Lapping it up in Europe’s food capital
YOU know those places that lay on trendy ‘city beaches’ by dumping fake sand by the river as if they’re Rio or Miami?
I think of Paris and London (who lay on such metropolitan riparian amenities when the mercury rises) with fresh pity.
For this comes to you from Cascais, a mere 30 minutes from Portugal’s capital city, Lisbon, and yards from the following: groomed beaches the consistency and colour of powdered shortbread, where olive-skinned lovelies are – to use the technical term that seems right for once in this 27C April Iberian sunshine – skimpily ‘romping’ with a volleyball; a world-class museum quarter including an institution devoted to Portuguese artist Paula Rego; a fish market where today’s pearlescent sea creatures are being weighed and then slapped into a trundling conveyor belt of trays ready to be sold.
Hold on, I’m not finished! I’m also yards from several top fish restaurants, and later tonight I will toddle in my flip-flops to O Pescador and have the grilled fish platter – but only after I’ve stuck a card into a slot and piped a chilled Esporao from Alentejo into a waiting wine glass in the high-tech wine bar at the Villa Cascais guesthouse.
Why don’t all wine bars have the same help-yourself system? I really hope it catches on.
I’ve never been to a destination that genuinely has it all in such close proximity: beach, culture, city, ‘the nature’, and nightlife (although my idea of a good time is being in bed with my book by midnight, so go elsewhere for the best fado dives/nightspots).
I am just half an hour from Sintra, Estoril and Lisbon, so it’s possible to cram in many of the sights in a short time. In Sintra we took a tuk-tuk up the steep cobbled lanes to the dramatic Castle of the Moors, a storybook edifice on a crag that stares across to a real bake-off romantic showstopper called the Pena Palace.
After you’ve done the castle and palace, wander around and have a glass or two of vino and some tapas. You’ve earned it.
In Estoril, I flopped on the beach, swam, and drove past the famous casino, keeping my powder dry for the main event: Lisbon, the happening foodie capital of Europe. Lisbon is also hilly and reminded me of San Francisco thanks to its trams and hipsters. Indeed, it is so hip and trendy that Hollywood actor John Malkovich has opened a restaurant, Bica do Sapato, on the docks in Santa Engracia.
We also headed to the Bairro Alto, where all the restaurants my foodie friends recommended seem to be located, and ate at two of them with great pleasure and
usto. But we also just drifted round taking snaps of painted ams, of blue-tiled pastelarias ith their mounds of glistening ustard tarts, or took cityscape ctures from the various iradouros, or viewpoints. We hired a car, but it’s really not that necessary as you can reach almost everything from Cascais: you can walk to Estoril, and there is a fast train to Lisbon, and connections to Sintra, but I rather enjoyed Mr Toading around with the top down in the sunshine.
So here are my top tips. Stay in the Villa Cascais, Hotel Albatroz or Senhora da Guia in Cascais. In Lisbon’s Bairro Alto, the Ex Libris serviced apartments come recommended.
Eat in Gambrinus or Pateo in Lisbon, and in Sintra, we liked Incomum. We’ll be back.