After our Peniche/Nazaré adventures, Lars and I decided to go east, to a charming town called Estremoz:
I had never been this far inland in Portugal. Anyway, we arrived there late in the afternoon, quickly found a hotel just outside the town and then went looking for food. The restaurant of the hotel was still closed, so went into Estremoz itself.
Finding a parking spot proved to be easy and it was located right next to a handful of restaurants. The first one showed a big sign saying "OPEN" and with high expectations, we sat down. By the way, the name of the restaurant was Zona Verde.
The menu looked very interesting and everything was reasonably priced. The waiter, however, brought us some bad news: the kitchen was closed and wouldn't reopen for another two hours. Lars and I were disappointed, but the waiter didn't throw us out. He suggested that we could combine some of the cold starters with a nice bottle of wine. Lars and I quickly exchanged glances and accepted his offer.
Ten minutes later, all this arrived on our table:
Let's start on top and go clockwise:
- A salad consisting of white beans, tuna and red onion. Very refreshing!
- Roasted red bell peppers with lots of olive oil.
- Cured cheese. This had a sweet and smoky taste.
- Black olives.
- Not on the picture: fresh bread!
After this delicious meal, Lars and I did a little bit of exploring. If the weather had been less hot, we would have seen more. A lot more!
In the evening Lars and I got hungry again... The restaurant in the hotel was open now, so we treated ourselves to this:
Not bad at all... It was the first time I had to cook something on a stone grill. A fun experience, I have to admit and the quality of the meat was extraordinary.
Stay tuned for the second part on Friday!
