If you happen to be up north in Portugal, passing through Guimarães, there are two things you must do: spend an hour or so at the Paço dos Duques de Bragança, and eat at Restaurante Carreira.
It's one of those old-fashioned restaurants I just love where you walk through the kitchen to get to your table. I've only had one meal there, but everything we tried was outstanding. I suspect you really can't go wrong here... really about the best homestyle regional cooking I had in any restaurant in Portugal. It's the kind of place where most dishes come with a nice pot of arroz de feijão (rice cooked with kidney beans, and some bacon and chouriço, of course) on the side. Try anything that sounds good--it will be, I assure you. And it's the only restaurant I ever found that has doce de aletria on the menu--a traditional Portuguese dessert made with spaghetti-like noodles, the ubiquitous sweetened egg-custard, and cinnamon.....sort of like an eggy rice pudding, except with noodles. Sounds weird, but it's delicious. The place can be a bit tricky to find: it's out from the center of town--if memory serves, to the west--in the neighborhood called Silvares (there used to be a lot of car dealerships nearby). But ask around--it's worth the trouble! You also might want to call first...the last time I tried to go there it was closed, on a day when it was supposed to be open.
Restaurante Carreira
Rua 25 de Abril, 1
Silvares 4835-400 Guimarães, Portugal
(+351) 25 341 84 48
Showing posts with label Minho. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Minho. Show all posts
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Restaurante A Carvalheira
If you're up north in the Minho region, the town of Ponte de Lima is worth visiting for many reasons: it's picturesque, there's a great regional market, and--unsurprisingly for this blog--there's a fantastic restaurant: A Carvalheira.
It's located across the river from the center of Ponte de Lima in the neighborhood called Arcozelo--a very pleasant 5-minute walk across the bridge. It's in an old stone house, and the centerpiece of the restaurant is the big stone hearth, where some of the cooking is sometimes done--it's the perfet spot for a warming, winter evening meal. Although everything I tried was superb, the house specialty is pernil de porco assado, or roast pork shoulder (Filipinos, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans are quite familiar with this cut), and it is spectacular. Crispy crackling--well, I suppose it's not skin, but fat--on the outside, perfectly tender meat on the inside, accompanied by roasted potatoes and greens (couve, something between cabbage and collard or mustard greens, wilted, then sauteed). The potatoes and greens have so much flavor that it's impossible that they're cooked in simply oil--there's definitely lard working its magic in there. One of the other house specialties is arroz de pato (duck with rice, baked in the oven), and it's also wonderful. In fact, everything is of the highest quality. And at about 30 bucks a head, VERY well worth the trip if you're in the vicinity. This place is extremely popular, especially on the weekends, so it would be worth calling ahead. Closed Mondays.
Restaurante A Carvalheira
Antepaço - Arcozelo
4990-231 Ponte de Lima, Portugal
(+351) 25 874 23 16
It's located across the river from the center of Ponte de Lima in the neighborhood called Arcozelo--a very pleasant 5-minute walk across the bridge. It's in an old stone house, and the centerpiece of the restaurant is the big stone hearth, where some of the cooking is sometimes done--it's the perfet spot for a warming, winter evening meal. Although everything I tried was superb, the house specialty is pernil de porco assado, or roast pork shoulder (Filipinos, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans are quite familiar with this cut), and it is spectacular. Crispy crackling--well, I suppose it's not skin, but fat--on the outside, perfectly tender meat on the inside, accompanied by roasted potatoes and greens (couve, something between cabbage and collard or mustard greens, wilted, then sauteed). The potatoes and greens have so much flavor that it's impossible that they're cooked in simply oil--there's definitely lard working its magic in there. One of the other house specialties is arroz de pato (duck with rice, baked in the oven), and it's also wonderful. In fact, everything is of the highest quality. And at about 30 bucks a head, VERY well worth the trip if you're in the vicinity. This place is extremely popular, especially on the weekends, so it would be worth calling ahead. Closed Mondays.
Restaurante A Carvalheira
Antepaço - Arcozelo
4990-231 Ponte de Lima, Portugal
(+351) 25 874 23 16
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Restaurante Zé Maria
Valença do Minho is a funky border town in the north of Portugal, right on the Minho river at an important crossing point into Spain. It's got a great old fortaleza (fortress), reasonably-priced accommodations--I thought the Hotel Lara, right at the entrance to the International Bridge, was great--and some excellent food, if you know where to find it (that big "if" is true of Portugal in general). Cozinha minhota has a lot of wonderful dishes in its canon... the trick is to convince someone to make any of them for you. Most restaurants stick to the same boring stuff.
Luckily, there is Restaurante Zé Maria. It seems to be the best-known restaurant in town, and although I passed through Valença twice in the last couple of weeks, I only managed one meal there because the second time was a Tuesday, and they are closed on Tuesdays (I have a special knack for that). But the one meal I did manage bespoke of a kitchen that knew what it was doing. If cabrito is on the menu, I'm probably going to order it... and that's just what I did. It was cabrito no forno: oven-roasted pieces of kid goat with roasted potatoes (that were surely coated in lard before roasting... mmm...), served in a traditional alguidar de barro full of rice.
Not exactly spectacular, but a it was cooking true to its exceptional ingredients, and deeply satisfying. I so wanted to go back and try other things... I kept seeing beautiful bacalhau, seafood, and meat dishes going by, and some great-looking fried potato rounds. Next time.
If you end up staying in the Hotel Lara on a Tuesday, whatever you do, DON'T go to Restaurante Cristina next door. I had a meal there so unbearably mediocre I was not interested enough to even finish it.
Restaurante Zé Maria
Centro Comercial Bruxelas - Av. Dr. Tito Fontes
4930-673 Valença do Minho, Portugal
(+351) 251 82 53 64
Luckily, there is Restaurante Zé Maria. It seems to be the best-known restaurant in town, and although I passed through Valença twice in the last couple of weeks, I only managed one meal there because the second time was a Tuesday, and they are closed on Tuesdays (I have a special knack for that). But the one meal I did manage bespoke of a kitchen that knew what it was doing. If cabrito is on the menu, I'm probably going to order it... and that's just what I did. It was cabrito no forno: oven-roasted pieces of kid goat with roasted potatoes (that were surely coated in lard before roasting... mmm...), served in a traditional alguidar de barro full of rice.
Not exactly spectacular, but a it was cooking true to its exceptional ingredients, and deeply satisfying. I so wanted to go back and try other things... I kept seeing beautiful bacalhau, seafood, and meat dishes going by, and some great-looking fried potato rounds. Next time.
If you end up staying in the Hotel Lara on a Tuesday, whatever you do, DON'T go to Restaurante Cristina next door. I had a meal there so unbearably mediocre I was not interested enough to even finish it.
Restaurante Zé Maria
Centro Comercial Bruxelas - Av. Dr. Tito Fontes
4930-673 Valença do Minho, Portugal
(+351) 251 82 53 64
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