Rainy days are here again!

Have you ever experienced waking up at night confused because of something that you hear while deeply sound asleep? I did at dawn this morning! Rumbling thunder,lightning and torential rain beating at the shutter window,and also accompanied by the firemens sirene! What a night!!

Water can still be seen in part of the school near our building

This winter,it did´nt rain so much but as the saying goes "When it rains,it really pours" and its what happened today and as the weather forecaster said until the next 3 days.

So,what do we do at home on cases like this? Cant do much ...but i´ll be busy anyway as i have an appointment with my doctor after lunch.

Speaking about lunch,i´m longing to prepare and eat "Portuguese Cozido(boiled)" which consist of pieces of chicken,pork belly,spare ribs,veal meat.Aside from the meats,different types of "Enchidos" like chouriço de carne(pork meat)chouriço de sangue (blood chouriço similar to the english black puding) morcela (meat and blood)farenheira(pork meat and fat and bread).The chouriços are also boiled apart from the meat.Oh,i almost forgot! All these are eaten with rice, boiled with the water from where you boil the chouriços,boiled white beans,boiled vegetables like carrot,cabbage and turnips.

You must be saying "WHAT? ALL THIS FOOD IN ONE MEAL? Yes,its true!Im not joking,we eat all this in just one meal.Even if it has to be a just piece of each of all the ingredients i mentioned above.That will be still a lot of things in your plate.Of course eating cozido will not be the same if you dont have a good portuguese red wine to go with it.
This photo shows the different types of chouriços

So,you see,how can i go on diet in this country? My husband would tell me,EAT! its a diet food because they are all boiled! True,except that the chouriços are with pork fat.Anyway,i really like this dish and i always try to eat more vege than the meat itself.Now im getting hungry and i have no more time to prepare this dish so i´ll just eat some leftovers from the week end.Besides,the doctor advice me to reduce my weight of 74.5kgs( need to reduce 10 kgs.How?HELP!) with my 1.69 height and take care of my diet as im on medication due to high blood pressure.I just check my BP now its 153/93 a bit lower than yesterday.Guess i must control my cravings for "Cozido" LOL!!

By the way,as for the filipino readers,"Cozido" is similar and a richer version of our more simple "Nilaga" in Philippines.Whenever i go on holiday to my country ,i usually bring with me chouriços to make my nilaga at home prepared the portuguese way and my family adore it!!They always asked me to bring chouriço and bacalau (cod fish)and also caned sardines.

Back to reality...We also started our day without water and no cable tv.The later is not important but water yes! Its a good thing hubby realized the situation when he got up earlier than usual that he managed to save a bit of water for his bath. And myself? I always have a reserved of 2 containers with 5 liters each of water on standby in cases like this.

I heard on the radio that a lot of flooded areas in Lisbon,an old building collapse. that made some people homeless and landslide by the riverside has also taken two lives and the usual heavy transit all around.

Pancit or Rice Noodles, Anyone??

Been busy cleaning and clearing our kitchen in the last few days.You have no idea what equipments and other things we have stashed in cupboard or kitchen cabinets.And to think that i only cook for the two of us and with my mom in law during week ends.I broke all my nails scrubbing the dust and fats that were pasted on the cupboards plus the other equipments that i displayed on it(never like wearing gloves when cleaning).Glasses inside the cabinets were also washed.


The next day,i went through our groceries, checked the expiration dates and arranged them on FIFO (first in, first out) basis,Some that has expired were seperated and i started using the ones that are still within the expiration limit.

I prepared this rice noodles for our dinner. In Filipino language,we call it "Pancit", and a simple pancit is usually eaten only for our mid day snack and a special or more elaborate pancit for birthdays because the long noodles signifies "long life".


This was hubbys tray,a plate of noodles with his favorite
japanese chop stick and a glass of red wine. I had the same. Dinner was served in the living room to watched a Champions League football game,Liverpool againts FC Porto of Portugal.Porto scored first but in the end, Liverpool won 3-1.
No problem, i enjoyed eating my noodles anyway..

When there is Respect,there must be Understanding

Most women enjoys shoping,i dont...but my husband does. Surprising, is´nt it?

When i go to supermarket,i only buy what is necessary.But when i go with hubby,we always managed to buy so many things that sometimes we even dont need.Hubby likes to experiment and try new products or groceries to fill up our cupboard.(I always stick to the things i like) I no longer try to discourage hubby in buying things he wants because he gets upset.I dont want him to feel that i keep in control ... He also enjoys window shopping for me,when he comes home he would tell me that there is a nice shoes or dress in a shop so and so that i must come and check one day.

