Living With The Wild Boys…

As is customary at this time of the Jewish Calendar, on the precipice of the New Year, I have been conducting  a “Cheshbon Hanefesh” – an “Accounting of the Soul”. And, as always, there has been so much to reflect on over the past year.

A few weeks ago, I turned 54. On the surface, there is nothing particularly special about this milestone except that it is “Triple Chai”.  (For those who are not familiar with Jewish Culture, the 18 times tables are important because the number 18 is a numeric representation of the word “life” in Hebrew. It is traditional to donate money or give cash gifts in multiples of 18 for good luck). This reminds us to celebrate life, with all of its ups and downs. We are encouraged to embrace all of life, both the love and the loss, because we are grateful for being alive at all.

This basic philosophy seems even more poignant than ever for me. When I look around at what is happening in the world, it is a wonder that any of us can even get out of bed in the morning to face the day. Sometimes it feels so overwhelming. And yet, I do. Every morning, I choose to try and do the best I can with the things I can control in my life, and try to accept that there are many things I have absolutely no control over.

This is causing me to focus on things that bring me sparks of joy, no matter how small and insignificant they may seem. 

Here are some sparks of joy from the past year:

We started off our year with a family trip to Japan. 8 of us spent almost two weeks together having incredible experiences.  I won’t go into much detail here, as you can always look back in my blog if you are interested in what we did, but here are a few fun photos from our trip, there are too many!

Kassirer Boy update: Erez is finishing his last (6th) year of UBC in Materials engineering after completing his last 8 month coop placement. Zev and his fiancee, Mae are starting 4th year at Queens, He is in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty. Noam is in Second year at UBC in Kelowna doing civil engineering, and Teva is starting grade 11. All of them are huge sources of joy to me. We treasure any time we get to spend with them.

As usual, Our summer was filled with Ultimate Frisbee. We attended several tournaments to watch both Teva and Noam in Ontario. Unfortunately we didn’t get to watch Erez who was playing in BC. In August Teva competed in the Canadian National Junior Ultimate Championships in Edmonton. His team came in 10th place, 8 places above their seed and a great time was had by all. We also had a great time staying with the Conrad Family at their amazing guesthouse called Maggie’s Hill – We highly recommend it!

This summer I had the pleasure of helping Zev and Mae move into their new house in Kingston, I helped Noam move into his new apartment, and then we did the Ema cooking boot camp to fill his freezer. On the way home I took a quick side trip to hang out with Erez and we went on a beautiful hike. I also got to try a really cool restaurant called Maenam with Erez and Kerrie, and spend time a little bit of time with our cousins, Norman and Sandra Miller. Here are a few summer pics of the kids.

Aubrey is always a source of joy to me. He has continued to do what he loves at work, 2-3 days in the office, Family Medicine Obstetrics, teaching residents, being the curriculum lead for the Family Medicine residency program in Durham Region, palliative care, circumcisions, lumps and bumps clinic, urgent care, among other things. This year he was curling twice a week in the winter, and we have had lots of family time together this summer.

Fun Fact: After years of dreaming, I finally bought a used sailboat – a 1980s Bombardier 4.8 Dingy. Teva and I and Aubrey spent the spring fixing it up and finally got it out on the water. Unfortunately we seemed to have lost the mainsail after one time out. We may have left it on the side of the lake. As embarrassing as this is to admit, I thought that maybe someone on my list might have a lead on where we could pick up a used sail.

As for me, I continue to keep busy teaching Hebrew School, Bar/Bat Mitzvah lessons, and yoga. I have been officiating a variety of life cycle events in many different locales, and feel grateful for all the families I have had the privilege of working with this year.  I find this work so rewarding, and even in the sad events, there are sparks of beauty and joy as well. 

In other news, I am looking forward to going back to my African Drumming group, and now that Aubrey has turned 55, we joined the Bowmanville Older Adult Association (spouses are eligible even if they are not yet 55). He has no time to sign up for classes right now, but I have started Tai Chi and Intermediate Spanish classes.

