Magnum ice cream bar in Lisbon

There are many hills in Lisbon which means there are lots of steps going up and down. I always wonder how elderly people in Lisbon do their grocery shopping, especially in the middle of summer when the temperature could easily go up to 35 degrees.

It was hot summer day in Lisbon. I said to my husband that I wanted ice cream. You can get ice cream anyway in Lisbon - there are lots of good gelato places in the city but it had to be the ice cream bar from Magnum Pleasure Store (http://www.magnumicecream.com/uk/inside-magnum/pleasure-store.html?gclid=CPKu9M34jM4CFa8y0wodN2sJBA&gclsrc=aw.ds) at Rue Trinidad 13. This meant that, instead of going to a gelato parlour around the corner from our hotel, we had to walk up the hill with lots of steps just to have an ice cream bar....  things I would do for food ...

Every now and again, I had to rest in order to have my breath back, pretending that I stopped to have a look at some pictures on walls ...

I was looking at this sardines picture on the wall. Next thing I thought something big just passed by me. I turned around and guess what!  I saw a man carrying three sacks of root vegetables on his left shoulder, walking down the steps with steady gait and with ease in the sweltering heat!! He would definitely deserve a Magnum ice cream bar.

We continued on, going  further up the hill and eventually found the Store...

To be honest, I don't think the place is that obvious from the street.  I would not have noticed if we weren't specifically looking for the place. Magnum Pleasure Store is upstairs in an unassuming building.

When we arrived, the cue was not that long so we were quite lucky, great, we could get served soon...

The idea is very simple. You choose chocolate coating as base flavour from white, milk or dark chocolates, you then choose 3 toppings for sprinkles. That's it for 3 Euro.

The only difficulty is that you won't know what flavours you can get for sprinkles untill you get to the sprinkles section. You have to make a swift executive decision on the spot, otherwise you would hold up other people who are cueing patiently behind you.... and this is also the reason why the cue is not actually moving that fast. We thought we could get served quickly but we were wrong. We still had to wait a bit.

Made of wooden ice cream spoon ....

I thought I had to start counting wooden ice cream spoons whilst waiting.

Finally our turn came. We paid 3 Euro each and the girl at the till explained how the system works. I then had a quick peak at what flavours there were ....

Next thing, I was asked what flavour of chocolate I wanted. I asked for milk chocolate and my husband asked for white chocolate. And then it starts ....

This was the person who made my ice cream bar.... he was very friendly and cheerful. When I started snapping away with my mobile phone, he kept asking if I was taking video or photo and I thought Oh, maybe I was not supposed to do that ... then my husband told me to say yes so that he could start creating my ice cream. 

Dipping an ice cream bar into milk chocolate sauce ...

My ice cream creator then asked me what sprinkles I wanted and that I could choose 3. I can be very indecisive but I had to make a quick decision at that point but it was not easy. On what basis should I decide?  Should I go for colour scheme, should I go for flavour combinations or should I go for how it would look good in photo...

I was under pressure, knowing there were people waiting for me to choose and move on swiftly; I got to decide NOW.

I don't know what and why I chose but I went for rose petal, pistachio and dried fruit tea. Such a random combination. My ice cream creator then said I could choose another one because I chose dried fruit. Oh no, more choice, what I am gonna choose ....

My husband suggested meringue. I had no time to waste and meringue sounded great so I said meringue!

My ice cream creator started working on my custom-made ice cream bar. Shaking all my selected ingredients into a silver shaker, shook them up quickly and sprinkled over my milk chocolate coated bar....

He then drizzle chocolate sauce ....

He then put chocolate stamp of Magnum's M on my bar, advising me to keep it flat and leave it just a little to let all sprinkles and M would settle.

On my left, another creator was creating my husband's Magnum ice cream bar ...

Once done, we walked across the shop trying to find a place to sit and eat...

Here are our ice cream bars ..

My husband's bar with pistachio, honey grazed almonds and dark chocolate shavings looks really good and neat and obviously he must have thought through quickly what would look nice and tasty in such a relatively short time.  He is a very decisive man, always logical and that shows on his ice cream bar.

Compared to that, mine looks so chaotic with rose petals, pistachio, meringue and dried fruit tea combination - no strategy whatsoever in terms of colour scheme or flavour combinations, just chaotic! ... Does it mean I am chaotic ...?

I tried my bar - you get sweetness from meringue, nuttiness from pistachio and a bit of perfume-like aroma from rose petal and dried fruit tea. To be honest I don't think the combination worked that well but they were not horrible neither. Just ... different .... I got different flavours that kept changing or morphing (?) within my mouth. Well, that was fun, and it was a chocolate ice cream bar after all. It was delicious how chaotic the flavour toppings were.

And never mind about the calories ... at least I did some exercise earlier, going up the hill with lots of steps, so I did deserve Magnum ice cream bar that day.

That's all forks!

Sol e Pesca - canned fish for lunch in Lisbon

When you go to Lisbon (or Portugal), you notice canned fish in colourful wrappers being sold as souvenir items. There are now quite a few shops dedicated just for selling canned fish in Lisbon, primarily for tourists. However, amongst all these shops, the oldest Conserveira de Lisbon on Rua dos Bacalhoeiros 34 in Lisbon has been selling canned products since 1930. Shop design is rather old fashioned,  making you feel as if you are in a specialised store to purchase something order-made.
One of their registered brand canned fish is Tricana brand.

You buy the can and they wrap it for you as if it's something very precious. Canned fish is never be the same again ...

Canned fish industry started in 1853 in Portugal preserving sardines in olive oil, at peak times in its industry by 1983 there were more than 150 canning factories. In the late 80's and 90's the industry declined however it has now seen the revival with renovated packages as well as emergence of high-end, gourmet canned shops and restaurants.

