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.
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| The beautiful view of Óbidos |
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| The red and blue striped houses |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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!
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| 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!
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