I am wishing you all a sweet and happy and healthy new year to all of you and your loved ones, and may this year be better than the last!

Shana Tova Umetukah!

March 16, 2025

For those of you that have chosen to come on this journey with me, you will agree that this was a very varied trip. We travelled by car, bus, articulated electric streetcar, metro, vintage tram, 4×4, regular train, high speed train, e-bike, tuk tuk, ferry, and of course, many many kilometres on foot.

We ate all sorts of things, many we have never seen or heard of before. We have learned so much from so many people. Everyone was incredibly friendly and helpful when we needed it. My mind has been opened in so many ways by my time there.

And, as always, I know that there is so much more to see, and that I have barely scratched the surface of this beautiful country. I hope that I get a chance to go back one day and continue exploring.

Here are a few photos that didn’t fit in my earlier posts.

March 14, 2025

Even though we went to sleep late, we had to get up early to embark on our final day trip in Portugal. We chose to visit a town called Évora.

Évora has a long history going back to Roman times, and that was one of the reasons we wanted to go. Also, we had a strong recommendation from Harriet and Shelly, who had been there a couple of years ago.

After taking a modern electric tram, and a high speed train, we found ourselves in Évora by about 10:30am.

We walked about 20 minutes from the station to the centre square. Here’s a couple of things we saw along the way:

The centre square was left over from the Roman times. There were 8 different roads fanning out from this central location.

We walked to the temple of Diana first and read about these ruins. We looked at the view of the surrounding area from the “acropolis” of the town.

We then headed directly through the winding streets to our second priority, which was the Chapel of Bones. I had never heard of this before. The chapel inside walls and pillars are literally made and decorated with bones. We had an interesting conversation with Teva about how we felt about it vs. what the people then had intended by building the chapel out of bones.

With further research we found out this bone temple is the oldest in Portugal, but it is not the only one. Further, there are other similar chapels elsewhere in Europe. I have to admit, I had some trouble wrapping my head around this concept. Mostly because, in Judaism, there are many rules about the treatment of human remains, and this was counter to those teachings. 

There were several tours with guides coming into the chapel; I overheard one of the guides talking about how this chapel was a place for quiet contemplation. Having this huge group of people talking was definitely not conducive to any meditation. Also, there was a family who was on a loud video call in the middle of the chapel, trying to share the visuals of the chapel. 

This is a poem which was in the Chapel:

Where are you going in such a hurry, traveler?
Pause…do not advance your travel.
You have no greater concern than this one: 
That which is now before your eyes.

Recall how many have passed from this world,
Reflect on your similar end.
There is good reason to do so;
If only all did the same.

Ponder, you so influenced by fate,
Among the many concerns of the world,
So little do you reflect on death.

If by chance you glance at this place,
Stop … for the sake of your journey,
The longer you pause, the further on your journey you will be.

The chapel of bones was within another museum, so we went through it as well, seeing yet another ornately decorated cathedral covered in beautiful devotional oil paintings, figures, intricate carvings and archways covered in gold leaf and beautiful Azulejos (traditional Portuguese tiles). This cathedral was dedicated by the followers of St Francis, who originally came from the Galicia Region of northern Spain.

On our way back to the temple of Diana, we came across a very interesting building that Teva had spotted down an alleyway. We were trying to figure out what it was, when another couple had done the same thing. Turns out they are from Canada and have spent four months every year in Portugal for the past five years. Funnily enough, their son lives within two blocks of our house in Bowmanville. This is their first time in Évora. They were also wondering what the building was. I went close up to do some reconnaissance and found out it was owned by the military, and was not open to the public. 

We had a fantastic lunch experience in the Mercado building even though most of the vendors were closed for the day. There were a couple of restaurants open, including one called Pizza No Mercado. We got the burrata starter which was amazing. The pizzas were also incredible!

While we were eating lunch, I heard some music coming from inside the Mercado building. It was three men, sitting at a table in the foodcourt playing music. One of them had a ukulele and another had a guitar.

