cozinha dos pobres

Is, perhaps surprisingly only to me, not as good in Portugal as in Italy. But it's still good, and blessedly cheap as it isn't elsewhere in the well-roped land. For 4 euros 60 I got, with coffee, rose vinho verde, a slice of pumpkin cake, and the three things pictures below.

Caldo Verde, which, I swear, is made not from kale but from cabbage trees: it looks like a brussels' sprout stalk, but with giant independent cabbage leaves coming out from the sides. When I made Caldo Verde it looked nothing like this:

A real mess of beans, rice, and salt, and salt pork, just for that extra salty flavor. Seriously, I like salt, but this was like they had a special on it at the market.

The fried sardines were by far the best part of the meal; but maybe I just think that because they're cute:

Today in Lisbon I spluged - 6 euro 40 - on "polvo", guessing, but not entirely sure, that instead of the Spanish, in which it would mean "dust," it instead meant "octopus," like Italian "polpo." Lo and behold, it did: and, more than that, it was really tender octopus, which I've only ever had before when it's cut into super-thin slices. Still, the skin slid off into its bath of garlicky olive oil in a disconcerting way, the suckers were crunchy, and I couldn't bring myself to eat its tiny purple head. Tasty, but hard to eat.