Dinner with Friends

Have you ever had an "it's a small world" moment?  It can't get any smaller than being on a 18x12 mile Portuguese island in the middle of the Atlantic and finding out that a college friend of your cousins wife is moving to your tiny island too.  Actually, even weirder, before that the new doctor that got here is from my home town, and my mom knows his parents too (possibly lived in the same neighborhood when we were kids).  So that was weirdness number 1.  But then I found out my cousins wife's friends (did you follow that?) was moving to the island as her husband was being stationed here too.

She got here just as I headed back to the States, but as soon as I returned I made sure to show her around the island.  She is great and I am glad to have a new friend here.  We decided last weekend to all go out to dinner together.  Ryan and I thought Rocha was a good choice and we headed down to Porto Judeu for dinner.

We laughed when we got there because Alexandra's husband quickly realized everyone he works with was dining there too.  That's how you know it's a good restaurant.  It is busy, but also busy with Americans.  Then another one of his employees came in too.  It really is a good place and popular with Americans.

We started off with bread, cheese and these bread things, which seem to have onion and cheese with them.

 

Ryan ordered the steak, which he had before and it was the best ever.  Around here it is hit or miss, and this was miss.  No big deal.  That just means next time it will be a hit!

Alexandra and her husband tried the alcatra.  Ever heard of alcatra?  If you have been to the Azores, chances are you have.  This is a typical, traditional Azorean dish.  It is similar to a pot roast, cooked in it's own fat, in a clay pot.  If I had to pick one dish to represent the island, this would be it.  I have had the fish kind before, but most traditionally it is meat.

They ordered some potatoes to go with it because otherwise it is a lot of meat.

I ordered grouper.  Here it is known as cherne.  You can see it is served very traditionally.

For dessert we split a chocolate mousse.  It is hard to pass up homemade mousse.

It was a nice end to a nice dinner with (new) friends.

QUESTIONS:  Have you been to dinner with new friends recently?  How about just dinner with friends?  Do you often go out with other couples?

Don't forget to get your votes in for my giveaway.  Ryan and I are moving this summer.  Guess where we are going.  If you have not guessed already, list 3 states or countries below and if you guess correctly you will be entered to win a package of goodies from both the Azores and the future location.  Ends tonight 11:59 pm EST.

Creatures From Below

Adventures in brave eating of sea creatures…

If this picture doesn’t creep you out, the rest of the post just might.

That picture was actually taken of a tree outside of one of the best restaurants on the island and this meal featured here was one of the best we have had yet since we moved here.

We started with plain and garlic bread.

Ryan ate these because there was bacon inside, but I think it was like bread with cheese and onions.

I focused my “energy” on this delicious goat cheese.  Now, some places say goat some say cow and I really think they taste the same…and that taste is good!

Here is where the brave eating begins.  I ordered the squid.  Yes, I squid it again!  I have really enjoyed the squid on the island and never in a million years did I think I would say that.  So when this arrived, I was cautious because I had only have the rings before.

AH-MAY-ZING!

Seriously, this was an insanely delicious dish.  I am really glad I was brave enough to try this.

Ryan had this steak.  He raved all night about how good this was.

In fact, dinner was so awesome that we ordered dessert, something we have not done here in quite some time.  We went with the chocolate mousse with a layer of pineapple, topped with cream and then cookie crumbles.  This was the perfect end to a perfect meal.

Fast forward (as I am getting caught up on my pictures and posts) to a week and a half ago.

There were some visitors on base teaching a class that Ryan was taking and we thought it would be nice to show them around a little off the base.  We wound up eating dinner at Casa do Peixe.  The visitors really wanted to try out the local specialty known as a tile.  Usually this comes in fish, seafood or meat.  It is cooked in a cream sauce in a clay roofing tile.  It is a traditional Azorean dish.  They ordered one fish and one seafood.  I am happy to report they loved the food here.

 

I went with the boca negra which as always is a great choice.