Here is small clandestine video I took (turn up the volume to hear it as I was a bit far away)

They also sang a song that David Broza translated into Hebrew Called “Kmo sh’at” or “Como Tu” in Spanish – not sure if they were singing in Spanish or Portuguese.

We wanted to see the Roman baths but they were closed for restoration, so we went to the Évora Museum next to the temple of Diana. There was a decent sized exhibit of archaeological artifacts from the area around Evora. Created in 1915, it traces Évora’s long history and culture, and was officially dedicated to Frei Manuel do Cenáculo in 2017. Frei Manuel do Cenáculo was an 18th-century monk who became the bishop of Évora and collected many of the archaeological pieces of the collection, which also includes art from extinct convents and churches.

There were a wide variety of artifacts, from many different eras. The amount of detail on these sculptures is amazing.

Also what was interesting were a series of “faked” Roman gravestone artifacts from the 15th century. They were created to detail a false and inflated history of Évora to generate more interest in the area, possibly bringing business in from far way.

On the second floor was an extensive exhibit of devotional oil paintings from different chapels and cathedrals. Many were actually painted by Friar Manuel Cenáculo, Archbishop of Évora.

One of the highlights of this museum for me was an exhibition of some of the work submitted in the 25th International Youth Art Meeting.

From the museum plaque:

“Students of Art Schools from Albania, Germany, Bulgaria, Hong Kong, China, Croatia, Egypt, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Russian Federation, Hungary, India, Israel, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine, with ages between 7 and 18 years old, participated in the contest phase of this 25th International Meetings of Youth Art, whose theme is “The wondrous sea depth”.

From this phase there was a selection of the best collection that defined the representations to be present in the activities to draw and paint Évora, in open studios in the city streets, which is intended to be a day dedicated to the Frei Manuel do Cenáculo National Museum, in an initiative titled “One day at the Museum”, activity that began in 2022.

This exhibition is divided in two parts: in the larger room you shall see works of the “One day at the Museum” initiative, in which the exhibitors glossed the artwork of this institution; in the smaller room the prizewinners of this year’s Contest who come from Portugal, Serbia and Hong Kong.”

Here are some of the submissions from the “One day at the museum category.” Most of these students were around 14 years old.

We really enjoyed the vibe of Évora. We didn’t feel pressure to see everything in one day, but I can see how you could easily spend a relaxing couple of days here taking in all of the sights.

While in Évora, Aubrey and I both bought a Portuguese version of Birkenstocks. They were mostly made of cork, and I chose a pair with a traditional Azulejos pattern on them.

The gentlemen who owned the store told us that Birkenstock had actually opened a factory in Portugal and was producing sandals with all Portuguese cork. We also bought a few kinds of tinned fish that Portugal is famous for. I forgot to take a photo at the store, but here is a photo from the store in the airport. One of their trademark things for their bigger stores seem to be a brightly coloured ferris wheel of tinned fish 🙂 They also have the largest selection of tinned fish varieties and one store outside of Portugal, located in Times Square, NYC. Here is their website: https://portuguesesardine.us

As we were running for the train out of Évora, we saw this in the sidewalk – I have absolutely loved all of the public artwork in Portugal that we have found, sometimes in the most unexpected places.

We headed back to Lisbon to meet up with Aidan for dinner.  We had a bit of an adventure on the way back. You see, on the way there we took this modern electric tram, and we tapped our  credit card on the machine in the tram – no problem. This time when we got on, it would not accept credit cards. We did not want to get caught on the tram when we hadn’t paid, so we hopped off at the next stop, found a machine to load our transit card, and then got back on the next tram. We only had 4 minutes to figure it out, as we didn’t want to miss the ferry. When we got back on the tram, only two of the three cards reloaded properly. So, we stayed on and hoped no one would check. I held onto my receipt in case an inspector came on before the ferry terminal. Luckily none did.

Aidan met us at the ferry terminal around 7:15. He had a busy few days since we saw him last, so it was great to meet up again. It took us wandering awhile before we found an available restaurant called Meson Andaluz. There was only space on the patio on the stairs outside the restaurant. It was interesting Andalusian cuisine from Spain.

