Tromba Rija

Two weeks ago we decided to take a family road trip and we went to two beautiful towns named Óbidos and Alcobaça. It was such a nice day, because we got to walk around the towns, talk, have coffee, relax and also we ate dinner at a very special place.


First we went to Óbidos, where I have been before, but I was about 9 years old, so I only remembered a few things. I loved this place, because you can see the castle and walk on the big wall that surrounds the whole town. The houses are painted white and have different coloured stripes on the sides. This makes the streets so colourful and lovely. Also I was amazed by all the different flowers and trees. We found a little antique book shop where we spent about 30 minutes looking around and also we ended up buying a few books. I bought a portuguese cooking book which has beautiful big pictures in it and I am thinking about trying one or two recipes. I think it is better to go this time of the year, because it is not crowded by tourists, it is just quiet and you can really see how the local people live there.
  

The beautiful view of Óbidos

The red and blue striped houses

The antique bookshop 

Then we went to Alcobaça where we saw the Alcobaça Monastery that has a beautiful church and a garden inside of it. We had coffee in front of the Monastery, but then it was time for us to go to the restaurant that we have picked for that night.

Alcobaça Monastery

The restaurant Tromba Rija

This little trip was a few days before my father's birthday and we knew we were going to celebrate it with the whole family on the actual day. But we wanted to take this chance and have a little mini celebration. In the antique shop my father saw this book that was called "10 best restaurants in Portugal" and he read about this place called Tromba Rija in Leiria. Lots of guide books recommend to try it. The book said that the owners of this restaurant grow all the ingredients for the meals in their own garden, soo we were expecting a farm. It turned out to be this little restaurant in the middle of a small town with 5 or 6 tables which was a quiet and intimate place. The owner lady was serving us with the help of a waitress. The walls were covered with thank you notes from people who loved the food and the place. On the menu it said that the restaurant had been open for 51 years. 

The owner lady started by showing us to our table an then explaining how the whole dinner was going to be. This was a "degustacão", which means that they serve you a whole range of the typical food of the region. 

First we had three courses of appetizers like bread with butter, tuna and olive oil, clams, shrimps, cooked chestnut (which was so good I'm going to try making them myself), local melon with ham ... 

There was also a table full of different cheese that we could try before of after the dinner.

Next came the main course which was duck flambé with arrugula and rice. The duck was so soft and heavenly and the arrugula matched it perpectly. 
Then they brought a fruit plate full off fresh and delicious fruits like mango, pineapple, grapes, strawberry and kiwi. 

When we finished, we went to the dessert table where we could try different desserts like an apple cobbler, arroz doce, chocolate pudding, passionfruit pudding... All of them were so good and I wanted to eat more and more, but I was so full. :)

Then they brought diferent nuts and a tradicional drink called Amêndoa Amarga that is an almond liquor that they put in the freezer so when you drink it it's iced and also they squeeze a little lemon juice in it. We liked this drink so much that the next day my parents bought a bottle and we've put it in our freezer. Everything that we ate was amazing and by the time we finished we were so full that we couldn't move, but none of us had any regrets!

My family and me at Tromba Rija

I love going to different restaurants and trying interesting and new food so this night was very exciting for me. I also like sharing these experiences with you guys. This place was definitely a memorable one and I really do recommend it to anyone who visits Portugal and loves to eat A LOT! 

instagram: http://instagram.com/breakfast_at_katas/

twitter: https://twitter.com/breatkatas 

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

tumblr: http://breakfastatkatas.tumblr.com/

Tomato soup

A few years ago I went to Ireland with my family to visit some friends of ours and of course I loved it. Some people might not like this rainy weather, but I do, I believe that it is part of Ireland's charm. We went to this cafe/bar where we ate soup with baguette sandwiches and I can still remember how good it was. I don't know if it was the fact that I was very cold and the soup was deliciously hot, or that I was extremely hungry, but either way it was a "soup to remember"! I tried recreating this soup and I think I got pretty close to it. So this is what I'm going to share with you now.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cloves of garlic
1l of tomato purée (paradicsompüré)
100-200g cherry tomatoes
0,5l of water
10 dkg of carrot
2 bay leaves
oregano, pepper, slat
100 ml cream (tejszín)
Worcester sauce  (optional)

For the sandwich: 
butter or cream cheese
ham
cheese
baguette (toasted) 

In a big pot heat up some oil and fry your garlic until they are light brown. In a blender, blend the cherry tomatoes, until it becomes a sauce consistency. Pour the tomato purée(I recommend using tomato purée for a better taste but tomato juice also works, just make sure that you don't put water in the soup) and the mixed cherry tomatoes into the pot.

Pour in the water, add the bay leaves, oregano, pepper and salt to your taste (also pour some Worcester sauce in it, but this step is optional). In a separate pot cook the carrots, blend them in a blender as well and then pour the mixture into the soup (the carrot makes it more creamy and gives it an even better taste). The last step is to stir the cream into the soup and you are done.

To make the sandwich start by toasting the baguettes and buttering them, then put some ham and cheese in them. I usually make this sandwich simple, because the soup makes this dish special and also this is the way I had it in Ireland, but you can go ahead and add any other ingredient you'd like.

2012, Ireland
In front of the cafe/bar

Try this soup and sandwich on a rainy day and I promise it will turn your day around. If you do make this recipe 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: http://instagram.com/breakfast_at_katas/

twitter: https://twitter.com/breatkatas

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

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