GOING OUT FOR DINNER?
Dinner at Penalva da Graca
WANT TO GO FOR A SWIM?
A busy day during the high season.
WE LOVE RIDING THE TRAM 28
Lisbon's popular Tram 28 is only 3 minutes from Tins Lisbon. Here is all you need to know.
All our guests at Tings Lisbon wake up to the smell of homebaked bread.
Our bread is really nothing special. It’s just homemade.
Bread was the main course for Jesus’ last supper. Bread has existed since the beginning of time – for obvious reasons. Its cheap, easy to make and made the right way – some of the most delicious thing you can put in your mouth.
Back in 2009, when we opened Tings in Kathmandu, we discovered that good bread was almost impossible to find – and the bad bread that did exist was expensive. For us, that was a problem. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and after coffee, bread is the single most important item – and it has to be generous and plentiful.
We also wanted Tings to be a place where travellers actually meet each other. Breakfast is often the only time our guests sit together, share stories and connect. The smell of fresh bread from the kitchen, together with flowers, art and music, became part of the atmosphere we still love today.
Wheat flour is available almost everywhere – even in Nepal. I’ve been baking my whole life, so it took me less than an hour to find decent local flour and instant yeast, and to teach our Nepalese and Tibetan team (with a hundred‑year rice culture behind them) how to make northern European‑style wheat bread.
The only real challenges were adjusting the recipe to high altitude (fermentation takes longer above 1,800 metres) and showing our team how to use a Western‑style oven. They figured it out quickly. They’ve now been making our breakfast bread every morning for more than 15 years.
The secret behind our breakfast bread in Lisbon
Farinhas Paulina Hortas is worth a visit – especially if you travel with kids.
When we first visited Portugal more than 30 years ago, you could still find great local bread: good flour, regional recipes, proper bakeries. Over time, supermarket bake‑off bread changed everything. Many traditional bakeries closed, flour quality dropped to meet supermarket price points, and Lisbon ended up with the same problem we’d seen in northern Europe – and earlier in Kathmandu: bread that is both mediocre and expensive.
The craft bread wave in Portugal is still behind northern Europe, although it’s growing. Thanks to bakeries and chains like Copenhagen Coffee Lab and Gleba, you can now buy excellent bread in Lisbon – but at prices neither we nor many of our guests are willing to pay every day.
Unlike Nepal, we knew quality flour existed here. The problem was finding it. Small craft bakeries were not very keen to share their suppliers. That only made me more stubborn. After a few weeks of detective work, I managed to photograph a flour bag in one of the bakeries – with the name and contact details of Farinhas Paulino Horta, a small mill about 40 minutes’ drive from Tings Lisbon.
They are the real secret behind our bread. Or rather, our breads: we bake our everyday breakfast loaf, whole grain rye bread, focaccia, bagels, sandwich bread – and even French crêpes. Paulino Horta has all the flours we dream of, plus seeds, flakes, grains and good yeast.
We’re happy to share their contact details. In fact, we even suggest that guests with kids who want to do something different take a day trip to visit them. We’ve written about that flour‑hunting adventure here.
How we make our homemade breakfast bread
Bread is not magic. Especially if you’ve been baking your own all your life – and every morning for more than 15 years.
On our first mornings in Kathmandu, a guest almost hugged me and asked for the recipe. I blushed a little. When it happened again a few days later, I thought someone was joking. After a couple of months, and after emailing the recipe to around 20 guests around the world, I realised it was easier to write it up properly on the blog.
Since then, many guests have baked Tings bread at home. Some even send us photos of their loaves from Denmark, Germany, the US or Brazil. That is one of the best feelings we know.
Below you’ll find the step‑by‑step visual recipe in the photo carousel. It’s the same simple process we use every morning at Tings Lisbon.
DAY 1; Step 1 to 6 - 10 MINUTES
The bread we bake in the morning is started up the previous morning 24 hrs before. But the total hands-on-time is a maximum 15 minutes for one to three breads at a time.
Here is how we do it (I always make two breads – but the recipe is for one)
Day 2: step 7 to 10 - 5 min. + 45 min. in the oven
Why you should bake your own bread
Our bread is deliberately simple. The dough takes a maximum of 15 minutes to mix. While it rises and bakes, you can take a shower, do the dishes or kiss your partner.
The bread itself is really good. It actually gets better over the next couple of days. On day three (if it lasts that long) it makes excellent toast. If you cut the leftovers into cubes and fry them in good olive oil, you get the best croutons for your gazpacho or salads.
It’s also very cheap. Each loaf weighs around 1 kg. The ingredients cost roughly 0.50 € per bread. All you need is a normal household oven and a Dutch oven – we bought ours at IKEA for about 50 €.
And then there’s the bonus: baking your own bread is extremely relaxing. Watching the dough rise, smelling that first wave of fragrance from the oven, and seeing how happy friends and family are when they eat it – that’s something very special.
Enjoy the fun – and if you bake your own version of Tings bread, send me a photo of your homemade wonder.
Thomas
