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The (mostly food) edition
This post was first sent out from the Tiny Letter we set up after we moved to Lisbon in 2017.
Hello friends,
So as we’ve started to relax after the hectic few months that surrounded us extricating ourselves from our home in Dublin and making a home in Lisbon, we’ve begun to try different places to eat out.
One of the tougher things about upping sticks, as anyone who has emigrated will know, is having to start your spice collection basically from scratch (although Ben’s mum recently sent Nathalie back with a giant bag filled with little packets of spices 🙏).
It’s been interesting to see what we’ve missed and went to the trouble of hunting down. So far, we’ve managed to find:
- Glood aka expat homesickness shop. Sadly, their Mexican section only consisted of a few Old El Paso kits (which Nathalie wasn’t above buying)
- Mex Grocer, where we picked up lots of dried chillis, Mexican sweets, and even some hominy to make our first ever Pozole (which was fucking great) [+ recipe here if you fancy it]
- Lisbon’s Martim Moniz area has a few Asian markets, where we nabbed garam masala, sesame seed oil, pickled mango etc.
- Other staples we tracked down included Maldon sea salt, black pepper (surprisingly hard to get), bottles of Guinness (made in Belgium, still good)
In general, we’ve been really impressed with the standard of food in Lisbon. We’ve had great grub in greasy spoons, fancy restaurants, chains and even shopping centre food courts. Traditional Portuguese specialities (and pastries!) are plentiful and delicious, and there’s a strong showing of international cuisine too. Some recommendations below!
🍝 5 delicious dinner spots
- A Taberna Rua Das Flores: Teeny tiny restaurant; a tapas-style menu is brought to your table on a huge blackboard, you pick a bunch of stuff, drink lovely wine and have a pleasant surprise at the size of the bill.
- A Cevicheria: Hip and trendy spot (and not as cheap as most places in Lisbon!) almost the entire menu is mouth-wateringly tasty and exciting ceviche. For extra points, get drunk on the street on decent cocktails while you wait for your table!
- El Clandestino: 3 mins walk from Cevicheria, this is an upmarket Mexican. We liked the micheladas 🍻 and the tacos al pastor 🌮. Can’t wait to go back with a gang!
- Boa Bao: Asian tacos? Kinda? We’ve only been for lunch, but have vowed to return and explore more of the menu.
- Stop Do Barrio: We were put onto this neighbourhood spot by some lovely local friends. They do a monkfish and rice dish which Ben hasn’t stopped talking about for weeks.
☕️ 3 Great places for coffee
- Copenhagen Coffee Lab (where we are right now!)
- Wish Slow Coffee
- Kaffeehaus
🤝 Nathalie’s favourite places for meetups and chats (which handily all happen to be about three minutes from each other)
☘️ 5 things Ben misses from Dublin
- Salt & Vinegar Hunky Dorys
- A pint of Guinness (such a cliché 🤦♂️)
- Zaytoon
- Kerala Kitchen
- His family and friends or whatever
The weather here has been pretty up and down for the last month or so – not as bad or disruptive as Dublin, but still inclement. We’re hungrily eyeing the temperature charts for April and May, eager for things to clear up and get warmer, so we can start exploring the outdoor delights of Lisbon.
We’re looking forward to hanging out with some of you over the next 6 weeks, as we have lots of family and friend visits between now and June. Can’t wait to see you!
Until next time,
N&B -
The one where Ben and Nathalie find a home, watch sunsets, eat pastries
This post was first sent out from the Tiny Letter we set up after we moved to Lisbon in 2017.
Hello friends,
First, thanks for signing up to find out what we’re up to here in lovely Lisboa. While we love chatting on WhatsApp, Instagram and FB Messenger (haha, just kidding, Messenger is the worst), we thought it might be nice to try and do something a little more old fashioned; akin to sending you postcards, except this way we can include emojis and don’t have to buy quite so many stamps.
So welcome to our first dispatch, let us fill you in on what we’ve been up to…
🏡 We found a (temporary) home
While the housing situation here in Lisbon isn’t quite as bad as what’s going on in Dublin, it can still be pretty tough to find an apartment. Like so many European cities, Lisbon is becoming increasingly overrun with Airbnbs, which not only makes it tricky for newcomers like us to get long lease apartments, it is sadly making it very tough for Lisboans to afford to live in their own city.
We managed to nab a five-month lease in a quiet neighbourhood near the historic Graça; the area is mainly locals and pensioners, but it’s pretty, with easy access to coffee and fresh fruit, and is handy for getting into the city centre.
💻 We worked. A lot.
We landed here in early December and it was a total blur of work-eat-sleep-repeat as both of us were working to some insane deadlines. We barely managed to squeeze in a custard tart, let a alone some proper exploring. January was much more civilised, with lots of getting to know our new ‘hood (Nathalie has a little recap blog post here) as well as other neighbourhoods, as we tried to figure out where we want to live once our lease is up.
The heat was briefly turned up again on us both in February for a couple weeks, with Nathalie heading back to Dublin for shoots and Ben crunching to get the game his company is working on over the line (it’ll be out sooooon and he can hopefully reveal all then).
✅ 5 things we learned
1. Hills hurt unconditioned calves (but you get used to them pretty quickly)
2. There’s no need to buy orange juice. You just pick up a handful of oranges from the local frutaria and squeeze ’em in the morning. It’s amazing.
3. You want ants? Just leave a single crumb of bread, or leave the bin open for, like, a second.
4. We now know the best place to get those famous Lisboan custard tarts. We will tell you if you visit.
5. Sunsets don’t get boring. They just don’t.
😍Current favourite places🥪 For brunch:Dear Breakfast, a gorgeous little cafe that doesn’t believe you should wait until the weekend for brunch (amen to that).
🍔 For burgers: Ground Burger not only have delicious burgers and a huge selection of craft beers but the most insanely tasty home-made vanilla milkshake. It’s been almost two weeks since we went and Ben is still talking about it.
🗞 For an indie mag binge: Either Hello, Kristof, a coffee shop packed with amazing mags for you to read (and some pretty tasty cakes too) or head straight to Under the Cover to buy independent mags to keep.🌮 We’ve also tried a borderline embarrassing number of Mexican restaurants, look out for a roundup in a future dispatch!
Love yiz and see you all soon!
N&B