It was a bit chilly, but the food was fantastic, and we were there for several hours eating. We ordered four or five tapas and then two entrees, but we were still hungry, so we ordered three more tapas and two more entrees. It was a lovely dinner that we savoured. Really outstanding.

Again, we had a lovely time with Aidan and didn’t get home until midnight. We had to pack and didn’t get to sleep until about 1 am and then had to get up at 4:30 to go to the airport.

March 13, 2025 Part 2

After our initial mixup of where we were supposed to go, we made it to the synagogue. We knew we were in the right place because there were security and police outside the door. They asked us several questions and then let us in the gate that opened to a courtyard. The synagogue building itself was set back from the street. The main facade of the synagogue faces an inner courtyard, since Portuguese law in the 19th century forbade non-Catholic religious temples from facing the street. This building finally had the permission to be built in the late 19th century and was completed in 1904. We came in at the same time as a young woman from the US, who I ended up sitting next to in the women’s section upstairs. The sanctuary was beautiful.

I had brought three wigs and a couple of costume pieces for us to wear when we came to the synagogue. It was the Jewish Festival of Purim, celebrating the survival of the Jewish people with the help of Queen Esther and her uncle Mordechai. The King had an evil advisor named Haman who orchestrated a genocidal plot against the Jews. In the synagogue, people dress up in costumes, the Megillah or scroll is read, and as the story is told, everyone makes noise to blot out the name of the villain Haman. This reading was particularly chaotic: Kids running around and yelling on the top floors, timed noise-making, and a lot of talking (particularly in the women’s section). We were one floor up from the men and were having trouble hearing the words to follow along above the din, especially as there were no microphones used, as is tradition.

The American woman who came in at the same time as us had also picked up the wrong copy of the Megillah (written in Portuguese and transliterated Hebrew). There was another lady sitting next to us from England who had the English and Hebrew version, so the three of us crowded together to share one book. 

It was a powerful experience. All around me were people from all over the world speaking different languages. I heard Portuguese, Spanish, Hebrew, English and French. I shared the book with two other women who felt that it was important enough to come to the synagogue to participate in this joyous ritual in spite of being far away from their home communities.

Here is a short video clip:

Even though I couldn’t make out every world above the noise, the energy in the synagogue was positive and joyful, and I feel very lucky to have had the experience that I did.

The British woman (on the left) had made arrangement to join the local congregation for a breaking of the fast meal. Observant Jews fast for the day before Purim starts to remember that Queen Esther fasted for three days before she had to confront the King with the information that his trusted advisor had sentenced her to death in his genocidal plan. Esther had hidden her identity as a Jew before this and felt she needed help from G!d to have the strength to do what she needed to do.

We hadn’t had the chance to make any prior arrangements, so we didn’t want to intrude. Instead, we invited the young American woman (Arden) to join us for a celebratory Purim dinner.

Here are a couple of photos we took in the courtyard before heading out to dinner:

We went to a lovely restaurant we found very close by called Chao de Padras (translated to “The Stone Floor”). On the wall is a quote which translates to: “If there are stones blocking your way, keep them, someday you will use them to build a castle”.

Again, all of the food was delicious. We tried a variety of things, including something called rooster fish and Portuguese goat cheese with red wine cooked pears, We enjoyed getting to know our dinner companion, Arden, learning a small part of the story of her life. It reminded me of when I was younger, travelling the world, living fully in the moment. It also made me grateful for how far I have come, and for the fact I have hopefully still a long way to go, with amazing things still to come in my life going forward.

Great food, good company, all in a day full of amazing experiences. We enjoyed our walk home but didn’t get home until 11:35. It was then that I had made a mistake with the time difference; my midnight Clarington Diversity Advisory Committee Meeting online, actually started at 11pm Lisbon time, so I was already late. I had made the time calculations earlier, but I forgot about daylight savings in Canada (but not Portugal) the previous weekend. It was a middle-aged brain fart. I joined the meeting late but was still able to have a chance to weigh in on the response to some nazi swastika graffiti found spray-painted on a playground in Courtice, within our municipality of Clarington. 

