Eat Like Ushi

At the end of our free walking tour, the guide gave a list of recommendations. He said he didn't really eat octopus often, but there's only two places he would - his grandma and Ora Viva. Considering Portugal's reputation for octopus and the delicious stews I had of it last time, it seemed a strong accolade for a local place to try. It is in the ribeira area but on a back alley rather than facing the Douro, which I suppose arguably means the quality and/or value must be better.

- Grilled octopus €16 - although I took a pretty useless photo (didn't want to stand up), the moderate serving of octopus seemed to have been grilled then oiled and vegetables added. The octopus was very tender, as only the Portuguese (and probably Spanish) do, but not crisp on the outsides (which the Greeks do). Nice overall;
- Shellfish stew €19.5 - a salty saffron seafood soup with lots of little prawns, clams, and a few big ones for measure including a huge green lip mussel (with the meat completely filling the shell). Soft fish too and overall very tasty.

A very good meal overall and well worthy of the recommendation. Serves for 2 are decently cheaper than individual ones, but knowing Portugal there's only so much one can eat and would want to try multiple things (I suppose there's always takeaway...)

Many an online recommendation list mentioned Santo Antonio as one of the best local dining options in Porto. It seemed to be frequented by locals and tourists with a continuous stream of people wanting to get in even to the later hours of the night. What I didn't expect was that there would be a really lovely and popular (with locals drinking) sunset spot at Horto das Virtudes. And of course after seeing the colours disappear from over the Douro river, there's no better place to eat than here.

Luckily although the place was full, the warm autumn evening (with only a light cool breeze) meant that eating outside at the first available table was a fine option. I had read that they do the best cod fritters in town and so gave up my instincts of pig cheeks or veal stew to get it.

- Empanadas 1€ each - offered first as a snack and gladly accepted. There was a nice meat version and also a fish (almost certainly cod) one with chunks of flesh and a creamy sauce;
- Pataniscas con arroz de feijao (cod patties with bean rice) €8 - crisp fried thick cod pieces served with a flavoursome rice. I wondered if the rice was cooked in a pork stock perhaps;
- Bacalhau a braga (codfish fried with sauce of onion) €14 - bacalao which has been salted and hence dried until it had an intrinsic lovely chewy texture. It was a little bit too salty (unsurprising given the method of preparation) but overall really delicious. Crisp flats of potatoes accompanied;
- Desserts are on display in the cabinet inside. Egg white flan had a strong burnt flavour (not bad though) and really soft, light inside. Cheese tart was thick and served surprisingly with caramelised pumpkin.

Overall an excellent meal and one I would go back to next time.

After the long drive from Cortina to Venice airport, it had been perfectly timed to fit in a stop at Belluno, filling up petrol, and eating dinner before returning the car and flying out.

The options nearby were limited, but Ristorante La Sosta had good Google reviews (4.2) and was conveniently close with some free parking conveniently found around the corner. I saw Bar La Sosta and it took me a while to ask and check that the restaurant was the same (Google Maps makes you think they are separate places next to each other).

On a hot, most humid and intermittently raining evening, we sat outside and braved some mosquitoes and ordered the huge serves of pasta the internet had promised us. And it was huge.

- €11 gnocchi with (some) scallops hidden in amongst it;
- €13 seafood pasta which was large and nice, with lots of small ingredients. The prawns were not peeled which made it a bit more fiddly. Pasta was slightly al dente too.

I think 2 people could easily share 1. But if it doubt, just order one each...

After the pleasant walk around Tre Cime, we were hungry and there was a bit of time to kill before driving back to Venice airport. Definitely not enough time to try something else like Lago di Braies, but enough to get a meal. For whatever reason I stopped at one of the first restaurants once leaving Tre Cime. It was a combination of hunger, a nice setting opposite a small lake, and also the restaurant sign outside stating "polenta funghi" as though it was a sign of Italian food to come.

Like in Cortina it ended up being a German restaurant. I suppose being so close to the Austrian border, I should be less surprised.

There was no cover charge for the bread basket, another welcome practice that is not Italian.

- Tagliatelle al funghi porcini €10 - very soft mushrooms with overall a good flavour albeit a bit salty;
- Grigliata del cacciatore/mixed grill (beef, venison, bacon, potatoes, vegetables) €20 - beef rump cooked to medium (they didn't ask me), tender venison chop, bacon which was a piece of very fatty pork. Simple flavours of just grilled meats, typical German style.

It was nice sitting outside waiting to see if the rain would come, and it didn't luckily. There was constant smoke from the people around us however which was less than perfect.

After the extraordinarily long walk to Lago di Sorapis (the usual way is 2h and easy, the roundabout way the 2 older Italians and their dog suggested to us was 4h and hard), we were famished. A lot of the restaurants in and around Cortina were closed or not serving any food (other than maybe more pizza) at 4pm.

Eventually this place seemed to have some decent stuff, even if it was a German beerhall.

- Lasagne alla bolognese €11 - excellent, meaty and a thick bechamel layer;
- Tyrolean speck with cheese, pickled gherkin, horseradish - nice speck with 2 cheeses that were plain, and 2 that had more flavour. 1 seemed like a mild cheddar, but couldn't say what the others were (and wasn't told).
- Mixed salad €6

There was no cover charge and this place had the best bread collection of all the restaurants we ate at, including a nice caraway one.

The view from mini-pod 1 was phenomenal especially for the sunrise and sunset times. At €70/night, the 9m2 was expensive real estate but still cheaper than every other option available in Cortina. I would gladly stay here again for all those reasons.

It does mean the options for food are limited to driving (and parking) in Cortina or eating at the ICO pizzeria. It is just like Italy to have an affordable and good quality pizzeria as a standard in a semi-remote camping site.

The did forget to cook my pizza the first night I was there waiting for takeaway (and took about 1h), whereas the second night they were conscientious and did it in 10min.

The one and only gelato place in Cortina is a pretty good one. I think enough said about that.

A final gelato before driving to the airport. There really wasn't any point to stopping at Belluno other than for a break from Cortina and to repack our bags. But the gelato happened to be across the road to where we parked, and so lucky for me!

Poor choice to go on a Monday since some of the big players like Bar All'Arco were closed. I did try all 3 spritzes of Aperol, Campari and Cynar, with what I remember of the tasting profiles to be sweeter, bitter and herby.

I skipped past Gelato di Natura (reading and seeing for myself that it was akin to Suso) and instead went for the highly rated option in the local north. It was late in the evening and they had run out of pistachio, but added a tiny little speck on top of my choices just to let me try.

Cremino al pistachio (dark chocolate with pistachio cream) and mango were both good and fine. I didn't think either of them were mindblowing and I would choose Suso for flavour and location, although at €1.8 for 1 scoop and €2.8 for 2 scoops you can't beat Bacaro for price or value.