When Slow Food becomes the fastest part of the project…
I don’t know what happened. Its impossible to do something spontaneous in Graca. Even the smallest things take forever
Woke up loaded with energy ready to tie a lot of loos ends… in other words – a whole day in front of the computer. Since I’m grounded for hours – why not make some slow food for Sunday I said to my self. Why not do some African food? I have heard a lot of Afro Baile all morning – Celeste/Maripose who plays tonight at Damas – a concert we can’t join because we’re going to a friends birthday dinner… at Ibo another afro inspired restaurant… Is that a sign? I’m going to the butcher to get a bone for Maks… We are babysitting our friends dog – so I decided to give him the treat. Since I was going to the butcher I asked Annette: Why not buy Osso Buco? – I had an idea of making Moroccan Osso B. It just boils slowly while you work… the longer the better. Fantastic idea… Annette loves African and Osso Buco. Except from meat we only needed to shop celleries, apricots, carrots, prunes and aubergines we had everything… so 10 minutes shopping only. From then on things went wrong… Another day at the office[caption id="attachment_10794" align="alignnone" width="2978"]
I got number 46 when I arrived at my local butcher. Only 4 before me. But 4 local ladies – Christ! I don’t how they do it. But they always end up chatting and small talking with everyone around. Each other, the butchers, people passing by on the side walk outside the door, the woman behind the counter… THEY TALK WITH EVERYTHING THAT MOVES. After 25 minutes I managed to place my order: 3 pieces of the best Osso Buco… The butcher went to the cold store room in the back and returned after 5 minutes. Passed by me and returned again after a few minutes. Wait 5 minutes – is that OK? – Of course it was OK. Good meat is worth waiting for… No problem I said. I go to Pingo Doce. Pingo Doce is the local super market – one of the 3 we have in Graca. I only needed a few things so it would maximum take me 10 minutes…[/caption]
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After having fooled around in the supermarket for 10 minutes I still missed apricots, celleries an carrots… hmmm. I was close to a nervous breakdown when I saw all the people lining up in front of the checkouts. The old local women and all the cafes and restaurants shopping discounted items for their menu were before me. THE WORST COMBINATION OF PEOPLE. It took forever before it was my turn – it took me exactly 3 minutes to organize my shopping on the desk, pay, pack and leave… Its a mystery that each and every customer can spend so long time shopping so little…[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_10792" align="aligncenter" width="2988"] 20 Minutes ago our friends texted me… Maks is at the vet. He has to stay home…. So now I have a huge super ox bone in the fridge. The bone that started it all. And I still haven’t done any of the work I wanted to finish… But I’ve listened to a lot of fantastic music 🙂 And the pot i still simmering with something delicious… dinner for 10 – but no appointments LOL[/caption]
Why does everything take so long time… its killing me
You can find all kinds of information about expat life in Lisbon online. Except for one thing. Its difficult to find information about how ones daily life is… Like going shopping household items, visiting the bank etc. I don’t know if its general – but shopping here in Graca takes forever. Maybe some people find it exotic and charming. I HATE IT! Have a nice weekend. Thomas]]>