博客何飛：@Lisbon- On Culinary

I was thinking about the other day that, despite hundreds of destination we could choose, why we just couldn’t help but going back every so often to the same places where we had spent our holidays in. I guess the key is, that place, is actually not just a place – it’s a place that you feel strongly connected to and that you always hope to be one of the witnesses to see how that place evolves as time goes by. Lisbon is one of my same places. It’s just like we’ve shot a scene in the same location dozens of times -almost the same –but each time is actually a bit different and captivates us in its own original way. The only thing that it’s never changed, when we look at these dozen of shots, in the case of Lisbon, is the poetic flair which is ingrained in this city -something so fundamental and so Lisbon.

Since the first time I visited to this very west end from the very east end, the city has been evolving in a beautifully introspective way. Even the sun looks more agreeable and tips more forwards, making this city just glow confidently like never before.

The recent journey I’ve made see all these on-going rehabilitation and restoration projects happening in this city: from traditional recipes to modern culinary; from air-conditioned shopping malls to stores full of flair; from tram and metro to shared bikes and tuk-tuk, up and down different viewpoints and at the riverfronts of this seven hills. Portugal is now coming to a period of Now or Never- the past glory of Portuguese history, traditions and culture just come to the forefront again, recollecting the past emotions and unfolding them one by one by different local creators with their contemporary interpretations. And, just like the dozen shots, we see this scene and just, uncontrollably, want to press our shutter, time after time.

On the culinary front, the scene is impressive. This year, 14 restaurants in Portugal are recognized with Michelin stars and 4 of them are located in Lisbon. But, honestly, whether the restaurants are officially starred or not, the trip to Portugal guarantees one of the most wonderful time for enjoying what their authentic cuisine has to offer, especially if you’re adventurous enough.

I, particularly, would like to high-light the adventurous spirit here because, culinary experience, like many other sensational experiences, is actually very personal-our feedback on it is more about referencing and reflecting who we are other than the menu itself. The Michelin stars guide can barely give us a brief picture of what the culinary scene of this place represents. But, in order to get the best of it and more importantly, the right ones for us, we have to be more intuitive and exploratory about what we choose. Or else, we might just end up whining unfairly.

Before we left for our trip to Portugal, I was on a mission to secure some must-try restaurants over there. Under time pressure, I had chosen and reserved 3 places for dinner. Out of these 3, 2 were starred restaurants and the last one was actually decided based on the impression of the photos I’ve got from a contact of LX factory last time when I was travelling to Portugal. Telling from those photos, that restaurant looks retro and homey and very much a reminder of the Goldfinch restaurant we have in Hong Kong-the ambience and style that I am always drawn to.

As it turned out, for the two starred restaurants we’ve tried, I can say, one of them was just a misfortune. But, to be fair, it could also be our fault. This restaurant is run by a renowned chef and it is housed under Casa de Cha de Boa Nova –an amazing architecture completed by Alvaro Siza in 1963 and was transformed into a restaurant in 50 years for this Portuguese chef. The architecture is situated on a rocky terrain facing down the seaside and it’s a perfect place to enjoy a fining dining experience with this breathtaking view, especially on seafood, during the day time. Unfortunately, we’re not able to go there for lunch as it’s close every Sundays, but spending the dinner there means we were not able to see anything outside but darkness. We were, of course, not exactly savoring the food in the dark, but I believe that somehow it did affect how we felt about the food, as we put our whole sensational focus on nowhere but the food (mind that we also just arrived in Porto after 14 hours of flights). We chose the seafood menu but, unfortunately, they turned out to be, seemingly, flat salty. Like an unrequited love, the wine was not able to pair up with the dishes at all, in one way or another.

The other starred restaurant, which we had quite a high expectation on, was being put strategically as the “save the best for last” dinner for our stay in this city. The tasting menu options of this restaurant offers 2 narratives –which is an intriguing concept but at the same time, it actually takes 2 important circumstances to make the story sounds compelling (especially if the story is not based on an abstract concept but history and regions). First, the inter-connections among these plots have to be very tight and relevant. In this regard, it’s the composition of the taste, texture of the food and chemistry of it with the wine in each round and how each round of dish relay to each other to form a complete story that do narrate. As to the second circumstance, it’s actually a bit passive and has more to do with the customer’s personal reference and experience. If the customers don’t have the emotional connections and personal reference about what the narrative is trying to say, it would be even harder to enjoy the very best concept this kind of tasting menu has to offer, which is nothing but-to remember. The “Viru” tasting menu which I experienced at Astrid y Gaston in Lima is an example. That culinary experience still holds firmly in my memory, as I was having that particular tasting menu right after the epic trip around Peru. I could relate strongly to each round of the dish and the idea behind, from Plateau to the Ocean; from Amazon to the Desert. They created the concept through a thoughtful journey starting with a video and ending it with a booklet which makes you really get a full sense of what the concept is all about, and it’s for you. It makes a difference.

But, every cloud has a silver lining. And, that’s how being intuitive is always important.

In between these 2 starred restaurants, we spent a dinner at Casa de Pasto which is located in Rua de Sao Paulo in Cais do Sodre –one of the most happening neighborhoods in town at the moment. This restaurant is housed on the 1st floor of a 19th century antique building wherein the interior design and decoration gives you the feeling of surreal time shift, recalling the 19th century Lisbon. The first impression, as I was entering into this restaurant, was that, I was as if being in a scene of an old Portuguese movie, arriving at some character’s home. Those plates that are put up on the wall reminded me the time I spent with my friend at her kitchen, talking about how the family, as tradition, passed on the plates from generation to generation –which in Chinese Culture –would do the same but just not the plates. As to the wall paper, though the pattern looks oriental in some sense, it took me back to 1950/60s home decor period the way it naturally mingles well with the rest of the furnishings and interior design over there. Some scenes of the old TV dramas were lingering in my head-it’s quite a scene found in vintage soap opera.

With this down to earth yet fused with fictional ambience this restaurant gives, I was curious about how they use the contemporary approach to reinterpret and deliver the traditional Portuguese gourmet experience in the present time. And, in that regard, I was very lucky. Just 2 days ago before the date of the reservation we’ve made, I had contacted Diogo Noronha, the chef who’s in charge of the restaurant, and was trying to see if he’d be available for a short chat in that evening. As it turned out, the chat was not that short even by the Latin standard and he spent time with us over our dinner, not just explaining the concept behind this, but also quite light-heartily handled and managed all sorts of requests and questions being bombarded by us. In the end, he had chosen and curated a culinary journey for us with different dishes, pairing with different wines. As the conversation had been continuing to flow along the dinner, touching upon multi-dimensional subjects, from culinary concept, management vision, philosophy, international politics to travel, life and belief, I am not quite sure if it has magically further enriching the taste of the food and its chemistry of the wine, but we definitely feel that it’s a delectable journey with a voice of its own and his team at the kitchen has done a wonderful execution of the work. In fact, I felt very completed after tasting the last glass of this special wine from Madeira-it was kind of explosive, and then suddenly, the previous tastes of each dish I tried before came back out after this blasting experience. It’s an enticing finishing high-lighting once again the simple, elegant and inclusive characters of the gastronomic experience I just had.

In fact, whenever I mentioned the food and restaurants that I visited in Portugal to my friend, I always mentioned my experience with this wine. Almost all of them thought I was crazy and what I was telling them just sounded unbelievable. Well, perhaps, it was circumstantial but then, feeling is believing.