Cruise Luxury special
CAPITAL
GAINS Time
Out Market in
Lisbon is the
focal point for
foodies in the
Portuguese
capital. Silver
Dawn, below,
is the newest
ship from
luxury line
Silverseapresented under a tiny glass dome and the
candles and stick to my own, rather more
hurried ritual.
Otium comes with a new room service
menu, too, for decadent nights in. Lobster
rolls and spaghetti with caviar are served
in your suite, with veggie options of
tahini-glazed cauliflower and truffle fries.
Personally though, I’m a cheap date.
Champagne, lobster, truffles, foie gras
and caviar do nothing for me. I wonder,
how much more do you really need on a
ship that already delivers the highest
levels of luxury you’ll find at sea? The
experience I take away from Otium is
less about extravagant ingredients and→Continued from page 9
drinks and clever cocktails. The aurora,
for example, is a tangy concoction of
Aperol, ruby port, orange, tonic and
saffron. The Salt Lab, meanwhile, is a
cookery school. I join a class called “In
Cod We Trust” to make some classic
Portuguese dishes. But it’s not cookery,
as such; more assembling a salad of
chickpeas and salt cod and a rather
tasty hot dish of cod, fried potatoes
and scrambled egg. As a keen cook,
I would have liked to try something
more complex.
My wishes are granted on a Salt
excursion to Lisbon’s hipster culinary
heart, the bustling Time Out Market, a
vast hall that’s half produce stalls and half
bars and restaurants — and a cookery
school, where we make pasteis de nata,
the flaky little custard pies that Portugal
is famed for. Chef Miguel Mesquita
supervises as we prepare the cinnamon-
infused custard and learn to push the puff
pastry gently into moulds to make it
suitably thin and flaky.
Luckily my tarts don’t come out of
the oven burnt or too wonky. I proudly
carry them in a cardboard box back
to the cocoon of my suite, wondering
if another hot chocolate balcony
experience to accompany them would
be too much. Maybe I’ve been seduced
by Otium after all.Sue Bryant was a guest of Silversea. Seven
nights’ all-inclusive on Silver Dawn costs
from £3,500pp, round-trip from Barcelona,
including flights, airport transfers and
shore excursions, departing on October 26
(silversea.com)more the subtle touches: the bartender
Santiago in the Observation Library —
my favourite cocktail spot —
remembering exactly how I like
my martini, or the waiter at the
pool deck bringing a cashmere
blanket when he can see I’m
shivering. It’s the little bottle
of room fragrance and a divine
body scrub that arrive as a gift
from Mei Lin, and the fact that
the 400-thread-count bedding by
the Milan-based company Rivolta
Carmignani is so luxurious I sleep
for hours.
Luxury to me is also about local food.
Silversea does this well in Salt — anacronym for Sea and Land Taste — which
was launched on its last ship, Silver Moon,
and continues on Silver Dawn, aiming to
bring the culinary traditions of each
destination to life on board. This
includes the Salt restaurant, where
all the food reflects the cuisine of
the area in which the ship is
sailing, a section of it changing
every day, which is ambitious for
a cruise ship. My manchego
croquettes with wild mushrooms
are melt-in-the-mouth and the sea
bass with spinach sautéed in garlic
hits the spot.
In the cool, dark little Salt bar the
shelves are lined with often obscureGIORGIA FRARE; ILYAS AYUB/ALAMY