I guess ,we are really two different people that joined together ( East meets West).Different country,different mentalities..But dont get me wrong,we get along very well! WHY? Because,there is LOVE,RESPECT,HARMONY and UNDERSTANDING.

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This week end,we did´nt go to a supermarket.I requested hubby if we can go to downtown Lisbon just to window shop for christmas presents.I remembered an area in Martin Moniz where the shops of Chinese,Indians and African retailers and wholesalers are.
Martin Moniz where you can also see the "Castelo São Jorge" high above athe background.(Photo was taken last summer)

We first entered in one chinese shop to check on a scarf that i saw from the shop window, we did´nt buy anything and we just went ahead with window shopping keeping in mind the things i have to buy later.

It was lunch time as we passed thru a line of chinese wholesalers,and at the corridor we saw a group of chinese having lunch.On their small table was noodles,fried crab and squid,some shell fish and rice.The smell of the food opened our apetite that i said to hubby im feeling for an indian food that moment( because i smelled also an indian food somewhere)We asked one guy where is the nearest indian restaurant,he gave us the way so off we went to the place.

I was so hungry that I could´nt wait for the menu to come and ask hubby to order "Mix Pakora" to start.The waiter asked if we are going to have lunch,we can go to the other room where they served the meals.I looked, but as the room is so dark for my mood and taste we decided to stay where we were with roadside view.

Pakora came with our drinks, and while devouring our pakora,we proceeded with our order,Lamb Khorma,Chiken Tikka Masala,Palao Rice and Garlic Nan,hubby even asked me if i would like to have Palak Paneer,our waiter said he thinks we already have enough order that we might not able to finish all of it.

Lunch was enjoyable until we heard a comotion on the other side.A womens voice,we could´nt understand what she was saying until she raise her voice louder..Ladrão! Ladrão!!!( thief,thief!)I thought maybe there was a love triangle involve.

But later,the person got out from the room,it was an old lady in her 80´s,acompanied by the manager.She left quietly only to be back later with two policemen.She went inside the room with the policemen then she got out again to sit next to our table.She look helpless,looking around her as if looking for sympathy started crying and shaking,so i told hubby to call the waiter to request a glass of water for the lady.She looked at me,i know she needs somebody to talk to, showed me a black spot on her hand.I WAS ATTACKED INSIDE THAT ROOM!!It seems that things got out of hand when a male client got involve with her and assaulted her when she answered him back.FOR GOODNESS SAKE,SHE´S AN OLD LADY!!!What kind of person bodily harm an old lady just because he got irritated with the old lady´s complain about her order???

I dont know what the policemen did inside,probobly nothing will be done about the incident because when they finished speaking with the guy involved,they left again with the old lady..I really felt so sorry for her....

When we arrived home and switch on our christmas trees light,i saw the full moon so low and i took this picture from the christmas tree

Social Gathering of Ex Expats

Every year,a group of ex portuguese expats in Bahrain and Dubai with their families, meet for lunch in a place organized by any volunteer among the group.Meeting place could be anywhere, any part of portugal.

This time,the chosen place was "Quinta do Lago" ( Farm by the Lake) in a small town of Alferarede in Abrantes, 153 kms. from our place in Lisbon.

As we reach the town of Alferarede, we stoped to asked direction from an elder person coming towards us.He did´nt give us the direction at first..he asked if we have space for him in the car.I was surprised,did´nt understand his porpose , hubby answered "yes,there is space for you".He entered the car,greeted us " Bom Dia" ( Good Morning) sat beside my mom in law who was with us, then said ..."I must go with you to give the proper direction ,because you wont get there even if i have to give you the direction".He was right, it was´nt that easy to get to "Quinta do Lago"

After about 10 minutes,we arrived at the place and told hubby to stoped as he will get off from there,hubby told him that he will drive him back to the place where he´s going but he refused and answered that walking will do him good..Very nice and hospitable person.

Quinta do Lago is some sort of transformed farm resort that only served and caters to group of no less than 30 people. I guess, we were about 50, one by one people arrived, i only knew a few but no problem as it was like a big and friendly group gathering.And maybe because im the only oriental looking person,people who regularly attends the ocassion can easily recognized me.

We all gathered at first at the main building,as shown below..arab way, men on one side and women at the other side :) Then we went down to have a drink and starters like cod cakes,green beans tempura style, meat balls diferent types of good chouriçoz,cured cheese,presunto,bread,etc.,etc.



After almost an hour,we were called back to the main building for our lunch. Our table was properly set with a beautiful flower base in the middle and a bottle of white wine in a cooler, red wine ,bottle of water and juice for drinks.