My meeting wasn’t finished until around 1am, so we had another late night, followed by a very early morning tomorrow. It seems we will be undoing our sleep-in from this morning and will be back on a sleep deficit.

March 13th 2025

We got another late start. We were exhausted. After much deliberation (so many choices!), we decided to go to the National Tile Museum. The museum is set in Madre de Deus Convent, founded in 1509 and its collections allow a journey through the history of tile, from 15th century till present day.

It is located up the coast, northeast of where are staying. The tile museum was fascinating. We had seen so many beautiful tiles on the walls and floors of cathedrals, chapels, palaces, and mansions. Going to this museum gave us a better understanding of the influences on the tile making, and how the techniques and production overlapped and were influenced by other cultures. As it is with most Art History, the sharing of techniques and styles between artists transcends borders. The word Azulejo comes from the Arabic word azzelij or al zeleycha which means “small polished stone” and refers to a ceramic piece, usually squared with one side glazed.

First, the wikipedia definition of Azulejo:

Azulejo is a form of Portuguese and Spanish painted tin-glazed ceramic tilework. Azulejos are found on the interior and exterior of churches, palaces, ordinary houses, schools, and nowadays, restaurants, bars and even railways or subway stations. They are an ornamental art form, but also had a specific functional capacity, like temperature control in homes.

There is also a tradition of their production in former Portuguese and Spanish colonies in North America, South America, the Philippines, Goa, Lusophone Africa, East Timor, and Macau. Azulejos constitute a major aspect of Portuguese architecture and Spanish architecture to this day and are fixtures of buildings across Portugal, Spain and their former territories. Many azulejos chronicle major historical and cultural aspects of both Portuguese and Spanish history.^[3]

After the museum we had time to go for lunch. We just walked into a restaurant called Gelo Cafe off one of the main squares. Aubrey and I tried two types of cod: one was prepared a traditional Portuguese way with string potatoes, scrambled eggs and crispy onions all mixed up together, and the other was cooked like a fish steak with garlic, tomato, herbs and garlic and leeks.

Teva of course had a steak. He eats constantly and wants beef at least once a day if he can. The restaurant has a long history connected to rebellion in Portugal. Although it was initially connected to the collection of ice from the mountains (hence the name “gelo” meaning “ice”) up north to cool the royal palace, the two men who assassinated King Carlos II and the royal prince started their journey from the restaurant. Carlos’ younger son assumed the throne for two years, until the fall of the monarchy in Portugal. His mother lived the rest of her life in exile.

Our friend Shari just returned from Portugal a couple of weeks ago and highly recommended a tuktuk driver, Silvia. They took a tour of the Belem area, so we booked her for this afternoon, as our previous plan was to do the tour on our own.

We passed by the famous Pink Street again, this time during the day:

Unfortunately, both major attractions in Belem were not open, due to weather and/or maintenance, but we could still admire them from the outside. We learned a lot of interesting things about the city and street art on the way there, and then our first stop was at the original pastry shop for the Pasteis de Nata. The original recipe was from the monks who lived at the Jeronimos monastery. Traditionally, the monks would use an egg white mixture starch their robes and habits while ironing them, and so they always had a plethora of egg yolks in the monastery. They developed a custard recipe with those egg yolks. The monastery was also selling them before getting shut down in 1834, as a result of the religious orders being expelled during the Liberal Revolution.

To continue their production, the former clerics from the monastery sold the recipe to a confeitaria close by, which quickly became the most famous bakery of Lisbon and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Today, the iconic Pastéis de Belém (not “pastéis de nata” as they are called in the rest of the country) can be prepared only by six master bakers who know the original secret recipe from the Belém’s monks. We were told that there are three different chefs making the dough and the filling, and each only knows their own part. So, no one but the family has the original recipe. Since then, the Pasteis de Nata have become a traditional Portuguese food enjoyed throughout the country, not just in Belem.

