We woke up once again to another rainy day—and cold. Ricardo and Andrew have a beautiful, enormous home in the middle of nowhere.
Ricardo and Andrew drove us into the University town of Coimbra. We walked through all the little pedestrian streets, which reminded us of Lisbon. We stopped off for an authentic Portuguese meal.
Every Portuguese recipe “à Brás” uses onions, eggs, and straw potato. One of the most famous recipes of this style is Bacalhau à Brás, which Andrew and I had.
Louise had beautifully grilled cod. Bacalhau à Lagareiro takes cod loins, chopped garlic, onion, olive oil (a lot!) and small unpeeled potatoes. After roasting, the potatoes are crushed (batatas ao murro) and seasoned with pepper.
Ricardo had a potato dish and a bread bowl. We picked up some desserts after I got home with copier tape at the end of the day.
After dinner, Ricardo suggested that we take a walk after the University. I knew exactly what he meant when he said it was a bit uphill. People always say this when it will be a nasty climb up. I agreed, only to discover it was worse than I thought.
