My Lisbon
A Cookbook from Portugal's City of Light
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
In this groundbreaking cookbook, Lisbon native and internationally renowned chef Nuno Mendes reveals the alluring food of one of the great undiscovered culinary centers of Europe.
Sharing recipes inspired by the dishes that he grew up eating, Mendes takes you to his beloved Lisbon, revealing the secrets for re-creating the city's most vibrant dishes. Via evocative essays and luminous photography, Mendes gives recipes for delicious bolas de Berlim (fluffy doughnuts often sold on the beach), sizzling squid with coriander, and roasted orange-rub pork belly with fennel. This is a heart-warming and intimate look at a city with a modern, bustling food scene that is nevertheless steeped in centuries-old traditions. Mendes's portraits of Lisbon's idiosyncrasies are threaded throughout the pages: impromptu sardine grills, endless snacking, and city-wide street carnivals. With gorgeous location photography, this book will bring to life Portugal's magnificent capital city and its fabulous cuisine.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lisbon takes the spotlight in this gorgeously written collection by Mendes, executive chef at London's Chiltern Firehouse. Far-ranging exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries made Portugal a melting pot, but disasters such as a massive 1755 earthquake, which killed a 10th of the city's population, and an oppressive 40-year dictatorship that ended in 1974 thwarted the country's growth, Mendes explains. Now the capital city has come roaring back with a culinary renaissance. These recipes are a thrill ride, careening from fava-bean salad with grated hard-boiled egg, to duck rice with a crisp top scattered with sausage and lardo, to round doughnuts slit and filled with eggy custard. Mendes infuses clear instructions with just enough explanation: the cross-hatching on pork steak helps it absorb red pepper marinade, while lamb shoulder is a good candidate for slow roasting because it is a "working muscle." His essay-writing skills are outstanding, whether he's explaining the role of informal restaurants known as tascas, describing goose barnacles that "look like aliens' fingers, have the texture of an old handbag, and have a kind of hoof on the end," or ruminating on a man selling sandwiches through a kitchen window during the feast of Saint Anthony. Pitch-perfect and mouthwatering, this book is a joy from start to finish.