I had tried them at home before, but the tarts here are really next level. We were able to tour the bakery, hear about the history, and then, of course, buy them from their vintage counter. Our guide told us that every day they make at least 20,000 tarts at that location, and on the high season the number explodes to 50,000!

As you may imagine, several other bakeries sell tarts in the area, but these are the OG tarts. Personally, I haven’t found a tart this week that I didn’t like, but I think I would agree that the OG are slightly better, but maybe it is psychological.

From there, we continued on to the Jeronimos Monastery and Church. The church was designed by King Manuel in his mixed architectural Manueline style. It took almost exactly 100 years to build, and it was his grandson who finished the project. It is closed for renovation and cleaning right now, but I think it is worth it. Comparing the church outside, now cleaned for the first time in 500 years, with the uncleaned monastery walls, the difference is substantial. I guess we will have to come back to eat more tarts and see the inside another time 🙂 To clean the outside, it took four years for six people to do the painstaking work, one section at a time, as to not have to close the monastery to tourists. Now they have a crew of 40 working on the inside, and are trying to complete it in 4 months. They do not want the attraction to be closed during high season this summer.

We drive by some more of the “trash wall art” of Bordalo II:

Our last stop was the Belem Tower. The three most popular attractions in Portugal are: the Pena Palace, the Belem Cathedral, and the Belem Tower. The idea of a fortress at the mouth of the Tagus River was initially conceived by King John II, but he died before the plans were made. Twenty years later, King Manuel I revisited this plan and commissioned military architect Fransisco de Arid to build a fortress in the shape of a boat in the river, on a tiny island right at the mouth of the river from the ocean stocked with cannons. It was very effective in deterring pirates, who were a big problem at the time, looking for Portugal’s gold and people to take for slaves. If the pirates dared come too close, they would be sunk with a barrage of cannon balls, or by soldier attack, before they entered the river and came close to the walled city.  Lisbon was very well protected from the ocean and a huge part was due to this fort. Over the last two hundred years, after the fort was decommissioned, landfill was used to bring parkland right up to the fort walls. When the tower was active, access was only by boat, even for the soldiers who worked there.

In front of the Belem Tower, there is a gigantic map gifted to Portugal from South Africa with a compass and map of the world inlaid in the floor. This giant map lies in front of a monument commissioned by the dictator Salazar to honour the Portuguese Explorers who went on expeditions to “discover” the new world. Silvia showed us, on the map, the sailing routes the explorers took and the locations of the Portuguese colonies.

By the time Salazar was finally overthrown, the new government gave all of the colonies their independence from Portugal. Salazar was a dictator, and nowadays there is a saying that explains that Salazar did three really good things: 1) He commissioned the new “Golden Gate Bridge” 2) He commissioned this beautiful monument to the great marine explorers and those that supported them and 3) He died.

After our wonderful tour, Silvia dropped us off at what I thought was the address of the synagogue, but I think it was the office of the Jewish Community. We ended up having to frantically figure out how to get to the address of the actual synagogue. Luckily, it was a short subway ride away.

I will continue this in another post specifically about the synagogue experience.

March 12, 2025

We were looking into some tasting tours, but all were fairly expensive and we couldn’t find one to work with our schedule or dietary restrictions. We decided to do our own tasting tour. First off we had a slight sleep-in. We have been burning the candle at both ends and have also been walking more than 20,000 steps everyday.

We headed into town to take the famous Tram 28.

It is a vintage tram that is actually still used for routes through some of the old neighbourhoods with too tight turns for modern buses or streetcars. It connects the Graca and Prazeres neighbourhoods, on a route that passes historic sites, palaces, cathedrals, crosses the Baixa neighbourhood, climbs up to Chiado and ends in Campo de Ourique. Lisbon is a very hilly city and some parts of the tram route barely could fit the tram because the streets were so narrow. We did see a couple of locals on the tram, but most were tourists.

