Viking Hemming: Good Portuguese food on a floating hotel

23-29 March 2014
This entry concerns a cruise on the river Douro in Portugal. The cruise has been reviewed elsewhere on TripAdvisor and a link to my report about the cruise can be found here.
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g189180-d1549777-r199569793-Douro_River_Cruises-Porto_Porto_District_Northern_Portugal.html#REVIEWS
Whilst there were issues with the actual cruise bit of the holiday, I have to say that the food on Viking cruises is excellent in my opinion and what we received on this trip was up to the standard of previous trips. The big difference was that previous trips with Viking had been supplied with Austrian Chefs, and the one on this trip was Portuguese, and we were seeing Portuguese cuisine. Portuguese cuisine is not world famous for several reasons (the ingredients and style are a bit limited and rustic), but what was offered to us left a positive impression. Accompanied by decent local wines, I found little to complain about.

This was the menu from the first night on board. It was probably not as good as some of the subsequent menus. There was some evidence that they were still getting their act together on the first night but things settle down fairly rapidly. Typically there was an amuse-bouche to start then followed by a starter, main and desert or cheese and if you wanted both desert and cheese that was no problem. On this occasion not being certain what roasted meagre was (turns out to be a local white fish) and not particularly wanting duck or the vegetarian dish I opted for the 'always available' option and I knew from past experience that there pan-seared New York steaks were good.

I think the one below is the Portuguese Sausage.

The steak.

None of the individual portion sizes are big, but invariably, by the end of the meal, one was replete. Hotness was not an issue, and was better than Restaurants, probably because they knew they were dealing with a largely UK and American client base who wanted their food hot. I was happy to give 8's to the food on the trip, but never more. The food appeared already plated up, with covers after a bit of a wait. It looked like it was being brought up from down below. Not an easy job. The staff were new to the roles, as this was the maiden voyage, and as we did not have assigned dining tables, we found one with a particularly helpful waitress who looked after us during the holiday. I hesitate to use the work voyage, as we did not actually go very far, but that is another matter dealt with on TripAdvisor.

Portuguese cheeses,whilst interesting are not what you might go looking for. There was nothing of particularly interesting taste or texture, and I guess the French probably have the cheese thing sewn-up.

As always on this sort of trip, there will be people who do not find the choice of food or its taste to their satisfaction. I have to say that I have never had a problem with food on Viking River Cruises and have always looked forward to that aspect of the holiday.

More pictures of different meals:

There was no evidence of resupplying the ship; we never saw the supply wagons arriving. We can therefore only assume that the whole of the catering supplies for the voyage was there when we left Porto and stored in it either chilled or frozen. As there were only about 80 passengers, and the trip only lasted 6 days, this sounds entirely feasible.

Hotel Tivoli, Lisbon:

22nd of March 2014
The Hotel Tivoli is a well-known long-standing fixture in the Avenue Liberdade in the north of the centre of Lisbon. I had actually stayed there many years ago when I was looking at a new job and it was with positive recollections that I remembered that the rooms in the hotel were quite comfortable and the breakfast had been OK. That was well before the days when I used to record methodically what I ate and so I welcomed the opportunity to record this hotel now. On entering the hotel one can be quite impressed by the somewhat open but dark public areas. Rooms are quite comfortable but given that this should be a five star hotel it is probably not five-star in UK expectation.  We were there for a couple of nights as an organised tour group prior to a river cruise and although we did not eat any meals in the restaurant we used it for breakfast. I enjoy hotel breakfasts and among the various entries on this blog I have recorded some excellent examples of what I would call first-class breakfasts. Last year during a trip to Lisbon, where I actually stayed out of town in Sintra, there was a truly first class experience in the Pena Longha resort, which is also five star. One of the acid tests of a five star breakfast is the presence of smoked salmon and sparkling wine. Whilst the Tivoli had the former, the latter was not to be found. These are hard times still in Portugal. As noted elsewhere, Portugal is a country where hot food is not an essential component of life, and it was no surprise that the various hot food stations were only modestly hot. I guess I should know better and just stick to the cold buffet. Maybe it is just that it is accepted that Southern European Food may not be hot.

No steam and not much in the way of flames

As you can see it is all very old fashioned and a bit silver service in style.

My modest selection from the hot buffet: not very hot, and probably about a 7

Bitter experience of eating in group tours indicates that the early bird gets the choice of fresh worms. We were there pretty much just after the restaurant opened. It was the weekend, so they were catering to tourists and groups. Within about a half hour when the more leisurely of the group decided to stir, all the tables were occupied, and there was a queue to get in to breakfast. In my opinion, this is something that should not happen in a five star hotel, even with a group that is adhering to a strictish timetable.

