Our short little intermission is over now, so back to Portugal. From Faro, we flew into Porto. We were in Porto for five days. We didn’t arrive in Porto until the early evening, so all we did was check into our hotel and find a place to eat. Larry really wanted to try one the national Portuguese dishes, Francesinha, and Porto is known for that dish. We asked the reception desk at our hotel where the best place to go was and he told us to go to Brasao. So we did.
Brasao was a hoppin’ place, with 2 floors. We ended up on the lower level floor.
I love plates on the wall as decoration. I have them on our dining room wall too. Many are from our travels and some I inherited from my parents and are antiques. We added a new one from Portugal after this trip too.
Our starter was another bread and olive plate, but this time, the olive dish contained some fresh capers as well. YUMMY.
Larry is not much of a wine drinker at all, but he will drink white wines. I love ALL wines, but whites are definitely my favorites. The wines all over Portugal were very inexpensive, and it was cheaper to buy bottles than glasses. Needless to say, we tried a lot of very good Portuguese wines on this trip.
We needed some veggies since Portugal, like Spain, is very carnivorous, so we ordered a salad. NOT that we needed extra food though, by any means of the imagination! Portugal is known for serving VERY generous portion sizes.
We both ordered the francesinhas, but I had mine without cheese. They made it even meatier than normal by wrapping it in a layer of ham. 🙂
A francesinha is basically a MEAT sandwich smothered in a layer of tomato sauce made with beer, port and brandy, covered in cheese with a fried egg on top. It’s got a piece of bread, a layer of ham, a layer of sausage, steak, more sausage or ham and more bread. Very low in calories too. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Larry loved it so much, he actually had it a couple more times during the rest of the trip too. I will be making some this weekend too, here at home; both versions. 🙂
We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner and the recommendation to Brasao. Everything was delicious and the staff was on top of everything, as busy as they were. Nothing was forgotten and everyone was made to feel very special. That’s exactly how a good restaurant should be too!
We had to take both the train and the bus back to our hotel, and after such a large meal, we definitely needed to walk off some of the calories. So we took our time, and took in the sites. These are from the main train station. There were lots of azuljelos on the walls, telling the stories of Porto and Portugal. I love how ornate everything was.
And we got real used to seeing this church covered in tiles too. When we saw the church, we knew our day was almost over, and we were just a short distance away from our hotel. After long days, with tons of walking all around, at the end of the day, it was a very welcomed sight. 🙂
I still have lots more to share. Don’t go anywhere. Stay tuned. Live life to the fullest. It’s not the destination that matters, but the journey. Enjoy the ride. Have a great day and make everyday great. ‘Til next time.
A Jeanne in the Kitchen 