The food in Portugal was wonderful. We visited local restaurants in Cascais for all our meals. The first meals was at Blue Jeans, a hamburger and hotdog establishment where the hamburgers were so big that you could not eat them with your hands but had to use a knife and fork. They were juicy and excellent with homemade potato chips.

Wayne and I shared the Portugal national dish - bacalhau. It is minced potatoes, cod fish, onions, eggs with spices. We both liked it very much. The remainder became leftovers for the next day.

We tried the national dessert - pastel de nata - or custard tart. The dough is like a phyllo dough with a creamy custard and a burnt sugar topping. Very tasty.

Another meal was octopus and rice. The octopus was tender not rubbery like you usually get in the states. The broth was a tomato base but was not over powering. I really like it and even took it back to the apartment as leftover.

The last meal was a shared meal of Brazilian rump steak with rice, beans, hot dog, french fries. We had this at a local bar called Villa Lounge run by our new friend Bruno. The bar is under a tent with heaters which is open year round in the Portuguese weather. We stopped by the bar about every night for a beer and glass of white wine. Wayne tried the Super Bock beer which appeared to be a Portuguese favorite and got to like it. He said it had a little of the dark beer after taste but was not bad. I had the local Portuguese wine which they are known for. We also tried these deep fried coquettes filled with a cream sauce and pulled pork. We had them several times they were so good and a Brazilian favorite.