix together the sauce and the pasta. Let it fry for a few more minutes (I also like to save half a mug of the water that I made the pasta in and pour it in the saucepan, but this step is optional). Put the pasta on a plate and grate some parmesan cheese on top and you are done. 

On a lazy weekend definitely try my carbonara recipe and if you do then make sure to write a comment or take a picture of it and upload it to instagram or twitter and also don't forget to tag me in the photo (instagram: @breakfast_at_katas , twitter: @breatkatas).

Zucchini and bacon pasta

If I had to eat one food for the rest of my life it would probably be pasta. It is one of the easiest and most delicious dishes. I make pasta for my family a lot because the pasta is done in 10 minutes and when you are making the sauce you can get creative. My trick is to put all my favourite vegetables in tomato sauce with some bacon or ham and that is it. I believe that you can never go wrong with pasta.

INGREDIENTS: 
250g pasta
1 clove of a garlic
1 zucchini
250g tomato souce 
3 strips of bacon (or ham)
salt, pepper and oregano 

Add some salt to boiling water, and cook the pasta in it. Meanwhile heat a large pan and fry your garlic in some sunflower oil until they are golden brown. Then add your zucchini and season them with some salt and pepper to your taste. When the zucchinis are a bit brown and soft then put them on one side of the pan and put the bacon (I used bacon which didn't have too much fat) on the other side and fry until they are golden brown. Mix the zucchini and the bacon together in the pan. Add your tomato souce and for a really nice taste, some oregano. Fry that for a few minutes and then add your cooked pasta into the pan along with a few tablespoon of pastawater. Let it fry for a while (a few minutes) and then serve it on a plate and add some cheese on the top. You are ready to serve. 

( this makes 4 servings) 

This pasta recipe is easy but has a little twist with the zucchini. I hope you make this recipe for your family and if you do please leave a comment or upload a picture on instagram with the #katasbreakfastpasta. (@breakfast_at_katas).