We started with "presunto(cured ham) and melon", followed by a chicken soup that i forgot to take picture



Then came the main course,it started with a portion of sauted Flake Cod Fish and Prawn with presunto(cured ham)covered with potato puree baked in the oven.Served with salad. And I took this picture of my plate after arranging it. Is´nt it beautiful? VERY TASTY TOO!!

When i finished the 1st course,i thought i could´nt eat the 2nd course anymore.I was wrong!The 2nd course was just as good.Its Pork loin baked in the oven, served with baby potatoes and carrots,local cabbage and a piece of chestnut. Meat was so tender and "saboroso"(tasty)as well.
Portuguese people are good eater and you maybe wondering about myself? I already learned their ways although i still control my cravings especially with desserts



As for dessert,an apealing almond ice cream drizled with chocolate syrup.We had coffee afterwards then we went on socalizing around for about an hour or so then the cake was cut and champagne was served to celebrate the ocassion and anounce the next person to organized the lunch for next year.The chosen one was a second generation guy whose father passed away 2 months before this ocassion.




It was getting dark outside, so after we had our cake and champagne,we bid goodbye to everyone.It was a pleasant day spent, and the last picture ive taken outside is showm at the lower righthand side above..

Food Delight

Hubby is a food lover, he enjoys international cuisines.I like to eat as well, but with limitations and my taste for food now varies too. Aside from my native country dishes, I also like portuguese, spanish, italian,miditeranean,asian and arab food.

Cant say Im really a good cook as i dont really enjoy much cooking ( maybe i do but i dont like the preparation), but hubby is all praises to whatever i prepare or put on the table and he tells everybody how a good cook I am..I guess, I learned the hard way when we went into a restaurant venture ( i´ve written about it in my previous post )

When hubby and I first lived together, I was a skinny girl that dont enjoy so much eating except for some favorite desserts. I let hubby believed that I cant cook as I can see that he enjoys cooking and also because I have no knowledge about international or portuguese cuisine.Besides, hubby is very meticulous with the preparation of food especially when he´s preparing something from a recipe book. Everything must be by the book and its not my way especially when im so hungry I like to invent.I always complain that he takes so much time preparing our food and it takes only less than half an hour for us to devour it.

We were still in Dubai, UAE at the time, he comes for lunch and off from work at 12:30 and I finish mine at 1:00, as we live near his work at Dubai Drydocks and I work in mostly in the field, i have no exact time of arrival for lunch. Hubby used to checked my arrival from the kitchen window as he can see our car park from there. He usually prepares me a an orange juice with a little bit of vodka and two crackers with liver pate or cream cheese for an apetizer. Ai´nt he sweet? Its how I was conquered! Lol !!!

He would served me a big piece of steak and would insist that i must eat all of it, and for dessert? He buys me always my favorite black forest cake at Hyatt or the Lebanese sweets in one famous pastry shop! Aaahhhh,those were the days...... This went on for three years until we came to Portugal to live here for good...and bad...

Speaking about food in Greece,the most famous dish is Mousaka, it is a traditional dish prepared with a layer of grilled slices of aubergine in a baking dish, toped with sauted minced meat, toped again with slices of aubergine then covered with white bechamel sauce. At least, Its how I learned how to prepare it taken from one of the recipe book we have. Another hubbys passion, collecting recipe book from all over the world!

We ordered Mousaka in the restaurant to taste the real one, sorry to say i did´nt enjoy it much ( maybe because I prefer my own way) but the Greek salad that we ordered apart was good as it is always served with real fresh crispy cucumber, quartered tomatoes, onion, green pepper, topped with a very good 1 cm thick slice of Feta Cheese!

In another restaurant, we ate an aubergine salad, this was different...its about 4 pieces of a slice grilled aubergine rolled and filled with i think a chick peas paste and smashed meat of the aubergine drizled with olive oil and sprinkled with oregano, beautifully presented in plate as i will show you in the photo below.It was very good!!!

I also had a grilled octopus and hubby had the typical Gyros, slices of grilled pork meat, served with pita bread, fried potato, greek salad with a youghurt dressing.

And for dessert, we had Cassata, some sort of ice cream and we have to drink our espresso with it.

Eating in restaurants in Athens is not so cheap,our normal bill per meal always cost us no less than 45 euros for two. Comparing to Portugal when it comes to meals in restaurants, we served better here and cheaper in price. Our seafoods here and so with the spanish are better prepared and more tasty.

But food aside, Greece has so many more things to offer, so many places to explore and we really enjoyed our holiday .

By the way, we were eating at the roadside splanade next to an ancient building and the name of the Taberna ( restaurant) I could,nt read as it was in greek so I asked the waiter about the name and he told me something like Espinges Taberna in Plaka Square.