Food tours

We took the Eating Europe Lisbon tour just last night, and it was wonderful. Undiscovered Food and Wine of Lisbon was the name, I think. Guide Leonor (Leo.)

One bifana sandwich and beer; Portuguese liqueur ginjania, Brazilian sort-of sandwich onion and port confit on a tiny bun of manioc flour and cheese bread, with wine.

The main stop was a tiny place run by a man who retired back to Portugal and opened a tiny place AFTER having received his SECOND Michelin star in England.

Full meal here, homemade chorizo (amazing!), homecured (I think) ham, a veal and potato dish, and a local codfish and potato specialty. Did I mention the private label wine to go with all this?

The musical accompaniment was two amazing guitar players, and a renowned fado singer who, after she tore our hearts out with a lament, then led us in a rollicking lively sing-along, yes, in Portuguese, that had the entire restaurant joining in.

And afterward, on the way home, an authentic pastel de nata, the local specialty pastry.

Not to mention the cultural and culinary tidbits of knowledge thrown in along the way.

I had planned to post a review of the tour as soon as I found some free time, but your question spurred me on. Maybe this will serve as my review; if not, I’ll try to squeeze out sime time in the next few days.

I took a tour with Culinary Backstreets in Lisbon. It was fantastic. I’ve taken a number of food tours in other cities and this was by far the best. I took the Lisbon Awakens tour.
https://culinarybackstreets.com/

1) We started in the Estrela Park where we sat at a table. We each had a coffee drink of our choice along with a pastry (kind of a spiced bread). The guide spent time drawing a map showing the various Portuguese colonies and explaining the various ingredients from those colonies that influenced Portuguese cuisine (e.g., sugar from Madeira, spices from Goa, etc.)
2) We stopped in a nearby church where she talked about some of the pastries made in convents and we samples a few different types that she had brought along.
3) We visited the Camp de Ourique market where we stopped at a snack bar for sardines and bifana. She gave us a history of the market and we subsequently stopped at several other places in the market (e.g., fruit, nuts, etc)
4) We went to a small family run restaurant (a tasca) for our ”first lunch” where we sat down and had a cod dish with potatoes, a fava been dish, and a dessert Both of the mains were delicious. The family that ran this restaurant was from the north of Portugal and the guide spent a good deal of time talking about some of the regional differences, as well as the types of dishes one might find in a tasca.
5) We had a ”second lunch” at a private club where we had some Goan cuisine. The guide and proprietors spent time discussing how this community center served the neighborhood, as well as Goa’s influence on the food.
6) We went to a small neighborhood snack bar for some homemade Ginjinha.
7) We went to a wine shop and sampled several Portuguese wines and cheeses
8) We had a pastel de nata at Aloma
I think I’ve probably missed a few things, but I just thought this was the best food tour I have done. The group was small (7 people). The guide was exceptionally knowledgeable and I learned a lot about Portuguese history and culture in addition to getting to try some really delicious foods. The tour was done at a very leisurely pace. There was a couple on my tour who had done multiple Culinary Backstreets tours in other cities and they raved about their tours in Athens and Istanbul. This company is definitely on my radar for future food tours.

Laura, your tour sounds wonderful! We’ve only ever booked with Eating Europe, but I’ll be sure to check Culinary Backstreets in the future.

All great input…. Going to go with eating Europe tour … the backstreet site was intriguing but very confusing when I selected our preferred dates… maybe my error