Before we got on the tram, we stopped to eat Pasteis de Nata – the famous Portuguese tarts. We have sampled these from many different Pastelerias and were on a mission to find the best one. This version was excellent.

After the tram ride, we spent the rest of the day walking around in the rain, tasting things along the way. Teva did some souvenir shopping as well in shops as we passed by. Here is a list of some of the interesting things we ate on the street.

Pistachio Croissant – There are Pastelerias on every corner, and they are filled with both savoury and sweet pastries to die for. This croissant was exquisite.

Pastel de Bacalhau – a type of fish “cake” with melted cheese inside – A traditional food of Portugal. Glad we tried it. Koren liked it.

Teva decided he had to try McDonald’s in Portugal to see if they had anything different from home, as Japan had a lot of different options. Most of the things that were “new” were definitely not Kosher style (not that McDonald’s is Kosher), so he settled on having a spicy McCrispy, which we do have at home, but he said it was much better in Portugal.

Here are some photos from the hours we were walking around while tasting things we came across

We wanted to check out the Mercado Campo de Ourique. It is billed as a “market” of restaurants with a common eating area. Many places were closed, but we managed to try food from all different corners of the world.

Salmon Ceviche from a Japanese food vendor – It was a true fusion dish with salmon and toasted corn and root vegetable chips, like Japanese sweet potato and beet chips. It had a surprising flavour profile of all of the 5 tastes.

Tofu Bao – From a place called Banzai Kitchen. Small, soft Bao filled with delicious tofu, seaweed and other things, also was surprisingly delicious covering all the 5 tastes.

Parmesan, and truffle Ravioli with fresh herbs – Teva thought he had died and gone to heaven – delicious.

Chicken Empanada – Portuguese Style

Dolce da Lece crepe with whipped cream – no explanation needed – as as good as it sounds 🙂 And very sweet!

On the way to the bathroom in the Mercado, I stumbled across a small exhibit called “Lightness”. It was a strange side room, flooded with fluorescent light.

Our friend Aidan was literally coming off the plane to move to Lisbon. He dropped off his luggage, picked up the keys to his brand new apartment and met us for dinner. On the way there, we stumbled across a really cool space called MAAT (Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology). We walked on top of the roof. It was a really cool building. Here is one photo from the Internet, but I will include a link – worth clicking on to see the building during the daytime.

Here is the link to the other views:

https://divisare.com/projects/341188-al_a-piet-niemann-maat-museum-of-art-architecture-and-technology

For dinner with Aidan, I chose a restaurant called O Frade which has been on the Michelin list of restaurants for four years in a row.

Check out their listing on the Michelin site:

https://guide.michelin.com/ca/en/lisboa-region/lisboa/restaurant/o-frade

Surprisingly, we were able to get a reservation the same day. They offered us seats at the counter, but they had some tables on the patio, and we figured we had a lot of catching up to do with Aidan, so it made more sense to sit outside. The food was quite fantastic – It is a family owned restaurant featuring food from the Alentejo region of Portugal. (We will be going to that region when we visit Évora on Friday).

We ordered many things off of their small menu and it was all delicious! We unfortunately forgot to photograph it but here is what we ordered:

Tapas:
Tuna Muxama with Eggs
Aged beef tartare
Creamy eggs with asparagus
Portuguese cheese selection

Mains:
Frade’s Duck Rice
Frade’s octopus and beans stew (Aidan)
Creamy mushrooms rice (veggie)
Fish Xerox with coriander and lemon

Dessert:
Dom Roderigo Lemon and Meringue

The dessert was unlike anything I have ever tasted. I did take a photo:

After I ate it, I did some research and this is what I came up with…

“Dom Rodrigo is a Portuguese dessert that is traditionally associated with the Algarve region, where it’s been made since the 18th century. It is prepared with a combination of egg yolks, sugar, ground almonds, cinnamon, and fios de ovos – a traditional confectionary product consisting of thin egg threads.”

The meringue was unlike another meringue – and I don’t know what kind of nuts those were, but they were fantastic, and that crumbly brown sugary stuff was also great.

