butter toast

octopus rice

cookies cake

pork à la alentejana

pork steaks with ‘shrooms

chocolate salami

palmier

mom’s marmelade

mom’s tomato jam

sweet bean tartelet

pão d’ul

P.’s mom meatballs

pumpkin’s smoked sausage

galão

punched potatoes

limiano cheese

natas

broa de mel

berlin ball (the real ones!)

codfish burger with açorda

burger with potatoes

fancy french pastry

another french pastry

strawberry-profiterole pie

grelos (broccoli rabe)

butter croissant

cheese/ham toast

croissants

butter toast

jesuíta

chocolate croissant

salmon with chestnuts

another berlin ball

pastel de nata

alheiras

meia de leite

my stomach is grumbling already!

when i make these lists, i get the feeling people might think we only eat crap… well, it isn’t true. what you see here is a glimpse, a condensed version of the more interesting things me and P eat. the other stuff, the plain omelettes, soups and other very mundane dishes are not that interesting, and are therefore omitted. believe it or not, all in all, we eat quite decently. :)

meiadeleite

croissants

salame de chocolate

bola de berlim

jesuítas

broas de mel

pastéis de nata

bola de carne caseira

doce de tomate da mãe

alheira

bifinhos com cogumelos

bacalhau à qualquer coisa

francesinha!!

leite creme

pão

bolo rei de chocolate

sonhos

pataniscas de bacalhau

bacalhau à brás

meias de leite & croissants

ucal & croissants

medronhos

pão de ul & regueifa doce

queijo limiano & marmelada

yes, we have a slight obsession with portuguese croissants (booo to puff pastry croissants!), traditional pastries and bread. and codfish. i suppose there’s no food like the food you grew up with, eh? what does your mom cook when you go home? :)

it never gets old! :)

they’re a few weeks old and really curious about everything. they’ll pull your clothes to get your attention, hop around and even escape the barn if given a chance! their eyes are a little creepy – but did you know their rectangular irises gives them a 320 – 340 degree vision? that’s right, they don’t even need to move their head to see practically everything around them!

we’ll be in portugal for the next couple of weeks, crying on friend’s weddings, soaking in the sun and the warm embraces of our family and friends, and trying to resist the lure of delicious cholesterol. wish us luck!

currently lurking and without many words to share. this too shall pass.

we arrived to ljubljana late last thursday, after a pretty intense 3-day roadtrip across portugal, spain, france and italy. we got good weather for traveling, mostly sunny/cloudy weather, with no rain, and lots of lovely autumn views.



noted on the way here:
* we crossed a thousand different versions of seats, citroens, renaults and lancias… but also lots of luxury brand suvs (bmw, mercedes, audi) which, given the current gas prices, is quite odd.
* in italy, you collect a toll ticket at the border with france, proceed to cross the country, and then pay the toll fee on the border with slovenia – it’s brilliant! in france, we stopped 12 times to pay toll fees…

* why the hell is portugal the country with less speed cameras among its neighbours? don’t we have one of the highest traffic accident rates in the world? :/


* i was expecting tunnels on this trip, but nobody prepared me for côte d’azur. it was kilometer after kilometer of tunnel-bridge-tunnel-bridge-tunnel-bridge… bridges are ok, but i don’t like tunnels that much… at a certain point all i wanted was to stop right there and let paulo drive… why is there never a service area when you need it?

on a positive note, our car handled the trip without breaking a sweat!

so we’re here, discovering the city and looking for a place to stay. more updates when we get that milestone accomplished :)

like ovos moles, for instance, which i had never tried before. so let’s do this!


before though, i should warn you that traditional portuguese desserts or sweets are known to be made of dozens of eggs and a ton of sugar, and ovos moles is no exception. moderate consumption is advised.
ovos moles’ origins are tied to several convents in the beira litoral region, where the nuns used the sweets to strengthen the patients. it is said that the reason most conventual sweets use lots of egg yolks is because the nuns used the egg whites to iron their clothes, making them whiter in the process :)

so, on a recent visit to aveiro, we got a box and took it home, to properly enjoy. aveiro is a river/seaside region, so ovos moles are wrapped in various shell motives and often offered in small boats or decorated barrels.

the outside layer is dry but melts in your tongue like the wafers they give in mass. the inside is where the sweet action is. it tastes of eggs and sugar, naturally, and one of this tiny things will be enough to kick your body into instant sugar rush :)



so now you know! they’re quite nice so go get some if you’re in town! :)

angeiras and some other beach south of porto, 2009. i really missed this.

success! joão found it!

we started geocaching a few months ago, following tips by mundoo and vera. in shanghai there wasn’t much to hunt and besides, people are everywhere and they’re especially curious of us, the foreigners acting suspiciously…

another one found!

joão checks his gps coordinates sitting on a... turtle rock?

"that way!" "no! down there!"

it’s fun, there are caches everywhere, and it makes another great excuse for a roadtrip! :) who knows what you’ll find?

:)