Casa Sousa Restaurant, Vila Real de Santa Antonio
This tiny little restaurant was recommended to us by Paul, a sailor we met on the Rio Guardian trip, and it is SUPER to say the least. Do NOT go there if you are on diet (which I permanently am, but I don’t actually/sadly let this stop me…) as the food is true Hip Gold.
What the hell is Hip Gold, you ask? This is a direct translation from German (something one cannot EVER do) and means “will make you fat (or more correctly, your hips fat)”. But is otherwise really good eating. Sigh. The burden of my life.
Moving right along. The restaurant is owned and run by a Mother, Daughter and Sister-in-law team and is a pleasure to visit. Sandra, the daughter, speaks fluent German and was a bundle of information. She is kind, helpful and full of life. And they all cook like Gods.
We decided to try a couple of the fish dishes and as “Bacalhau” is the national dish of Portugal, we chose to try two traditional bacalhau / salt cod dishes and we were not disappointed. The Bacalhau com Nata is salt cod cooked with cream and potatoes. Need I say more? No? But I’m going to anyway. It is SUPERB. I may have gained 2kg on the spot, but it was worth it. Meltingly soft fish with cream and potatoes – a taste sensation.
The other dish we tried was Bacalhau com Grao which is salt cod cooked with chickpeas, potatoes and tomatoes. It was also really, really good and completely different to the cream dish. It used a different cut of salt cod and was more chewy (in a good way) with lots of delicious sauce that you could mop up with bread.
There were many other things to try, like chicken cooked with Portuguese sausage (Frango a Inglesa), but a girl can only eat so much. We will just have to return, that’s all there is to it. This is not a fine dining place, just a really good food place. There are plastic tables and table cloths, no crystal glasses in sight, just good atmosphere and local traditional cooking.
Go on, give it a try!
Casa Sousa
Fernanda de Jesus Correia Sousa
Urb. Dos Anicas, LT 10, LJ 4
8900-000
Vila Real de Santa Antonio
Tel: 281 513800
Sounds yummy. i wish we have
Sounds yummy. i wish we have to keep empty stomach for a week at least to make a place for all these dishes.
Wie bei Mama
Ich besuche auch am liebsten solche familiären Lokale. Die sogenannte "gut bürgerliche Küche" ist für den Gaumen ein Hochgenuss. Da überwiegt bei mir mehr das Glücksgefühl als die Sorge um die Pfunde.
Den Spruch mit dem "Hip Gold" kannte ich noch nicht. Ich sage immer: wenn sündigen, dann richtig. :)
Küsschen
Lena