In conclusion, five star it was not, but it was a comfortable hotel. The breakfast was four star at best, and could have been hotter.

Bota Alta, Lisbon: feels like you are in Portugal

21st March 2014
Knowing that I was going to be arriving in Lisbon late on a Friday night, and facing the possibility that it might be a big night out there, it seemed a good idea to have a restaurant reservation in place. Reviewing various Internet resources for a suitable place not so far from the hotel we were using (the subject of another review later), the area of Bairro Alto became an obvious choice. The catch is that the area, which is the sort of quaint drinking and eating area of older Lisbon is up a steep hill and has to reached by either a funicular type tram or lift (both very quaint and part of the Lisbon experience). The restaurant does not have a web presence of its own that is easily locatable, but there are plenty of other references, and a menu in Portuguese. You will need a map or a taxi to locate the place but it is simple once you know where you are and it is not far from the tram.
The name comes from an old boot that is on display, and the place is a mixture of tourist and local trade. I made a reservation over the phone from the UK, some of the staff speak very good English, and are very helpful. The appearance is old world quaint, and tables are tessellated in to get the maximum occupancy of the two rooms of this small establishment.
On the table there are olives bread and cheese, but you have to pay extra for these, and they are not strictly necessary. I chose the sopa alentegana, a typically Portuguese style dish as a first course which was sold to me from the English menu as a garlic soup. According to the Portuguese wikipedia the basic composition of the bread dish is garlic, salt, olive oil, boiling water and sliced ​​bread, however to this mixture are added herbs like cilantro or penny royal and can be serve with fresh fish (baked or fried), cod or egg (poached or boiled). I think mine came with an egg and was more like the Spanish Sopa da Ajo except with the bread in it.

Suffice it to say, this is not for people who want a light meal. The taste was not as garlicky as I might have predicted, and the bread soaked up a lot. However it was hot enough scoring an 8 which is probably as hot as anything is ever going to get in Portugal in a restaurant.

For main course I had Carne de Porco à Alentejana. According to Wikipedia it  is one of the most traditional and popular pork dishes of Portuguese cuisine. It is typical from the Alentejo region, in Portugal, hence the word Alentejana (from Alentejo) in its name. It is a combination of pork and clams (not apparent in my version), with potatoes and coriander. Usually  pork is marinated for four hours in white wine, paprika, chopped garlic, coriander, bay leaf, and salt and pepper. It is then fried until golden brown at which point clams are added and cooked for an additional two minutes. Traditionally this dish is served with cubed French fries or baked potatoes.

As you can see this is may be not exactly as described and  pretty heavy stuff Some reviewers on TripAdvisor have found the traditional food served here to be a bit rough and artisanal. The local cuisine is not known for its finesse. Again this was hot enough scoring an 8 but was heavy and a bit greasy. The vegetable matter was a vinaigrette based cole slaw like accompaniment.Very traditional, and may not for everyone.

I would have no hesitation in recommending this place as a suitable local restaurant for tourist use. The prices were very reasonable, and staff very helpful. I would go there again.

Est Caffe, Terminal 1 London Heathrow Airport: take it or leave it.

21st March 2014
A somewhat delayed series of reports for the past month.
We were on our way to Lisbon, prior to joining a cruise of the Douro (another story which I report on TripAdvisor). There is not much choice for a decent breakfast in Terminal one. Some of the usual places, and picnic food. I knew from previous bitter experience that the food on a TAP flight to Portugal in economy would be minimalist (turned out to be true), so I am of the opinion that it is better to stoke up, given that you never know where the next meal is coming from (we actually did, as I had booked dinner in Lisbon that night)
Est is an open plan cafe that purports to be Italian emphasis. It is mainly targeting the Pizza market and like some of the other food outlets, Breakfast is seen as a money spinning afterthought.

There is very little web based information about what goes on here (why would they need it) and the TripAdvisor reviews are extremely mixed. http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186338-d2085459-Reviews-Est_Caffe-London_England.html I am not a great fan of traditional full English Breakfast - I like some bits of it, and chose on this occasion the frittata.

