Will Travel for Food: Lisbon

[projector clicking] [bright music]

[Kendra] It's not that I think food

is the only thing you have to plan for

when you go on a trip,

but if you forgot about everything else,

you'd still get a pretty good vibe of the city.

[bright music continues]

Lisbon is an amazing place to explore through food

and the Portuguese's approach of simplicity and freshness

is really appealing to me.

As a Bon Appetit editor,

I'm constantly seeking out inspiration

in the form of new-to-me food experiences,

flavor combinations and culinary traditions.

[Kendra laughs] A big bite.

Which is why I love having the Chase Aeroplan card.

Whether I'm eating at my favorite spots in Brooklyn,

dining out at new restaurants,

or eating in a city I've never been to before,

I'm earning points that are easy to redeem

and get me closer to more culinary experiences.

[car engine roars]

Mercado De Alvalade has been open since 1964

and continues to evolve to serve the surrounding community.

Many of its vendors have been here for decades,

if not generations.

[Delfina speaking in Portuguese]

[Delfina continues speaking in Portuguese]

[Rui speaking in Portuguese]

[Rui continues speaking in Portuguese]

[Kendra] I like shopping in specialty markets

like this all the time.

It gives me a glimpse into everyday life in Lisbon

and the culinary habits of the people who live here.

[knife chiseling] [knife rattling]

[Teresa speaking in Portuguese]

[Teresa continues speaking in Portuguese]

[soothing music]

[Kendra] There's something about eating seafood

near a sunny beach that just feels right.

You'll find Eduardo Das Conquilhas in Pareda,

a laid-back, outer district of Lisbon.

It's a family-run restaurant

that's been a local favorite for nearly 60 years.

Inside, you'll find the freshest shellfish simply prepared,

served alongside mallets for cracking.

[mallet pounds]

Everybody likes to come to Eduardo's.

Softball players, ministers, normal people.

Wow. All the people come

to Eduardo's and the difference is

we have chairs, paper, nothing is luxury.

There's everything that the locals and the people like.

[Kendra] Yeah. Okay?

And 60% of people working here is still family,

uncles, cousins, mothers.

[Kendra] Oh, my God. Everybody, yeah.

[Kendra] So did you grow up working here with your dad?

I grew up here.

I was born not inside,

but I grew up here. [Kendra laughs]

[soothing music]

I'm gonna start with the oyster

because I think that you should start with oysters.

Mm. [bright music]

This is definitely like you are snorkeling

and you encounter this.

Crazy and insane.

You can really taste it.

You know it didn't travel very far to get to the table.

Wow, I'm covered in seawater.

Now I wanna go into these little guys.

Mm.

It's stupid, it's so good.

You would never think this little guy,

all that flavor, but it's really fantastic.

There's not anything masking the flavor of the seafood

where you might in other places have

butter or garlic or spices really

amplifying, but also in some ways masking

the flavor of the animal itself.

Here, it's just straight up what you're working with.

So the food is exactly as presented and it's so delicious.

[bright music]

That is very interesting.

It's super meaty.

I would eat shrimp camarao all the time,

[indistinct] shell is a great part of it.

Look how thin and tiny.

It's, like, no problem,

because it's so shatteringly crisp and really skinny.

Kendra, look at this. [Kendra laughs]

Oh, my god. Okay?

[Kendra laughs]

One crab needs 15 years to get one kilo.

This one has three kilos, 300.

So, 48, 49 years old. Oh, my God.

One you have here, okay? [mallet pounds]

Really strong. [mallet pounds]

[both cheering] Yeah!

So it's a party to have crab here.

When you have the full room- Yes, it happens, you-

I mean, stuff is flying. The leg goes to that table

and over there and people smile

and the difference the same to you.

I wanna have my birthday party here.

Well, that's good. That sounds amazing.

[Ricardo] Yeah. [bright music continues]

[machine beeps]

[waves crashing]

For a sustainability-centric take on Portuguese cuisine,

I visited the historic neighborhood Alfama.

SEM focuses on reducing food waste

and supporting regenerative agriculture.

A mission made apparent by the large collection of ferments

and preserved ingredients in crocks lining the dining room.

The refined tasting menu impressively prepared

in a modest, open kitchen space

proves that focusing on the environment can be delicious.

The chefs are not going to come up with a dish

and then think, Okay, now I need this ingredient,

now I need that ingredient. Now you gotta source it.

Yeah, exactly.

We work the other way around

where we have a list of ingredients,

whatever farmers tell us what they have

and then we just work our way around around this, so.

This one is, the star of the show is the yacon,

and it's basically a dish which introduced quite well

how we try to work in a closed-loop system,

and also how we try to present vegetables

and fruits which are undervalued, but for different reasons.

Do I get to eat now, is that what that means?

[Onlooker] Yes. Okay [laughs] great.

The yacon, now, is new to me.

It's a two-bird, super crunchy,

but what's fun is it's a really nice space

for these pickled green vegetables

that have kind of like a smokiness to them.

This one is the black pork.