Yes, you know they are only canned fish and yes you can buy them at supermarkets here, but somehow, when you are in Lisbon and see them in colourful and retro packaging, you cannot just ignore them and you ended up buying them for souvenir...

So,  being a model consumer and do what tourists do, I bought some cannes a few years ago whilst in Lisbon and have totally forgotten about them as they were left in a box sitting in the back of the larder cabinet.

I then wondered how People in Lisbon actually eat them. I know it's a silly question but do they have special way of cooking with them or just simply empty the contents of the can onto a plate and serve?

So we decided to try this hole-the-wall bar Sol e Pesca (meaning sun and fishing) (http://www.solepesca.com/S/Home.html) on Rua Nova do Carvalho 44. Apparently this place was featured on Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" in Lisbon on TV but I totally missed that.

It's located on 'Pink Street' which becomes very lively late at night, especially after pubs and bars in Bairro Alto shut. We went there for lunch so the street was rather quiet with some tourists.

Menu on the wall by the entrance 

The place used to be an old fishing equipment shop that has become the inspiration of their decor inside with fishing rods, hooks, nets along with hundreds of colourful cans of Portuguese fish which they sell.

Menu attached to fishing rod 

It was quite a hot day so we ordered light beer each which was really cold and refreshing. We were not sure what to order so we just ordered 2 x lunch set menu which consists of canned fish, salad, bread and a drink.

A plate of canned fish turned out to be tuna mixed with beans and sweet corns. We thought a basket of bread is to share between us and turned out that we get the basket each!

We were not expecting anything other than trying canned fish at canned fish serving bar so this was a very interesting experience to us. The bill came only to 12 euro for both of us, which is even better.

A few days later, we came back to this place for a very light snack/lunch again.

It was another hot day again, in fact the temperature reached 34 decree that day, so we ordered another beer each.

We had a look at menu, still not knowing what to order but figured that we would not go wrong if we pick the ones with thumb-up signs.

We ordered Sardines with red peppers and tuna in olive oil with bread.

The waiter then looked for our cans from the shelves - aha, those canned fishes are not just for display to sell but also to serve.... interesting ...

The waiter then came back with our canned fish ... basically they empty the cans onto plates, put lemon wedges and serve. Such a simple idea but it works at this bar.

We celebrated our wedding anniversary whilst we were in Lisbon and I am sure one of days we came here for lunch happened to be our anniversary and also went to A Cevicheria for dinner . If people asked us what we did for our anniversary, we say, "We had canned fish for lunch and raw fish for dinner" and can laugh about it, ha ha ha.

If you are in Lisbon, you should try this place, either for a quick, light and cheap lunch or late at night  with your friends for drink and nibble like tapas for an experience.

If you don't like fish, you can still buy Sardine shape chocolate for souvenir instead, ha ha ha.

That's all forks!

Wimbledon theme Afternoon Tea at Blythswood Square Hotel, Glasgow

I am still on holiday mood, so why not celebrate it by having a lovely afternoon tea. This time we went to Blythswood Square Hotel (http://www.townhousecompany.com/blythswoodsquare/) in Glasgow.

I remember when this building was used to be RAC club, which is now a 5-star spa hotel. Wow, such a long long long time ago ...

We stepped inside the building and went upstairs to the lounge where afternoon tea is served.

My husband and I have been to this hotel few times for having some cocktails in the evening on weekends. It has a very relaxing atmosphere and also has good selections of cocktails.

We were seated by the window side table where we had a very lovely view over the Blythswood Square.

When we were seated, they brought us glasses of cucumber water [water infused with slices of cucumbers] and the afternoon menu.

It's Wimbledon time so it's only apt to have their Wimbledon Afternoon Tea.

We don't eat meat so we asked for roast beef sandwich to be replaced by something else, which is not a problem to them at all.

They then brought a box containing selections of tea leaves we can choose. We can have unlimited tea to go with the afternoon tea.

There are Lapsing Souchong, Assam, Darjeeling, Ceylon, Earl Grey,  Jasmine Green, Gun Powder Green and normal breakfast tea. You can also ask for a coffee instead if you wish.

I ordered Darjeeling as I like its floral aroma whilst my husband ordered Ceylon tea.

Since we are on holiday and I like cocktails at this place, my husband offered to drive so that Maria and I could have a glass of cocktail each to go with the afternoon tea. So we also perused the cocktail menu and decided to try their Local at Heart special selection by the hotel ... Blythswood Belter which has Scotland's national drink (?) Irn Bru, and Moet & Chandon Rose Champagne in it.

Despite the combination of ingredients, the cocktail is very enjoyable and actually goes very well with the Afternoon tea. We also loved the gradients of colours created by Peach bitters, Irn Bru and Rose Champagne - how pretty it is!

Anyway, whilst we were enjoying our lovely cocktail, our tea arrived...

After some wait, our Wimbledon theme afternoon tea arrived - we got a 3-tier stand each, delightful!

On the top tier there are selection of Wimbledon theme cakes of strawberry and cream corn, lemon and mint macaron decorated as a tennis ball, pistachio and polenta sponge decorated as a tennis court net with tennis racket and a ball made of marzipan, Champagne soaked berry pavlova and orange blossom cake....

Delightful orange blossom sponge cake 

Strawberry cream corn decorated with white chocolate
 - inside the corn there was custard cream 

We enjoyed our afternoon tea in a very leisurely pace in a relaxing atmosphere and without feeling being rushed.

After we finished, we walked down the stairs to the entrance, admiring their chandelier ....

As you go out, you also notice a lovely alcove where you can sit ...

Blythswood Square Hotel does themed afternoon tea depending on occasions. I may wish to come back and next time try their Halloween Afternoon Tea in Autumn ....

That's all forks!