Death at our Favourite Restaurant

We went for dinner at one of our favourite restaurants tonight. I can't tell you its name; in fact I'm not sure it has one. There's no sign outside, and no clue at the turn-off from the main road (except a signpost for the village cemetery). In fact, you wouldn't know the place existed if it wasn't for word of mouth. And that is probably as good a recommendation as any.

What we like about the place is that it feels like a restaurant. It still has the wall-mounted TV without which no Portuguese restaurant would dare open its doors. But missing are the flourescent lights, plastic chairs and tables, and complete lack of atmosphere. This is a place someone has thought about, with smart stone walls, lovely woodwork, and arty lighting. Aside from that, the food is good (if limited in range) and the price right (a fixed 7 euros for dinner -- drinks, soup, main course, dessert, and coffee).

Anyway, tonight we turned up ten minutes before the friend we had planned to meet. The waitress presumed (rather than asking) that we would wait for our friend before starting into the wine, olives and bread that usually appear as soon as a customer sits down. And we soon learned why she was determined not to waste time serving us immediately -- there was work to be done in the kitchen. We heard the sqawks a couple of times before we realised that chickens or ducks were being done away with just beyond the drinks bar. When we did catch on, we had to laugh. What a welcome! Some kind of aperitif!

We are such city-dwellers that we couldn't in fact tell if they were ducks or chickens being butchered; I suspect ducks, but only because I had a brief glimpse of legs held tight as the throat was cut. Anyway, as a semi-vegetarian, I was quite surprised at how matter-of-fact the whole business felt. Probably it is the down-to-earth environment of rural Portugal with its smallholder culture; somehow I can't imagine a Tokyo restaurant openly dispatching livestock in the kitchen, nor me putting up with it!

Incidentally, we chose the sardines for dinner, and very good they were too!