The food! For me that is arguably one of the most important parts of travel. Many of the places I desire to go are based on food… ok, and wine. Lisbon is full of pastry shops. Little neighborhood shops have an amazing array of pastries, sandwiches, and super strong bica (shot of espresso). The most popular pastries in Lisbon are pastéis de nata, a creamy custard tart in a flaky crust. Sprinkle a little cinnamon on top, ugh… it is amazing.





You know when you go to a restaurant and have a really great meal that’s so simple you think you can easily duplicate, but you just never get it right. I’m pretty sure that’s going to happen with my meal at Noo Bai Cafe. Hello goat cheese and tomato sandwich on grilled bread drizzled with honey.

We stumbled upon Cervejario Pinoquio while we were out wandering around. The patio and pitchers of sangria definitely draw you in. The menu was not in English, so we just winged it based on the few words we knew and it worked out extremely well. Their sangria is hands down the best I’ve ever had and those olives were soooo good. The hunt for Portuguese black olives is on.

I was nervous about the wine situation in Portugal, only hearing about Port and other sweet wines. We must have lucked out because every wine we had was delicious and dry. We tended to stick with wines from the Douro region, which ended up being the house wine at many of the cafes and kiosks. I’m pretty sure I ordered an (insanely cheap) glass of vinho tinto 10 times a day.