Portugal Summer 2012

Hi again,

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been away on holiday the last 2 weeks, hence the lack of activity on my blog and the lateness of my Outlook report.

This year we decided on somewhere different, so we booked a holiday to the Algave region of Portugal, well, a village called Boliquemie to be exact. I was so looking forward to a lovely break, with guaranteed sunshine, sea, sand and all the other great things that comes with summer holidays, such as sampling the local cuisine.

Before I went, I was told how great the local fish dishes were and how they have some great species caught locally. I was really looking forward to trying something different..... almost as much as my brother in law, who is a MASSIVE fish/seafood fan.

Well, if I am honest I was a little disappointed. We deliberately booked a private villa outside of any resorts, so we could find the 'real' Portugal. There was 4 adults in total both couples having a 2 year old girl. But by the end of it all, we all felt a bit robbed, never really finding the 'real' Portugal at all.

We stayed about a 15 min drive from Vilamoura, which before my holiday was hyped up to be this fantastic holiday destination with a "gorgeous" marina and plenty of "fantastic" restaurants. Well, from what I experienced, it didn't live up to the hype.... maybe I have been spoilt with our previous holiday destinations of Porto Cervo (Sardina) and Taomina (Scilly), where we found the real Italian lifestyle, with great restaurants and bars etc.

Vilamoura was a bit too commercialised for me and the rest of my group. It wasn't a horrible place, far from it, but out of choice, I wouldn't rush back myself. We tried a few restaurants during our stay and never opting for the cheaper options, as we wanted to spoil ourselves and wanting to find a bit of the 'wow factor' that many people talked about, but none of them really delivered.

King Tiger Prawn starter was the start of the one night and the menu read well and three of us couldn't resist the sound of this dish. Well, presentation did give the wow factor.... King Tiger Prawn, blinking eck! it was more like a lobster.... I've never seen a prawn so big in all my life. It tasted great, but was a little overcooked, leaving the meat a bit dry, but the flavours where there. I decided against fish on the next course, my fish loving brother in law went for the Monkfish main course, which sounded tempting, whilst the rest of the group had various other meat dishes. I opted for the Portuguese classic of Chicken Piri Piri. Again the flavours where fab, but this time it wasn't over cooked, it was the complete opposite, in fact, I am sure the heart was still beating.... not a fan of my Chicken rare. I was starting to wish I opted for the Monkfish, but that again looked great but didn't deliver in the taste test.
In fairness, they did knock the chicken off the bill, when they realised I hadn't eaten my main course. For the four adults the bill was over £210 and the was only 2 courses each which had already had my chicken dish removed.... so to say I was disappointed was a bit of an understatement. My wife chose to have a fillet steak, the sauce tasted like it was made from a packet, this really wasn't what I expected from one of the nicest looking restaurants in the "Gorgeous" Vilamoura marina.

However the night wasn't all lost.... we all indulged in a ice-cream from Haagen Dazs and then drove back to the villa for a few glasses of wine and a chill out around the pool.

This experience put me off from eating out if I'm honest, but we did venture out again, but the menu's in many of the local restaurants were very limited on the fish front and none of the other dishes really appealed to everyone in the group. So on this occasion we opted to go to a local tapas bar. This was more like it, real Portuguese people who owned and worked in their little side street restaurant, where the service and food was fantastic. The only downside was the only fish dish was cuttlefish meatballs and I didn't fancy that on that occasion, but they had a wonderful array of cheese and meats MMMMMmmmm its making me hungry just thinking about it.

We did BBQ a few times back at the villa. which was always a good fun, but again the supermarkets were very limited on fish and most of it looked salted and dry, which was a little strange and not being able to speak the local lingo, we didn't take the gamble. But one night we did find some massive gamba king prawns, I coated them in some Piri Piri, garlic and then a squeeze of fresh lemon and they were amazing.

But overall I was disappointed not to have eaten or had the opportunity to have eaten more fish/seafood.

However I have a new love in my life, the main local beer 'Sagres' which I can get over here in the UK, via an old supplier of mine, when I was in the wine game, so I will be paying a visit to them very soon.

I should stop moaning really, I was fortunate to be able to go away this summer and have a great time with the family, but still felt short changed with the lack of real Portuguese food and traditional restaurants...... Maybe I should venture back to Italian shores next time?

Ciao!