Video: Lisbon, Ultimo Porto and the unique magic of free-range places: good appetite
2024 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 12:26
I have just returned from a ten day vacation in Portugal, with my family. I recommend it with all my strength: beautiful places, very kind people, low prices and, above all, great cuisine.
And I would like to say precisely about a splendid gastronomic experience in these few lines. While we are in Lisbon, Diego Rossi, the true and wise cook of the new Trippa tavern in Milan, writes to me and tells me: “You MUST go to Ultimo Porto”. Stop. Just so.
I, who trust him blindly, put Ultimo Porto on Uber (the Portuguese one is the cheapest in Europe, the average ride is around 4 euros) and we go up to adventure.
The car takes us to the port area, near a container platform. And here, in an unsuspected place - wedged between cranes and coast guard offices - there is a steaming grill and an expanse of tables. I approach and the lady shows me what she is cooking: sardines, cod, eggs - just the bag, like bottarga, but raw - pampus head, corvina head, squid, picanha and little else. Then there is also a kitchen from which pans of clams, squid salads, fried potatoes, two vegetables and stop come out.
In short, I'm not saying a shack but a spartan little place, right by the port. We order this and that, see large jugs of white sangria pass by and, as you can argue, eat great. To the great.
Because? Because they have exquisite raw material and don't mess with it. That's all. No touch of inspiration. No genius.
Here, what I want to say is that in the end these are the places that really fall in love with me, more than the great inventions: the good free-range places. The fact is that in Italy it is increasingly damned difficult to find them (for a thousand reasons, starting with bureaucratic ones). If you have any, don't keep them secret: good things must be shared.
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