So you bring your parents to a city for the first time. They don't like high-end eateries but the quality must be uncompromising. As all Chinese do, they like sharing and there must be sufficient choice. Lisbon's tabernas could've been a decent shout but depending on where you go, the menus can be quite limited. So I went for something which could've been a big hit or a big miss; the Timeout Market (Mercado da Ribeira), a food hall comprising of mini-restaurant versions of well-established, well-to-do eateries around Lisbon.
Even though online reviews are generally upbeat about this place, when I've been to similar concepts in other cities, sometimes the choice of vendors can really let the place down. The Timeout Market was actually pretty, no, very good in that regard – pretty much everything we tried was on point, tasty and not overly priced.
First up, the Wednesday special at Marlene Vieira – Coxinha de Chef – belly pork cooked with clams, potatoes and parsley, a banana cake and red wine for only 12.50 Euro. Not brilliant, but tasty, especially the pork, and definitely a bargain.
Then, our favourite stall, Alexandre Silva. Roasted bacalhau, boiled potatoes and spinach. Brilliantly flakey and fleshy salt cod, doused in olive oil with a touch of sea salt, a really great way to introduce my parents to Portuguese bacalhau. Quite a few of the stalls had a touch of Asian fusion, and this was no exception – as my dad is the king of rice, he was pretty happy with his black squid ink risotto, jazzed up with wakame seaweed and the freshest, melt in your mouth slices of sauteed scallop (which could have been bigger).
Not very Portuguese but very up my alley was the Sardine Nigiri Sushi at Sea Me (the two on the left of the pic below). This dish had a slightly heavy price tag, but it was accompanied by priceless spectrum of flavours – oily, rich sardine, charred on the outside with a blowtorch and brought to life by a few crystals of sea salt, atop slightly sweet and sour sushi rice. Really, really good stuff. I could say it matched some sushi I tried in Tokyo, but I won't, as I'm not a man of controversy, generally. Less memorable was their Cod and Almond nigiri sushi, which was lacking in both the simple, sophisticated and the punchy, bold flavour departments. Don't do what we did, get two portions of Sardine Nigiri Sushi instead.
There are many, many more choices available here, not as many as a Singaporean Hawker Centre but for European standards, it's pretty good. Go forth and discover this gem.
Mercado da Ribeira (Timeout Market)
Address: 481,, Av. 24 de Julho, 1200 Lisbon, Portugal
Opening hours: Sun – Weds: 10am – midnight; Thurs – Sat 10am – 2am
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