I guess they cannot forget that they mainly do pizzas. The dish was marked by content of choirzo which is not very Italian. It was fairly hot 7.7 on the the scale but was a bit rubbery, somewhat overcooked  and came with no accompaniments: everything is extra. I would hesitate before making this choice again. The coffee as usual came much before food, and was small and not very hot. The bill for two of us came to about £17 which is fairly typical for a breakfast for two at Heathrow. Sellers' market. I think I would hesitate before going back there again for Breakfast for many reasons. Others seem to agree.

A Brasa: Brazilian barbecue food in North Finchley: a real find

28th Feb

NOTE: AS OF DECEMBER 2014, THIS PLACE HAS CLOSED, AND DESPITE THE LARGE NUMBER OF VIEWS OF THIS BLOG ENTRY, SUCCESS DID NOT COME.
A SHAME AS THE ONLY SIMILAR ALTERNATIVE IS A BIT MORE EXPENSIVE.


Our little dining club of friends took a punt on a new restaurant in North Finchley opposite Sainsbury's. This place has had many identities recently, some of which were short lived. Despite a good review in the Sunday times, the Polish Cafe did not last, and the succeeding Italian came and went in a few weeks. I had been pondering this place for a few weeks, and even looked in, but my lunchtime visit failed to reveal what was in store.
This is the antithesis of the smart London restaurants with young staff that treat you as if they are doing you a favour. This is run by adults who treat their customers almost as if they were their children.It all really feels like someone decided to give this a go, without really figuring out a cutting edge business plan. You can't really work out from the outside what is going on, the pricing is confusing, even the nature of what you will get is not entirely sure, but all became clear. There are no reviews yet (This may be the first) on the web for you to look it up.
The place has a minimum of web presence, limited to one page on facebook, which in retrospect was quite helpful https://www.facebook.com/ABrasaRodizio/info . They say "We are a local, friendly Portuguese restaurant at the heart of North Finchley. A Brasa is a rodizio restaurant which means 'rotating'. We offer a unique dining experience where you will taste an assortment of the finest grilled meat cooked in front of your very own eyes." It is not exactly in front of your eyes, and what comes next is always a surprise. As well as the Brazilian experience, the menu has less random dishes of meat or fish, and a selection of pasta.
The Rodizio meal is a fixed price of about £18 (price seems to change) for all you can eat meat and salad and hot vegetable buffet. We went on a Friday night, and the place is not so busy.
The pictures are not very good as they were taken with my phone and the lighting is quite dim.

The buffet has nothing too strange here. The hot vegetarian section had a mix of bean stew, rice, potatoes and mixed green vegetable. This was at typical steam heated buffet heat. The salad section is pretty basic. The appearance of the food is not an issue here.

The meat comes on skewers and is very reminiscent of the Argentinian restaurant El Vaquero that I have reviewed before, but as there were fewer customers, the variety and frequency of delivery was more limited.

There are lots if little tasters of freshly cooked meats, and from where I was sitting, I could see the skewers spinning round, but this was not a display of artisanal cooking. All sorts of other skewers followed with lamb, beef, chicken hearts, sausages as shown above, and it just keeps on coming until you say 'enough'

Diners are given little tongs to help peel the meat off the skewers as it is sliced. The meat is pre-seasoned, and it is a mix of well done and rare. It would be interesting to see how things work if the place gets busy, as I guess there would be a more rapid turnaround. Certainly things did not move quickly when we were there.

The good news is that the meat is very tasty, probably having been marinated or salted or both prior to the spit roast and it is very hot, scoring about a 9.3 on the CHOF scale. Top marks for hotness and novelty.

The bill was as expected, at about £18 per person for the meat and buffet and extra for drinks and service.  They do not take cards of any kind, which I had suspected, and there was a flurry of ATM use in the street to procure the necessary cash by the others. This is unusual, but I dare say it keeps the costs down and the tax man confused.

I can only hope this place survives as it represents something out of the ordinary, and the somewhat laid back nature of the operation leads to a relaxed atmosphere. The all you can eat approach will surely be appreciated by meat lovers.It was also very hot. We will definitely be going back there again.

Mela Harborne: a good way to end a trip to Brum.

26th Feb
Another visit to my mate in Birmingham, and this time we ate at his local favourite curry house, not in the Balti triangle, but in an area with plenty of similar choice. I looked at the menu, and thought that it was so much less expensive than London, that it became cost neutral to buy a cheap train ticket to Birmingham and have a curry there, but you have to have the time.
The restaurant, which is up a narrow flight of stairs has a modern air and has a useful web site at http://www.mela-harborne.co.uk/ . Note the pictures of the somewhat thick based chairs on the bottom left of their home page. These were newish chairs and the funny thing was that they were too high for the tables. I swapped mine for one of the more conventional chairs. Then menu which can be found on the web pages is a mix of classic and not so classic dishes.
Breaking a pattern of a lifetime, I had the Nargis Kebab as a starter. This is 'traditional minced lamb wrapped around a boiled egg (sounds a bit like a Scotch Egg) served with an omelette and fresh salad.

