Lately, I've been thinking that I should probably rename my blog to something like, "My marvelous misadventures" or "The Misadventures of Me". If you've spent one day with me, you know why I say this. Here's a small sample for you in case you haven't had the pleasure of witnessing one of my days first hand.
The wonderful Diana Teodoro, challenged me to try Portuguese food and ever since, I've been juggling real life around this mission. After her last suggestions, I didn't have the heart to let Nando's be my first experience so I went all out and unearthed what seems to be a family owned spot called Funchal. (I'm not sure on that but that was the impression I was getting.) Full of vim and vigor, my husband, the kids and I piled into the car in the miserable rain and whipped out a smart phone to get directions. The phone spit out directions to Funchal, Portugal......Right. Really nice idea which I hope to do someday but that was a bit further than we'd intended to go for the day. With some tinkering we got the right directions and headed out.
Gobs of stop and go traffic, crazy amounts of rain, and interesting GPS navigation choices eventually lead us in the general vicinity of where we needed to be. Parking was a breeze and we all piled out of the car with our mountains of rain gear, umbrellas, and my obligatory camera gear. Somehow, the miserable cold rain that had been drenching us on the way, miraculously cleared and the sun was blazing down on us as we exited the car park. Never mind! Who cares that we're now carrying way more than we need? You never know. The rain could come back! And off we set uphill, full of our sense of adventure.
Shepherding kids, uphill, over dressed, in sunny warm weather is always a treat but none the less, we found it. The magnificent oasis of Funchal. There's scaffolding across the front, the lights are out and in the windows are signs saying, "Closed for a kitchen refurbishment. Sorry for any inconvenience." I'm really starting to think this just isn't meant to happen. And just for the record, I could see inside where the words "Piri piri" were actually spelled correctly.
We back tracked and branched out. We ended up eating at the lovely cafe, "Beau Monde". I had an extremely tasty smoked salmon and shrimp sandwich.
My quest for Portuguese goes on. I'm starting to feel like Captain Ahab ever in search of his white whale. Maybe Diana will save the day and find a recipe to share with us.
Ciao,
xoxo