Ryan went with the Azorean steak, topped with pineapple from the big island (Sao Miguel).  The steak above was much better in his opinion.  We had to tease him a little, he did order the steak at the House of Fish!

Here is where the adventurous kicked in.  The guys visiting wanted to give the octopus a try.  Despite having finished a great meal, they were determined to try it all.  Ryan and I were hesitant when this octopus arrived, but we were brave and gave it a try.

You know what?  It was really good.  I will admit it was tasty.  The Azoreans sure know how to prepare squid and octopus.

QUESTIONS:  Have you tried octopus or squid?  What is the most adventurous food you have ever tried?

Now Open

I can't even begin to explain how indecisive Ryan and I were last night in choosing what to do for dinner.  At 8:30 it was still light out, actually really light out, and we had no idea what we wanted to eat.  In fact, when we left the house, the only plan was head towards Praia.  We decided if the new bar had a restaurant, we would try that, and if not, we would go for Mexican.

The good news was the Garca, the new super busy bar, had a restaurant in the upstairs.  The "c" in Garca is the one with the little hook off it and is pronounced like a "z".  Here you can see that it is packed.  It is dark outside in this picture because I took it as we were leaving.  On the way in, my only concern was if there was actually a restaurant inside.  Garca is the place on the far left with all the people outside.  This place is in a strip of bars/cafes/restaurants, and overlooks the beach.

This is the decor on the inside.

Wine of course.  It was a Friday night.  My grandfather should recognize this.  I brought him a bottle when I visited last month.

The meal started off with the bread.

Goat cheese for the bread.  This is very common around here.

Ryan ordered the steak.  It comes with rice, fries and a fried egg.  It was not the best he has ever had, but with steak, it does seem to be hit or miss here.  Seafood and fish are usually perfect every time, except for the occasional overcooked cod.

I ordered the abrotea, which seems to be a fried white fish.  I have ordered this a few places and it always looks like this.  I was so happy to see the olives on the salad.

Dessert was from prepackaged ice cream products, but they were really good.  They have the standard ice cream dessert menu that some other places carry.  This is a popular way to serve dessert it seems, versus making it themselves.  I guess with all of the pastelerias around, this gives some different options. Oh, if you are curious, the Portuguese word for desert is sobremesas.

This is my dessert, still packaged up.  The Carte D'or brand is very popular here.

No complaints here!

So, that was our dinner at the new restaurant in Praia.  I enjoyed my meal and Ryan's was fair.  The menu was limited, but I think we will go back.

Wait!  Before I go, I have some more pictures from last Saturday night's bull fight in Porto Judeo.  I mentioned in past posts that there are 4 bulls each night in each village that has a fight.  This is how they transport the bulls and where they are kept when they are not loose.

A family spotted us looking around and invited us up onto their property.  This was very cool and it was nice to have a place with an actual bathroom.  The one lady spoke English, so that was very helpful.  This is the view form their front yard.  We had a great spot to look out onto the ocean.

Doesn't he look mean?

Since they have guys walking around selling ice cream, I thought I would FINALLY get a Magnum bar.  I have not had one of these delicious treats since I was in Israel about 14 years ago.  I splurged on the double caramel.  It was vanilla ice cream, coated in chocolate, filled with caramel and then another layer of chocolate.  This was heavenly!

No, no room for a donut here, but I still had to take a picture of these ladies selling donuts on the street.

I was however polite when the family of the house we were sitting at offered us some food.  Since it was mostly meat, I tried the rice which was made with tomato sauce.

Wow, look how mean this guy looks.  Ok, here is the story.  This guy jumped the 5 or 6 foot wall were sitting up on and wound up in the yard of the house were were watching from.  Everyone jumped off and ran the other direction.  The men holding his rope managed to get him down before he caused any damaged to the lawn or the people. 

Here he is after he jumped back down.

So the next bull tried the same thing, but with no luck.  He thought better and turned around and left.  At least you can get an idea of how high up the bull jumped.

QUESTION:  What is your favorite ice cream treat/dessert?