In Portugal, you'll find the pork living a lot in Alentejo,

which is a region that borders Spain,

and it lives together with a cork tree

where the tree's feeding the pork

and the pork feeds the soil. [gentle music]

This is kind of like a really mellow,

rumbly, low savory, really delicious.

And the mushrooms are providing this great textural contrast

because they're not cooked to oblivion,

which is really nice as a foil to the meat.

This is our non-chocolate cake

because it actually doesn't use any cacao beans.

You've got upcycled Spain grains from the brewing process

in the beer industries, which they mix with a bunch

of other ingredients without having to bear the social

and environmental impact of the cacao industry,

which is far from being transparent

and it's very difficult to source the good stuff.

Mm.

Wow.

Finding uses for other people's waste,

one man's trash type of vibe, I think is a really fun thing,

and it's rare that it shows up on

a fine-dining menu like this. [gentle music continues]

[projector clicking]

Open since 1873,

Confeitaria Nacional offers traditional Portuguese pastries

made with recipes that uphold old-world practices.

Their pastel de nata is one of the most prized in the city.

I took mine to go to explore the stony streets while I ate.

[Kendra and Clerk speaking Portuguese]

Down a snaking side road,

Ze De Mouraria is a historic spot,

cooking unpretentious, homestyle dishes.

[pan sizzles] I polled the staff

for their favorites and ended up with enough food

to feed the whole restaurant.

I'm getting a couple of dishes.

The Bacalhau, a codfish,

the Iscas A Portuguesa, which is a liver preparation,

Bifinihous Ao Alhinho, which is steak with garlic.

[gentle music] Holy cow.

Be careful.

Very, very hot.

[food crunches]

I've been told every single thing is very hot.

So this is our cod.

It's just extremely simple.

It's so straightforward.

It's like humble cooking, right, but so delicious

and you can really taste that a lot of care went into it.

This is our steak with garlic.

This whole meal feels, like, a really warm hug.

The kinda thing you wanna eat on a rainy day.

And then this is our liver, which has potatoes.

It's like sitting in this, like, gorgeous soupy broth.

For food that's so simply prepared like this,

they're leaning really hard on the garlic and the onion

and the really good olive oil is what's bringing the flavor

and salt and that's kind of it.

So, it's letting the ingredients really shine through.

[mallet pounds] [pan sizzles]

It's a unique thing to feel like you're eating

how people actually cook and eat in a place.

So often when you think of restaurants, they're, like,

leveled up in this way that's, like, so much more formal

or something that you couldn't do at home

And, frankly, I probably could not do this at home,

but it gives you that feeling like maybe you could. [laughs]

[projector clicks] [gentle music]

Tin fish might be having a moment globally,

but it's always been popular in Portugal,

home base to many of the most highly-regarded producers

in the world.

Here we have sardines, the classic sardines in olive oil.

This one is a special edition,

produced with fresh sardines in the end of the season

when the sergeants are fat.

Yeah, they are robust. Yes. [laughs]

I think these are the biggest sardines I've ever seen.

Yes, they are really good.

My favorite place to shop for these perfect souvenirs

is Loja Das Conservas, a shop sponsored

by the National Association of the Canned Fish Industry

that boasts over 300 options.

Taste tests ensure you're walking out

with something you love.

Mm.

[Sara laughs] A big bite.

[gentle music continues]

For my final meal in the city,

I'm exploring the modern side of Lisbon cuisine, at OFICIO.

Located in Santos, a lively hub of food and design,

OFICIO considers itself an atypical tosco,

serving elevated plates with Portuguese flavors.

So here we have a very Portuguese dish

that actually goes very into the officious concept.

So it's based on a codfish that we do on the grill,

with the potatoes we do a foam, we can feed the cods.

Then we finish with some olive puree on top.

A lot of coriander because we use a lot

of coriander in Portugal.

So we want to combine traditional Portuguese dish

with just a little bit innovative concept.

A little twist. Yes.

[gentle music continues]

Mm, the potato as this foam, is so voluminous and frothy,

it feels like the dishware

is also really purposefully chosen

'cause it gives that same sort of, like, pillowy-puffy look.

It's really nice and so stunning. [laughs]

We have here the garlic prawns.

In this case, we serve you the prawns totally raw

so you can feel the texture

and the sweetness from the prawn.

So we have some dots that we do a puree

with the heads of the prawn, mixed with some chili

and [indistinct] garlic in the middle.

Beautiful. [gentle music continues]

It's tricking me because the smokiness of that

also gives the illusion of cooked,

gives the illusion of, like, grilled or cooked over a fire.

So, it's like a raw dish with a cooked flavor.

It's really trippy.

[bright music]

I love to visit cities and countries

with vastly different cultural norms

and customs than where I live.

I think I can physically feel my brain expanding when I do.

The shrimp at makes me wanna try making chili

and grilled shrimp-head sauce when I get home.

And the commitment to using every part

of an ingredient at SEM inspires me to bring that energy

to my own dinner parties.

I don't really subscribe to the idea

that you can check a place off your list

and never need to go back.

A trip like this just whets my appetite

for more exploration, more learning

and more incredible culinary experiences.

[bright music fades]