Restaurante Casa Tipica O Campismo, Chaves, Portugal

 Salad with a great dressing!
This restaurant came recommended by a fellow blogger Amumot (www.amumot.de) and the food was superb. The pricing can be a bit random (I’ll explain what I mean later), but completely reasonable and I can’t express enough how tasty the food was.

We liked it so much the first time, we went back again 2 days later! On our first visit a lovely fellow patron took us under her wing and explained the menu to us. She even ordered dessert for us and that was another highlight, but first things first.
 Inside before the guests arrive
We asked for the “Menu del Dia” and got brought olives and bread and butter which were delicious. We assumed these were included, but they were charged extra (only €2, but still I prefer to know beforehand). This is typical in Portugal we have since been told, and if you don’t eat them you don’t get charged for them. Some places they’re free, some they’re not!

The starter was soup or salad and we chose salad. It was superb. This was the best dressed salad I think I’ve ever had in a restaurant. Praising a mixed green salad may seem strange, but dressings are so often ignored and to find a good one is just magical.

As per usual, there were two options for the main course and we took one of each. One was black pork schnitzels and they were great. The highlight, however, was the other dish, Chicken stomachs (aka gizzards). Yes, you read right, stomach of chicken. I think that most people had no idea that it is even possible to eat chicken stomach (gizzards), but if properly cooked, it is spectacular and this was. The texture is like cheek (I suppose many have never had cheek either!), meltingly soft but keeps its form. By that I mean, it’s a nice solid piece that is tender.

I have cooked them myself on our little farm when we had our own chickens, but I must admit that mine were not as tender as these were. It seems that the trick is just to cook them for longer and then they will become soft (and sooooooo deeelicious). Will post a recipe soon, so if you do see them in your supermarket/butchery, do give them a try. I apologise for the lack of photos, but I was desperate to eat, I didn’t take enough time for the photos!

For dessert, the very nice lady ordered gats cheese and jam for us. Sound strange? It was absolutely superb. Fresh goats cheese with Pumpkin Jam (called Chila or Gila in Portugal). The next post will have the recipe for you. The jam is very sweet in Portugal, but with the salty cheese it was super. You could also try it at home with Apricot Jam, something we use a lot of in savoury dishes in South Africa.

The second time we went there we had another stunning dish, Carne de Porco a Alentejano, or pork with fried potatoes, clams and pickles. Absolutely superb and I posted the recipe last week (http://www.acookonthefunnyside.com/content/carne-de-porco-alentejano-por... ). The other dish was mediocre and not to our taste, but most of the Portuguese patrons ordered it, so it’s not that it wasn’t good, just too bland for my taste. The dish was pasta with different pork bits and chickpeas.

I can really recommend this restaurant as the food was traditional, authentic Portuguese food cooked to perfection. It is not a posh place, so no need to put on makeup and high heels! Just come and enjoy great Portuguese food along with the locals. They also do takeaways of the daily meal (which is different everyday) and loads of people queued up with their own Tupperware to take the food home. I think this shows how good the food is!
Address:
5400 510, R. São Roque 16, 5400-510 Chaves, Portugal

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