Which when cut open look like 

A little unusual in texture, taste and appearance. It was very tasty but could have been a bit hotter, coming in at a 7.2 on the scale.
For main course I had Chicken Shashlick buhna balti which is diced chicken cooked with olive oil, garlic, ginger and home-made shashlick sauce with diced bell peppers and onions in a medium sauce served in a traditional balti dish served with pulau rice

This dish was fine, but a big heavy on the onions, and was kept hot on the hot plates that you can just see the edge of in the background.

I would recommend this restaurant, and the prices are very fair. My friend had the modu lamb, which he spoke highly of, and I might try next time.

Dai Viet: go east for hot food

22 February 2014
The Dai Viet is a Vietnamese Restaurant in the unassuming East London Suburb of Wanstead. According to Wikipedia Đại Việt (大越 [ɗâjˀ vjə̀t], literally "Great Viet") is the official name of Vietnamese dynasties beginning with the rule of Lý Thánh Tông (r. 1054–1072), the third king of the Lý Dynasty.  I think here they mean is is just a great Vietnamese restaurant. Although you cannot tell from the frontage, once you enter, you are in a barn of a place, and it looks like it would be a great place for a party or some other function.
We went there with family of eclectic taste, in fact the same family we went with to eat at the Friendly Thai, but having learned our lesson, we made sure that the ordering was very precise. Whilst the place was not full on a Saturday night, parking in the streets around can be a bit tricky. As it is very close to the tube station, that could be an option.
The staff seemed to be a mixed ability group, and initially we had some difficulty in ensuring our orders had been taken correctly, but we should not have worried, as not only were they correct, but very precisely divided between the group. They have a fairly useful web site at http://www.daiviet.co.uk/ but the whole menu is not there. My wife and I had a set meal for two, and none of the set meals are mentioned on the web site. It was also interesting to note that all dishes containing ostrich had been physically deleted from the menu. There have been various other reviews of the restaurant on TripAdvisor and the like, mostly positive, but the one thing that is repeated is the lack of authentic taste noted by those that have been to Vietnam. I have reviewed my more local Viet cafe (Vynam of Finchley) and noted several times that the food had the authentic taste of the east. I would agree that even though the food here was good, it lacked that particular tang, and was probably more geared to suburban London palates, the caveat being that we did order off a set menu, and would need to go back and try some of the more challenging dishes. There was Viet Beer to drink, and I found it very palatable, and quite middle European in taste.
So here is a catalogue of the meal.

This was a dish of mixed starters with prawn and papaya salad, three kinds of roll, two of which were hot and one was a cold summer roll with prawn and salad. The dark things are grilled minced beef in sapu leaves (rather like a soft kofte mince). All of this was excellent, good quanitities and adequately hot, at about a 7.8 when it was meant to be hot. Next came the king prawn and sweet potato pancakes.

This had a somewhat bland flavour, dominated by the batter and sweet potato, but was an interesting mix of textures, and was freshly fried and hot (9 on the scale). The highlight of the main courses was the so called campfire steak in soy based sauce with leeks, onions, celery and carrots garnished with coriander (sic). This was described in the menu as a stew, and truly was one of the few times when anything has scored a 10/10 on the CHOF scale for the reasons that are clear in the pictures:

At the time of serving, the waiters, clad in black, set fire to flammable liquid under the iron stew pot, which then burns for a few minutes. The good news is that it brings the contents up to boiling point, and therefore leaves it with a CHOF score of 10. As you can see there is a little trickiness in serving yourself from the fiery inferno, but the flames subside. I am not sure what the fuel is, as there was no clear smell of something either good or bad. The stew was accompanied by egg fried rice and an interesting mix of stir fried vegetables: all hot, extremely tasty, but lacking the taste of the east. After discussion, my prior comments may be related to the taste of fish sauce, which was not in evidence here.

There was no desert, but portions of fresh orange were served. All in all, a good experience, but lacking the taste of the east. The set meal costs £21.50 per person with 10% service charge for the somewhat functional service.

Despite the possibly somewhat dumbed-down nature of the set meal, I think we would like a return visit to try some of the more interesting things from the menu.