Our third day consists of a morning in Lisbon, then the airport back to Madrid to start the Spain portion of our honeymoon! We slept in and didn’t wake up until 10am; therefore missing the free breakfast from our hotel. But that’s okay because there was still one more Portuguese food item on the bucket list called bifana sandwiches!
We checked out of our hotel and walked a few blocks to the nearest cafe that sold bifana sandwiches. These bifana sandwiches is a typical Portuguese sandwich that consists of a break roll with juicy pork meats and drizzled with more pork fat on top. Nothing else. So simple yet so good. The bread soaked up the pork fats, which was delicious to eat.
After finishing the sandwiches on a market square right outside and people watching, we headed to the airport early because now we’re paranoid about missing flights. We checked out ANA Lounge in Terminal 2 of Lisbon Airport. It served plenty of complimentary bottled beverages, sandwiches, pastries, salad, soups, snacks, wine and cocktails. We hoarded a bunch of water bottles for the upcoming trip. We will be taking the train to the various Spain cities so carrying bottled water won’t be a problem.
After we landed in Madrid, we checked into our hotel and wandered out. There were so many restaurants everywhere and almost all had outdoor dining. We were literally dead center in the city. We decided to go on a whim and just picked a random place to eat. To our dismay, we accidentally chose a “cafeteria” version called Corner Cafe that served a variety of American, Italian, Portuguese, etc foods and snacks. It was not totally Spanish. Oops! We decided we would only order a few snacks and then use our slow 2G internet to research a Spanish tapa bar.
We ordered sardine in vinegar and Spanish chorizo in cider. I think the waiter got one of our orders wrong? The meatballs totally taste like Italian meatballs in marinara sauce and green peas. Tasted good! But not the Spanish cuisine I was hoping for.
The sardines in vinegar was surprisingly tasty with a hint of lemon. The sardines weren’t too salty and the lemon and vinegar contrasted the salty flavor nicely.
We found one! It is a Spanish and Mediterranean fusion bar called Inclan Brutal Bar. It has Iberian food. I realized that Spain has a lot of Iberian food and Mediterranean cultural mixes. Now this bar is SO TOTALLY COOL! It was weird with each section of the restaurant decorated totally different but it made sense. One section had a ceiling covered in big red roses and velvet red walls. The next over was ancient books on walls like a library. Then an outside garden. Gives me Alice in Wonderland vibes.
Now our cocktails were even cooler!! Vince got the Brutal Kraken! which consists of Kraken Rum, dark rum, Banana liquor, Coconut syrup homemade, Toasted banana cordial, Lime juice. It was a long drink, sweet and tropical served in a huge octopus vessel.
And then I got the Nemesis, which consists of June Gin Liquor, Brockmans Gin, Midori melón liquor, Homemade Raspberry shrub, Salty lemon water, Lime juice, Lavender bitter. It was a long drink in honor of the goddess of justice and balance. According to the description, it had fruity touches provided by red fruit gin, melon liqueur and refreshing by acid raspberry syrup, finished with a touch of roses reminiscent of the goddess of retributive justice. I loved it! It was served in a top hat as the vessel.
We ordered the Undercooked potato Omelette with black truffle pate. It was a juicy potato confit in olive oil and seasoned with black truffle. The egg inside seemed medium rare and runny, which is my favorite! We love this potato omelette since we first had it at our first lounge!
After yesterday’s octopus and being in Spain, how can I resist ordering octopus? You actually get a WHOLE octopus which includes the head too! (Softest part to eat mind me). This dish is called the octopus tentacle with potato parmentier and kalamata olive. This was cooked a bit more than last night’s octopus and slightly more tough to cut, but had some black char and grilled texture. It sat on top of this super soft and tasty potato purée that’s to die for!
This picture does not do justice how large the plating was. Thank god the rice was spread out super thin all across! Even so, it was a lot of food. For once in my life I had to ask a takeout box while traveling. Not sure how we’re gonna eat this the next day.. This dish is called Rice with Iberian meats and artichoke flower. It was delicious. I tried asking our waiter what kind of sauce and flavoring was used to make the rice but she couldn’t tell me in English. She said something about meat juices. Judging from how it may be cooked, I imagine something similar to paella and risotto and letting the juices evaporate and condense. The meat was perfectly medium rare.
After we dropped out takeout back at the hotel, we did a short little walk a block over to try some sangria at a restaurant called Lateral. Vince says we must drink sangria while in Spain.
Now they didn’t offer glasses of sangria so we were forced to order a pitcher. I had just two glasses of it and Vince was able to drink the rest. How he consumes so much volume all the time I will never be able to understand. It was pretty good. Fruity and lightly sweet drink. The restaurant also looks soooo cute that we decided we will come back tomorrow for dinner!