Our tasting tour of Lisboa was a success, but for me, the highlight was seeing Aidan. It was so great to hear all of the fascinating things he is doing, and how he is thriving. I can’t wait to hear about his future adventures. We closed the place down at 11:15pm and made a late ferry and then got home around midnight.

After the Jewish Tour of Lisbon, Daniel recommended a traditional Portuguese restaurant called Bom Jardim. Although they served a variety of different foods, the are known especially for their rotisserie chicken with Peri Peri marinade. We ordered chicken, grilled sea bream, potatoes, rice, salad and creamed spinach – it was all great. While we were there, we realized this narrow alley, which was mostly taken up by the restaurant patio, was a high traffic area. Two buskers came by: a singer with his guitar, and a breakdancing troup. There were also several people begging for money, and a man with his two dogs. He would take the plates when people were finished their meals and feed the bones to his dogs. It was unexpectedly a very lively environment to eat lunch in.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the city on foot, giving our calf muscles a workout walking up and down all of those hills. We headed over to an area called the LX Factory. It reminded us of a cross between Granville Island in Vancouver and the Distillery District in Toronto. There was a large building with just over 30 concept shops, as well as studios that people in the arts community could rent out to work in.

There were also a ton of restaurants and bars and clubs, and it was hopping at night. We bought some locally made artisanal soaps and shampoo bars, and we really enjoyed seeing the artwork that people were creating.

 

We especially loved this one artist named O Gringo. He is originally from France, but lives in Portugal now. He incorporates tiles, images of people and superimposes traditional Atelejos (traditional Portuguese tile) design patterns over the bodies of the human images.

From Artsper:

O Gringo, aka Bastien Tomasini, is a contemporary mix media artist born in 1988 in Nice on the French Riviera. Throughout his travels, he discovered a passion for preserving the memory of iconic places, magnificent settings, and historical pieces. He draws inspiration from the ancestral tradition of Azulejos, those small hand-painted enameled tiles that adorn the facades and interiors of Mediterranean buildings. O Gringo’s mosaics incorporate the patterns he encounters during his various expeditions in the land of Azulejos, revealing fragments of his history. He often employs the human body as a canvas to express his art, weaving tales of love in which spiritual evocation, history, and modernity converge.

O Gringo’s artistic process always begins with thorough historical research, during which he carefully selects titles for his works to tell meaningful stories and convey emotions through his art. He immerses himself in historical locations that inspire him, such as the splendid National Azulejo Museum in Lisbon, where he memorizes every detail he uncovers on the walls to graphically and historically enrich his love story.

After the LX Factory, we headed to a restaurant our Airbnb host recommended called Santa Bica. It was up a funicular path up a steep hill. We tried some interesting cocktails and mocktails, Teva had one of the top 5 beef dishes of his life, and we enjoyed all of the amazing dishes that we tried. The server was very chatty, as it wasn’t too busy, and he inevitably started talking about politics. The government of Portugal actually fell that day and he explained to us how the Portuguese governmental system works. There was a non confidence motion because it was discovered that the prime minister was caught for a second time in a corruption scandal involving conflicts of interest concerning companies he owned with government contracts. They will go to the polls in May. He figures the same guy will be re-elected in spite of the charges of corruption. It seems almost everywhere is becoming like this now. I will be watching for the outcome of this election with interest now. I am curious to learn more – as if I need to get invested in another broken political system to make me furious; I already have more than I can handle with Israel, Canada and the US.

Great food, great conversations with the two servers, and at the end of the night they brought us some small shots of some traditional Portuguese alcohol – Ginjha (the cherry liquor we were offered after the bike tour) and a Portuguese version of Cognac.  I was not crazy about the latter, and I think I had a bit of a reaction to the former – not too bad, but I wasn’t eager to try it again. Aubrey is bringing a bottle home from duty free so I may try it in my own house when I have nowhere else to be in case I have a reaction.

On the way home, we stumbled upon the famous “pink street” with the suspended umbrellas. Pretty kitschy and fun.

Another great day in Lisboa 🙂