During our week-long trip to Lisbon, we definitely ate quite a lot of wonderful food. Portugal is known for their seafood and especially for sardines and anchovies, but there is certainly much more to the cuisine of the country. One of the famous treats that is a must have in Lisbon is the Pastel de Nata, which is a delicious custard tart. Another well-known dish is Arroz de Pato or Portuguese Duck Rice that we definitely made sure to eat during our trip.
Not everything that we ate was fancy, but we didn’t have a single meal that disappointed us. It would be difficult to choose our favorite dish because they were all unique and wonderful in their own way. We tried our best to mix up the food that we tried so that we weren’t always eating just seafood, although we really enjoyed having so many fresh options with the ocean so close to the city.
There a several cities that we’ve visited that we would consider to be food destinations and Lisbon is certainly among them. In addition to all of the food, we also had several interesting drinks, including Ginga, which is a sour cherry liqueur that is quite delicious. We also had several local beers as well as wonderful wines. The food and drinks were so good that we are definitely looking forward to returning someday to try even more local delicacies.
Salmon is extremely versatile and can be used in a variety of recipes and styles of dishes. It can be baked, grilled, pan-fried, or even broiled with equally delicious results. It can be added to salads or casseroles as well, but we enjoy it as a main dish. One of our go-to meals is to have salmon and rice with hollandaise sauce, but these are some of the different recipes that we’ve made that we’ve enjoyed.
Salmon Oscar – During our trip to Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, we had a very delicious meal that the restaurant called Salmon Chesapeake. It was salmon topped with lump crab meat with a cream sauce. For our attempt to replicate this meal, we went with a cross between a Veal Oscar and a stuffed flounder. This isn’t a complicated recipe at all, but it looks and tastes wonderful, so it is a perfect dish for entertaining.
Salmon with Capers and Honey Sauce – We had so many similar style dishes when visiting the Mediterranean regions, we only wish that we could have been sitting on a beach while we ate. The sauce is a combination of sweet and savory and can be used on a variety of proteins including chicken or other types of fish as well. Having salmon with a light and refreshing sauce such as this makes for a wonderful weeknight dinner. We decided to bake the salmon, but you could just as easily pan fry it if you would like to create a crispy skin.
Salmon with a Spicy Pepper Sauce – During our trips to Mexico, we have always enjoyed having seafood cooked with local preparations. Not all food in Mexico is spicy and this recipe isn’t overly spicy, but it does have a little bit of heat. Although you can certainly use a fish other than salmon, we found that salmon was able to hold up to the bold taste of the creamy pepper sauce. We have often made a hollandaise sauce to go with salmon, but using the peppers provides a different alternative.
Achiote Marinated Salmon – This is another dish that is inspired by our many trips south of the border and one of the things that we enjoy about Mexican dishes are the various spices and peppers that they use in them. This dish has spice, but it isn’t at all spicy. Achiote is made from a hard seed that is ground up and provides a deep red color to whatever it is prepared with. We made a simple paste from the Achiote, which comes as a thick block with the consistency of clay. Using fresh lime juice brightens up the dish and makes it even more savory.
Salmon with Lemon Butter Caper Sauce – This a very simple dish, but it is also quite delicious. The combination of lemon, butter, and capers can make the fish both sweet and sour, as well as salty, which is a really nice combination. Like many of the recipes, it is something that works well with other fish as well, but salmon is able to take on the flavors while still having flavor of its own.
Baked Salmon Filets with Farro – One of the ingredients that you will sometimes find in Tuscan cooking is a grain called farro. We decided to bake the salmon and serve it with farro, which turned out moist and was quite delicious. We found it nice for a weekend meal since it has several steps to prepare, but it could be done on a weeknight as well.
Although these are some of our favorite recipes from the past, we certainly look forward to trying salmon in many different ways in the future. We also enjoy trying salmon during our travels and then seeing if we can replicate them after we return home.
Anyone who has taken a cruise ship to Turkey has probably spent at least a day in the port city of Kusadasi. We actually flew into Izmir and then spent a week in Kusadasi using it as our home base as we explored as much of the west coast of Turkey as possible. We also used it as an opportunity to relax for a couple of days before continuing on to Istanbul and then Bulgaria. While there are certainly plenty of historical sites to visit that are just day trips, spending time in the city of Kusadasi is worthwhile if you enjoy sitting by the water and watching the sunsets.
We stayed in a resort that was outside of Kusadasi, but they offered a shuttle that would take us downtown near the port, which we took advantage of a couple of times. The weather was much warmer in Kusadasi then it was as we traveled north, so it was definitely a beach experience. We ate our fair share of seafood, tried some fresh ice cream as well as gelato, and of course had several glasses of wine. There are many different restaurants, all with views of the Aegean Seas and the beaches with people wading and swimming near the shore.
Since we usually have trips that are “travel” and others that are “vacation”, it was really nice to have a trip that was actually a little bit of both. Because of all of the cruise ships that do dock at Kusadasi, you do need to pay attention to how many ships are in the port as that does increase the crowds, especially towards the end of the day when they return from their tour of Ephesus, which is where most people on the cruise ships visit. You can also take a day trip to the Greek Island of Samos, but we chose not to do that on this particular trip. We will definitely have fond memories of Kusadasi as we really enjoyed our time sipping on wine and watching the sun set across the water.