Saveur - April-May 2017

48 SAVEUR.COM

Lisbon

Checklist

Tins to take home:

Look for the myriad

tinned fish pâtés from

brands like Minerva:

sardine and chile,

smoked salmon, and

spiced mackerel.

Stay on the central

Avenida: Hotel

Valverde’s elegant

rooms are a mash-

up of modern and

antique décor.

valverdehotel.com

The classic that

needs no updating:

Pasteis de nata, a

rich, cinnamon-laced

egg custard that’s

baked into a crispy

tart shell.

Visit this cultural

hub: The LX Factory,

where shops, cafés,

and galleries have

taken over a row of

old warehouses.

Fly direct: TAP offers

nonstop flights to

Lisbon from New York

City and Boston.

Clockwise from left:

Lisbon’s historic

Alfama neighborhood;

Khalid Aziz (right),

owner of the Mozam-

bican Cantinho do

Aziz, with his wife, Jeny

Sulemange, and daugh-

ter Kyarah; a tribute

to fado, the signature

music of Portugal.

outside inf luence, and foreign-born ones are seizing
on local produce and seafood, featuring them in reci-

pes from home.
“People here tend to evaluate food based on mem-

ories of what their grandmothers gave them to eat,”
said the chef, ex-artist, and onetime punk rocker,
Hugo Brito. At Boi Cavalo, the restaurant he opened

nearly three years ago in a tiny former butcher shop
on one of the vertiginously hilly, skinny streets of

Alfama, Brito aims to challenge diners’ expectations
with surprising takes on those traditional ingredi-
ents and grandmotherly dishes.

On my first visit to Boi Cavalo, I ate smoked horse
mackerel placed atop a stiff puddle of alvarinho wine

gelée; and baby razor clams, a Portuguese classic,
served on crispy gyoza filled with acorda, a savory
traditional bread pudding. Every dish was, without

fail, rigorously interesting, every plate a combina-