The lighthouse in Carvoeiro and the car I’ve been driving this month. Can you imagine that on I-10?
Chicken Escondido at Rocha da Mar
Grilled Salmon at Primavera.
Tuna Belly Portuguesa at do Pao.
Sea Bass back at do Pao.
About half of the charcuterie counter at Apolonia.
The view out of my bedroom window.
Luvyouguys. DW
Were Waylon and Willie and the boys there? 
They have someone playing music by the post office 24/7.
Is that a Mini Cooper? I just shake my head when I see one of those around here, and I have.
Awesome pictures! 
Inconceivable you would be banned here.
Safe travels home with Aunty.
I can’t imagine my car on I-10. I’ve installed a program that shuts my car off should I try to enter that massive hunk of concrete. 
“They have someone playing music by the post office 24/7.“
Yes, I guess you’ve been there. The funny thing is we topped the hill and GPS told us to take right at the bottom for the Luckenbach town loop. I told my husband that looks like some kind of campground so we kept going. A wee bit down the road, at the foot of a driveway was a sign that stated in no uncertain terms. “ This is Not A Turnaround!! So I knew we weren’t the only ones.
Welcome to Luckenbach Texas. Not much to it I admit.
Have we met? 
In a nutshell, another poster suggested that anyone who did not believe the New York Times to be a reliable and unbiased news source was"differently intelligenced".
I replied I would take that as a compliment as anyone who did think so was an " idiot".
Instead of a ban, NotJR edited my post to remove the offending characterization which was of course merely a less underhanded way of saying the same thing, except that I used a littler word so the idiots could understand it.
(How about now?). 
I find it very reliable… In the cooking section. I don’t know why else it would come up here! Let us know if you need help in picking your next hungry onion handle. 
I want to tell you about one of the most epic meals of my life. It happened not in Houston, but in Lisbon Portugal. Why here and not in the Europe board? Honestly, I don’t care about those people. I love you guys.
Yeah, it included about a third of a bottle of Scotch but whatever. Its a great story and its just for you guys, my friends.
As you may recall, my favorite uncle passed away the last weekend of May. My aunt called me about an hour after and said, “DW”, (not my real name), “LT died and I need you to come get me”. Now normally I’d be on the next plane, but I gave up travelling a decade ago and let my passport lapse. I promised I was on my way and called the State Department immediately for an emergency passport. My aunt is almost eighty, no children and only my mom, my brother and I as family. Seriously, you’ve met literally ALL of us.
State said " Nope. Gotta be a parent, a child, or a sibling to qualify for an emergency passport." . Seriously. She hung up on me. No shit.
I started asking around. What do I do? A friend of my mom’s said contact your Congress critter. I got online and looked up Ted Cruz’s office and filled out a form for passport issues. After hitting SEND it took me to a page that asked me to submit a brief letter of explanation and another form, so I did. About thirty minutes later I got a call from “MM” at Sen Cruz’s office and she listened to my story and said she needed some additional info. Basically she needed evidence that I wasn’t just BSing to get a quicker passport to take advantage of cheap airfares.
So I contacted the Portuguese Consulate, (honorary) in Houston and told him my story. I gave him the name of my uncle’s doctor and he got me a statement from him confirming the details and also gave me a letter requesting all due courtesy from the Portuguese officials in securing me entry to Portugal. (Wow.)
I forwarded all of that info to “MM” and she secured me the appointment with the State Department almost immediately.
Are you keeping up?
To sum up: My initial contact with the State Dept on Monday resulted in “Piss off”.
My initial contact with Sen Cruz’s office on Wed resulted in " Let me see what I can do".
My subsequent contact with Sen Cruz’s office on Thursday resulted in “You have an appointment for an emergency passport tomorrow (Friday) morning at 9am”.
I had my passport in my hand by 1 pm that day. I was on a plane Saturday morning.
Now there were a couple of snafus on the way. I knew I needed a covid test but I didn’t know I needed a specific covid test so I wound up overnighting in Frankfurt and didn’t get in to Portugal until a Monday afternoon. But my aunt had lost her husband of 53 years so what’s a few bumps compared to that. But I got there.
So today is June 28. I’ve been in Portugal since … What? May 30? helping my aunt settle affairs and getting ready to come home.
Quick background: my aunt and uncle married in 1967 in a simple ceremony attended by only my immediate family, my grandmother and my uncle’s mom. They paid my way through UT. To say we were “close” would the understatement of the century.
Where was I?
