by Will Venn
- 22/08/2007
An invitation to spend a weekend sampling some of the best Portuguese cuisine in an amazing resort close to the Estoril coastline was a stomach-rumbling prospect not to be missed.
Our destination, Penha Longa Spa Hotel and Golf Resort, located in magical Sintra, is a 30-minute drive from Lisbon. The 545-acre resort comes equipped with two golf courses, a wonderful former old palace which was once a monastery, and its very own micro climate.
Well, maybe not quite its own, but being located on the southern Sintra mountains means the temperature when we stayed was a noticeable 8C cooler than in the capital city, only 16 miles away. In the height of summer that's a good thing, and no doubt the reason why Portuguese royalty sprinkled Sintra with palaces throughout the centuries.
Waking up to see rolling clouds cascading down the mountain range in the morning, as if someone had left a huge dry-ice machine on overnight, made me appreciate quite how special Sintra is. It was once a place of cult worship whose primitive settlers referred to the area as the Mountain of the Moon.
More modern-day settlers include the Wags (class of 2004), who stayed here during the Euro football tournament which Portugal hosted that year. Tragically, they wouldn't have been able to take advantage of the resort's impressive Six Senses Spa, an oasis of chilled calm which opened in 2005 with a plunge pool and welcome choice of massages.
Quite how the Wags' waistlines would have coped with the resort's planned "Chef's Gastronomic Tour of Sintra", which was due to take place the following October, is open to speculation. Our invite was a preview taste of things to come, taking in all manner of local goodies as well as something a little more… Japanese.
In 1584 Penha Longa hosted the first visit by a Japanese delegation to Europe, and the resort's Midori restaurant where we ate on our first night serves as a tribute to that visit. With an endless succession of some truly mind-blowing sushi, sashimi and noodle dishes – the highlight of which proved to be foie gras and scallops on a miso sauce – the meal was a fantastic experience and a great introduction to Far Eastern cuisine at one of the westernmost points in Europe.
The following day the flavour was fully Portuguese as we piled into a minibus to head out to the Mercado da Ribeira food market, in the heart in Lisbon, along with Penha Longa's executive chef, Anthony Scholtmeyer. His enthusiasm for great cuisine was infectious. His description of how it took years to perfect the miso sauce we had the previous night proved as fascinating as Lisbon's main sights, which were rushing by outside in a whirl.
The 25 de Abril suspension bridge spanning the Tagus river, with the monument to Christ statue on the opposing bank, were all impressive but secondary to what was on our shopping list that day. The only thing we were going to stop for were ingredients.
On reaching the market, renowned for its flowers and fish stalls, situated along the Avenida 24 de Julho, we sized up and bought a range of fresh produce for the dinner table that evening that looked as if it had been cultivated in the land of the giants.
On our journey back we paused at the remarkable Antiga Confeitaria de Belém factory and sampled Pasteis de Belém. These must rate as the X-Factor winners among custard tarts from around the world and are a Portuguese signature speciality. Munching my way through three of the 14,000 cinnamon-sprinkled tarts produced here every day was the only way I could think of showing gratitude to their amazing taste, derived from a recipe which is apparently only known by three living chefs.
And what better way to follow custard tarts than by undertaking a pastry cooking class in the old kitchen of Penha Longa's 16th-century palace. Here we prepared a Toucinho do Céu – a delicious sugary cake whose saintly origins lie in the nearby Santa Clara convent.
There was just enough time to pause for breath before an informal lunch at the resort's Serra Bar, adjacent to the pool. The tantalising mix of carpaccio de bacalhau, various olive tapenades, a seared tuna medallion and Sintra strawberry tartlet on the menu proved belt-looseningly irresistible.
Thankfully our next meal was five hours away, time enough to explore Sintra and easily discover why it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its royal palaces and Moorish castle set high among woodlands and beautiful gardens adding to its fairytale dimension. It is little surprise to discover Hans Christian Andersen lived here, and the poet Lord Byron referred to part of the old town as a "glorious Eden".
A drive through the region's narrow roads led us to Sintra national palace, a royal retreat for centuries, recognisable by its twin-cone chimneys. In the distance lies Pena National Palace. With so many palaces and historical buildings lining our route it was a wonder how we made it down to nearby Guincho beach.
With vast, crashing waves coming in from the Atlantic and a great sandy shoreline, Guincho is surprisingly free of many tourists, the majority of whom seek their beach thrills further south in the Algarve. Our guide pointed out that Cabo da Roca in the distance is the westernmost point of mainland Europe. It's refreshing to focus on something that isn't either a palace or a menu for a few seconds.
But not for long as that evening, following a port-tasting session warm-up, we enjoyed our final evening meal. Presunto and honey melon, grilled prawns and seasoned salts, a Salsa Verde and huge sea bass baked in a salt crust, all carved up and served at our table, proved the peak of an almost non-stop eat-athon, revolutionising my taste buds all the way.
As cultural introductions go, understanding and learning about a region through its cuisine alone is an experience to cherish. In a land full of palaces, it's little surprise we ate like royalty.
