Most Portuguese are convinced that theirs is the finest cuisine in the world…
Well, this summer I was convinced by Inside Lisbon that the above statement is truthful. I participated in Lisbon’s Food and Wine Walk where I could experience different Portuguese wines, fruits, pastries, bread, meat and obviously cheese and marmalade.
Absolutely interesting and yummy experience that I would recommend everyone who is a travel foodie or wine and cheese person.
About Inside Lisbon
Inside Lisbon is a 10 year-old company that provides visitors of Lisbon unforgettable food, wine and sightseeing experience in order to show them the best side of the city. They are specialized in Walking Tours and Full Day Tours in and around Lisbon region for individuals and groups.
There are regular tours available in English and Spanish, and private tours in English, Portuguese, Spanish, German, French and Italian so you can choose your own language when booking a day with Inside Lisbon. In all their activities, quality and fun is assured!
My Food and Wine Walking Tour Experience
My food and wine experience with Inside Lisbon took place on Saturday 27th of July 2014. I was participating in the tour with my mom who is a real wine and snack lover. We arrived at Square D. Pedro IV (Rossio) at the statue in center of the square at around 5 pm where a group of 10 people was already waiting for us.
Our tour guide called Marta greeted us warmly and introduced herself. She was extremely knowledgeable, talkative and friendly. During the whole tour, which lasted over 3 hours, she was talking a lot about Portuguese snacks and drinks, food culture, traditional dishes and the quality of food in Portugal.
Thanks to Marta, I found out that the Portuguese have perfected the art of cooking (and eating) simple, delicious meals. They enjoy the food, they eat and talk for hours, they never rush when eating. Once they sit down at the table, they slowly taste each dish, appreciate every single bite and enjoy the smell of it. Eating is a very important part of they life.
Surprisingly, locals in Portugal don’t eat fast food. They prefer freshly cooked nutritious home meals stuffed with vegetables and seafood. They love soups ad grilled fish – usually salty and dry. They are big fans of freshly baked bread, olives, cheese, red wine or crisp vinho verde and smoked meats. Their meals are delicious and yet extremely healthy.
During the whole afternoon with Marta, we visited various local restaurants and pastry shops in order to taste different Portuguese snacks and drinks, including:
Cod Fish Cake & Green wine
The cod fish we tried at the first stop was deep fried and extremely yummy, ball-shaped and soft. It was served with green wine which tasted like a champagne – semi-sparkling.
Vinho Verde is unique to Portugal and is not produced anywhere else in the world. It has a white color with medium alcohol content and citrusy palates and aromas. Perfect combination!
Tapas & White Wine
When we stopped for the second time, we indulged in fresh Portuguese bread covered with pumpkin jam, prosciutto and cheese in a very cozy restaurant. Cheese served with pumpkin jam was something new to me, but I really enjoyed the taste of it – slightly strong and fruity.
Port Wine & São Jorge Cheese and Marmalade
The third stop was all about sweet marmalade which was served with cheese, no bread. Port wine was sweet, semi-dry and it is often served as a dessert wine. As Marta said, the Port wine is aged, often in barrels stored in cellars, high in alcohol (between 19 and 22 percent).
Ginja liquor
At the fourth stop, Marta bought a bottle of traditional Portuguese liquor. It is made by infusing ginja berries in alcohol and adding sugar together with other ingredients. Ginjinha is served in a shot form with a piece of the fruit in the bottom of the cup – so delicious!
Bread, Chouriço & Red Wine
Lastly, we all sat down at a lovely place called Casa do Alentejo where we enjoyed some ride wine, Portuguese sliced bread and a huge fatty pork sausages.
Apart from eating, we walked across Lisbon’s streets admiring the beautiful scenery and picturesque souvenirs shops. We visited various neighborhoods filled with restaurants and pastry shops. Marta has also recommended great places for dining out and shopping to us!
Would you like to experience Portuguese wines and food?
48 thoughts on “My Food And Wine Experience With Inside Lisbon”
Looks like you and your mother had a fantastic time!
We really did have a great time!
Travel blogger = foodie blogger. Yup, you are still staying true to that principle :D
Definitely!!
It’s a beautiful tour. I am a totally bread and cheese, fruits and marmalade person, so I guess, I’m going to love it. And, I’d really like to taste some amazing wines too. :)
Thanks Renuka!
The food was the best part of my visit to Portugal. Missed that tour though.
I’m a big fan of Portugal cuisine after visiting Lisbon!
Mmmmmmm… Portuguese food is delicious. Looks like a great tour too!
It is, you should try it one day!
Looks like an interesting tour! Considering I’m going to be traveling to Portugal soon this may be something I’ll look into :)
You have to!!
everything looks really good. I miss European food! Indian is ok, but I mean after two years… I need some of that! ^^^^^^
Make it to Europe and find out!! ;-)
Agness you and your mum look even more beautiful than normal – positively glowing!! It must be all that great food!!
I’d love to run a tour like this in any of “my” cities… Hmmmmmm!
Wow Tim! Thanks for a nice compliment. We loved Portuguese food and the weather a lot. That made us glow!
Looks like a great experience, I remember the tasty food in Lisbon especially the delicious custard tarts :-)
Yeah, it was a great experience, indeed!
I love the photo montage of your mam wine testing – it’s great!
Love it too! So hilarious!
I love the photo montage of your mam wine testing – it’s great!
I have never been on an official walking tour, only my own unofficial ones. I would love to go on one that also includes food :)
Fingers crossed you can do that one day!
What a delicious tour! I also visited Portugal with my mom and had the best time. I bought a bottle of Ganja to take home :-)
I really miss the food, Heather.
My pleasure (as always).
This tour seems to be awesome :) we’ll buy it when we come to Lisbon!
That’s great that Portugals have good eating habits and they don’t like fast foods… when we were in USA, we were dreaming about healthy food but it was very difficult to find it!
Lovely food out there in Portugal!
Fresh tuna on the salads in Porto, delicious pasteis de nata and that bacalhau cake was so unique too… Tried them all myself. Indeed, Portuguese cuisine is great!
This sounds delicious! I hope you got to try Pasteis de Belem too!!!
Looks like you had a wonderful time. Portugal has been on my European travel list for a long time, and so your post is very interesting for me. All the best from Santiago…
I did and I really enjoyed the food!!
Portuguese food for the win!!
*says this Portuguese girl shamelessly* ;)
HAHAHAHHA!!
Looks delightful. I really like the variety of this food tour and your mother looks as if she’s having so much fun. What a great trip! It’s been some time since I’ve been to Portugal (7 years ago), but the food was amazing and I remember trying out the green wine. Lovely!
Thanks for sharing Agness. :)
My pleasure!!