Ah yes. So I get to the Algarve after what seemed like forever. (I’m gonna skip ahead here.)
I spent a month helping her settle stuff, driving the littlest car you ever saw, (see pics above), and just generally trying to be useful. We cried. A lot. I loved the guy. I worked for him for about ten years after college and broke his heart when I got married and moved to Austin, but I was young and (already) the utter asshole y’all have come to love.
So earlier today we left the little condo where they had lived for the last year…and where my uncle died.
We had first class tickets on a non stop train to Lisbon this morning but a rail strike derailed, (haha) those plans so I got us tickets on a nonstop bus instead. I figured by the time we drove to Faro, checked bags etc it would be faster.
Y’all know me right?
Shit.
Our three hour bus ride took about six. We got a cab but I only had the name of the hotel and that it was"near" Rossio Square. Somehow I failed to remember that I had taken a picture of the address and had it on my phone, (which didn’t work at all in Portugal due to my cheapass phone plan) so our cabbie who didn’t speak any English at all just figured it out, (God bless him), and we made it in to the hotel about 6pm. We had both been up since three and had only split a cinnamon bun all day.
OK. So I said all that to tell you this:
We checked into to our little hotel and the smallest room you ever saw. There are two beds but they’re literally side by side so we have separate sheets but … lets just say we’re close.
Wait. It gets better.
The young guy at the desk was a prince. He’s even having our covid tests coming to us. No kidding.
So we dump our bags and go looking for food.
Priorities:
#1 Close. My aunt us using a cane and we’re dead tired.
#2 See #1
So we chat up the hotel clerk.
Sit down and grab a hankie.
Out of the blue he tells us there’s a great place next door.
And then for some reason, for no reason, because God loves those who needs him most, he tells us he lost his wife to a stroke just few weeks earlier.
Almost the same day,
The same way,
My aunt lost my uncle.
We all cried.
We’re only human.
He walked us to the joint next door and told them to treat us as family.
And they did.
So here’s the Hungry Onion part:
They started bringing us food as soon as we sat down.
Believing libations were necessary, auntie ordered a small bottle of champagne and I had three fingers of blended scotch. At least.
In Portugal, you start with “Couvert”. - bread and olives and pate and whatevers. This evening’s selection included tuna and salmon pates, sardines with onions and garlic and smoked black pork prosciutto.
I ordered vegetable soup because I’m just healthy that way and it was fantastic. Auntie ordered grilled lobster and I the lamb ribs. I’m not normally a lamb eater but had eaten some good stuff earlier in the trip.
Oh.
My.
God.
If you have never been to Portugal, (and except for my darling Jaymes, who has?) put it on your list.
The Algarve is literally paradise. And while I’ve only been in Lisbon a few hours, it is a beautiful city of charm and history.
But the food…
Ah Hungry Onions …
The food.
Come here for the food.
Tell them Doobiewah sent you.
They love me here.
And I them.
Bon dia’!
DOOBS!! That’s a friggin awesome story!! Auntie is lucky to have you. 
Safe travels home. May your further adventures be mild.
I spent 10 days eating my way through Spain in 2013. I suspect the two countries share some flavors but I was focused on seafood.
^^
What she said. Also, I haven’t been a big fan of Ted Cruz in recent years, but your positive experience with his office just moved him up a few notches in my book.
I spent 5 days traveling across Mexico in the late 70’s traveling by train and bus. I think a chicken sandwich on one of the trains got me if you know what I mean and I can get graphic but I choose not to unless prodded. 
Please don’t prod.
I will in the morning with a semi-epic story and it will be "clean
’ and the and I’ll talk about the food I remember. Morning is a relative term since I retired and 9 AM is early.
Quasi-epic Mexico trip circa 1978.
I was at the University of Houston and took an upper level geography course, my major. The course was three hours of credit and culminated with a trip to Mexico. We had classes that covered everything from geology to land use.
There were about 38 of us and we had a rolling classroom in a convey of cars hooked up by CB radio while the professor lectured. I learned so much.
Edit coming.
Rewatching A Cook’s Tour and episode 7 is Portugal. Now I’m wondering if you had bacalao while there.
I did not now that you mention it.
I was pretty much warned against it. It didn’t appear on most menus in the Algarve where I spent most of my time. Lots of fish but not a lot of bacalau. There was more of it in Lisbon and even a bacalau restaurant near the hotel but I never did. Ate the sardines and other sea critters and a LOT of peri-peri chicken.
And of course, the…umm…lamb.
It seems like it would be an acquired taste.
