Quinta de Catralvos, Gourmet Cuisine

Today we went south of Lisbon to have a very special eating experience. Our great friend Joana, my most creative portuguese friend, who worked as a landscape architect, but invested much of her free time to other creative experiences like cooking, told us to be prepared for what we were about to experience. We left home in Oeiras and headed south, crossing the 25th of April Bridge. At that time we were able to watch from the bridge the end of the "50th Anniversary Tall Ships’ Race":


I tried to take a few photos but most of them had the red structure of the bridge in the middle - this was the only pic that did not have the bridge. At this point though most of the tall ships were almost out of the estuary. In the previous pic we can also see the monument for the discoveries (that big ship) and a the tip of the narrow part of the estuary is the Tour of Belem, from where the ships departed during the Discoveries in late 1400s. Well, moving on ...

We met Joana, her parents and Paulo (her man), Jo's sister just returned from Brazil and her boyfriend, Jo's parents and some of their friends from the university (yes, huge coincidence, Joana's parents are both chemistry professors at the College where I did all my undergrad studies). So we met them all there, at the Quinta de Catralvos, a winnery south of Lisbon, where a very well-known chef (Luis Baena) runs a very exquisite restaurante, where now Jo is working. Jo is made a great turn in her life now, and now applies her huge creativeness to Molecular Gatronomy, along with a group of research at the Technical University of Lisbon. For the meantime she is applying her knowledge of molecular gastronomy at the restaurant.

The degustation was increadible with over 10 different experiences completely unique and that I had never even imagined possible. All this was accompanied with wine produced at that winery, compliments of the very friendly chef. We only talked with Joana after lunch because she was busy creating in the lab/kitchen. But here she is, beautiful as always:



The restaurant is really cosy and relaxing:



Before the end of this amazing experience Joana made a tour around the kitchen to see where everything was created, and to talk a bit with the creators of all we had tasted.


Playing with sugar:

Perspective of the kitchen:

On our way to get some bottles of the Quinta de Catralvos wine:


After we left this place we went down to the Sado estuary, where I would have field work 5 hours later with a team from the University of Lisbon. Unfortunately, due to some problem with the engine of the boat, it was cancelled. It was a good thing I did other things during the day :o)