Saluti! – Carole and Claire toast@Maré Viva, Porto Brandão
One of our favourite places in the Lisbon area to have Sunday lunch is across on the south side of the Tagus at Porto Brandão at the Maré Viva restaurant. Porto Brandão is a short ferry ride across the Tagus from Bélem.
Yesterday we had an excellent lunch there with a table by the window that looks out across the Tagus to Bélem and the exquisite Torre de Bélem. We started with clams with garlic and coriander and prawns in garlic. Main course was arroz with shellfish and monkfish. As so often we drank the Vinho Verde (a blend of Alvarinho and Trajadura) from Muralhas de Monção – this time the 2011 vintage. Although not as fine as a good pure Alvarinho, the Muralhas de Monção works very well with this sort of fish lunch.
2011 Muralhas de Monção
After lunch there was time to wander slowly around the small village of Porto Brandão and then sit by the waters' edge while waiting for the ferry back to Bélem.
Across the Tagus to the Torre de Bélem partially obscured by a swooping gull
Church bell
A day for washing clothes...
Two fishermen – one baiting a hook
View to the 25th April Bridge across the Tagus and Lisbon beyond
Pontoon chain (above and below)
4 comments:
When I first visited the region, possibly back in ’92 or ’93, a kg of alvarinho would be paid a 50% premium above other varieties, in escudos at that time. It reached .... over 10 vol% potential alcohol. Waw. And red vinho verde was much more abundant than white. A queue of tractors of over 4 hours was waiting outside the plant at the Adega of Monção, at picking time, their trailers full of grapes and .... wasps and bees by the ton! Still some very decent crisp white wine was already made. Now, Jim, I share your enthusiasm for good Vinho Verde. Problem is, it is seldom seen abroad (maybe in UK, I don’t know) as the main market there still lies with the restaurants of the Portuguese diaspora ... hardly the best show-room. By the way, ever tried cryo-extracted “Quartos de Resteva” sweet wine? They now have a plot of early ripening “vinhas largas” which work miracles ....
Luc. Despite your occasional idiocracies I'm prepared to make considerable allowances given your admiration for good Vinho Verdes.
Idiocracy, say you ?
Well, in Flemish, the term is “eigenwijs”, litterally “own wise”, wise in my own way.
I couldn’t agree more.
No, seriously: your blog takes a very long time to down-load, probably because my PC is an old one with only 504 Mb of RAM and the firewall is demanding more and more space as time goes by. As a result, you’ll find me less present – a blessing for your readers – not because I lose interest but due to the time (we’re talking a good 5 or 6 minutes, repeated at each change of page) it consumes. Sorry about that. Improvement in my equipment is not the first monetary priority right now.
Thanks Luc. Sorry to learn that you are struggling with a a charcoal fired computer.
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