Xmas in Portugal - Day 2: Good Food and Conversations

Our Lisbon adventure continues on another bright, crisp day. After breakfast we walk up to the shopping district of the Avenida da Liberdade. 

We reconnect with our friends Bruna and Antonio, who we met last summer, over lunch at Pinoquio, a well-established seafood place near the Rossio train station. Rekindling a friendship requires some good meals and some good stories, and today should be full of both.

The place is busy, and all the servers seem to be older gentlemen in well-worn maroon sweaters. We have peel and eat shrimp, clams in broth, prawns in garlic butter, and a seafood rice dish – all fresh and wonderful. We talk about what we've been up to lately and our plans for Christmas, and we talk about the food.

Then we take a walk for coffee and tea at the cafe of the Verride Palacio Santa Catarina, a recently updated boutique hotel. The hotel is gorgeous; the cafe is in the new penthouse atop the old palacio. The coffee is very strong, and and views of the Tagus are stunning. We discuss ideas for the future and what we might be doing in a few years, and we talk about other restaurants in the area with views (like Tagide).

We stay to catch the sunset from the Miradouro de Santa Catarina.

We gather again for dinner is at Ao 26, a lively vegan spot down a quiet street near the Museu do Chiado, where we are joined by Ieda and Miguel. Though not the first place I might think to eat, the vegan plates are inventive and truly tasty: a colorful cheese and paté plate, mushrooms in broth, a vegan burger with awesome sweet potato fries, polenta with pumpkin and mushrooms, and a rich risotto. Antonio asks each of us to share a memory of something bad that we did as children that angered our parents. We talk about the line between good and bad behavior, how those things can change over time or with perspective, and what kinds of lesson we can take from our stories. It's heartening to meet such generous and energetic people.