Breakfast at Padaria Central, Lunch at a Churrasqueira, and Dinner at Camilo Restaurante

Yes, another day full of food.

I woke super early to complete some homework so it wouldn’t affect the day. I’m a weirdo, and I love waking up to an alarm. Getting that work done in the morning allowed me to start the day already feeling accomplished and like I could relax.

We decided to take our breakfast to the beach so we stopped by a little bakery run by Portuguese women for a coffee and a pastry. Chris had told me about “Banoffee” which is a British dessert pie made from bananas, whipped cream, and a thick caramel sauce made from condensed milk and ours had a crumbly graham crack crust. Mom—you must make this for us immediately! It was sooooo good!

Spent the morning laying in the early sun on my favorite beach, dipping in and out of the water, reading for a bit, and exploring the rocks while the tide was low. Once the tide started to rise, we decided to take a break from the sun and walk around a bit. We did some hiking while looking for a bridge and instead found a nice photo op.

As we walked back to the room, we passed a little churrasqueira where the Portuguese people were lined up for lunch and it said “piri piri chicken” on the sign. We were tempted by this authenticity so we said, let’s just share since we’re not that hungry. But we ended up thinking the pork looked good as well so we got a little bit of that too. And a little meat croqueta because why not. I thought this meal was amazing! I think Chris was less impressed (he enjoyed the pork more than the chicken) but it was like a homemade Portuguese Boston Market which of course, is totally my style.

As we continued to wander the streets back home and be not hungry, we stopped for an ice pop that I didn’t like and then proceeded to stop into a gelateria where I promptly threw away the ice pop and switched to gelato. Chris’s pistachio gelato was great, the pannacotta and stratciatella were good.

We picked up some Aperol ($15 for a liter btw) and Prosecco and brought them back to Casa Margo where we are staying and enjoyed some cocktails on the roof. We listened to music and complained about the seagulls.

Check out the gull staring at the wall…

As if we hadn’t eaten enough, it was time to get ready for dinner! I was very excited to return to Camilo Restaurant, a place that Corrine and I loved when we visited and the perfect place for seafood by the sea! I love a place where you can choose the fish you want for dinner. They also have a lovely view. The water splashing up against the rocks really do it for me.

Instead of a bottle of wine, we tried some Portuguese by the glass varietals like Arinto and others that I don’t remember.

We started with bread and butter and cheese. The butters were garlic (green) and chorizo (orange). The cheese came with a hot pepper jelly. Yum.

Chris had a gigantic Portuguese Scarlet Shrimp as his appetizer. I had ordered a piece of tuna but it had a lot of sinew so it wasn’t really edible.

For the main fish we ordered a Red Bream with a huge eye. I love when they de bone it at the table and I got some lemon and olive oil and flaky salt…chefs kiss! It came with potatoes and veggies too. I love veggies it turns out.

Even though we were super full, I always have room for dessert. They had a pavlova! We paired it with a dessert wine which is my personal vacation delicacy to have dessert wine at every meal.

I think it was a very successful eating day and I would recommend all of these places! So full. What will we eat tomorrow?