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Luso

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Liam Hetherington
Liam Hetherington
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5 out of 5
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Editor Pick

4) Luso - Whole Lotta Rosé

4) Luso - Whole Lotta Rosé

Portugal - 15/01/09

There were three of us dining. We had been lured in by Luso’s participation in the City Bites festival, where restauarants offered stripped-down menus. Here the offer was that from a set menu you could have two courses and a half-bottle of wine per diner for £20.00. (The choices of food are similar to those on the Preço Fixo menu that is offered for £22.00 every Tuesday evening and Sunday). The menu offered traditional Portuguese meals alongside those influenced from ‘the Portuguese colonial diaspora’ – Macau, Goa, Brazil, Africa and Japan. You can see the full menu on their website here.

In short: what a fantastic restaurant.

For starters both Bryan and I went for Sardines Escabeche. What could be more Portuguese than sardines I reasoned? However, there was a twist. These sardines had a real citrus zing – later investigation revealed that ‘escabeche’ meant that the ingredients had first been marinated in an acidic mixture. So linguistically it was similar to the seafood ceviche I had enjoyed along the Peruvian coast. The sardines here came grilled and served on toast with a side salad. A la carte price would have been £6.50. Paul opted for Caldo Verde, a creamed potato and cabbage soup which found favour with him too.

As mentioned, the set menu included wine. We had been on the verge of simply ordering the house white when we recalled that if there is one wine Portugal is famed (and in my opinion rather unfairly maligned) for, it is rosé. What is it about pink wine? As men we would never normally order rosé in a bar or restaurant, but actually it is really nice, and we stuck with it all meal. In actual fact, we didn’t need to worry about the wine. Apart from champagne, all wines on Luso’s menu are sourced from Portugal – a choice in total of 12 whites, 12 reds, 3 sparkling Portuguese wines, and only two rosés. (They also have Portuguese bottled beers such as Sagres from Lisbon and Super Bock from Porto).

We had all chosen different dishes for our main course. Paul had gone for the most famously Lusitanian dish, bacalhau. This came in the form of Salt Cod à Gomes de Sá, pan-fried salted cod in a potato and onion sauce, served with poached egg. It was good and cooked expertly, but to our tastebuds, raised on a diet where salt is very much seen to be a bad thing in food, it did taste very salty. I had gone for piri-piri chicken. Piri-piri seasoning originates from the birdseye chilis of southern Africa (notably the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola). So here the chicken breasts had been marinated in a piri-piri concoction which gave the meat a delicate spicy kick, but without being mouth-cauterizingly hot. If I’d wanted hot I would have gone for the pork vindaloo. Better known in Britain for being a famously hot curry, its name actually derives from the Portuguese words ‘vin’ (wine) and ‘alao’ (garlic), and it derived from their Goan colony on the west coast of India (and promised to be served with tandoori potatoes and raita). Served alongside the chicken were slices of plantain in a tempura batter, providing a nice link between the cuisines of Portugal, its African colonies, and its early interest in Japan. Bryan had chosen vegetarian paella, made with saffron rice and seasonal vegetables.

We had enjoyed a really nice meal for £20 by this point – two courses and wine. Though the servings were not the largest in the world, they were tasty and different, and offered us a look into a too-often-neglected cuisine. In fact, we had enjoyed our meal so much we were keen to continue onto dessert. The menu listed a range that varied from the homely (plum and ginger crumble) to the exotic (vindaloo ice cream anyone?). I was lured in by a dish called farófias. This turned out to be a tall glass held pale vanilla custard, chilled and so with a semi-solid consistency. Atop it were fluffy marshmallow like objects – these were meringues poached in milk. And it was a wonderful finish to the meal - actually I’d say it was the part of the meal I enjoyed most. It cost £5.50 and it was certainly worth it!

Much as I love port we made the decision not to go for a glass of the good stuff (and certainly not the full bottle of Colheita 1980 at a bargain £120.00). With tip it all added up to roughly £30.00 a head. Great bargain when you consider I’ve already looked up how to make farófias, and now understand the concept of escabeche. Would I go back again? Certainly. Would I have exactly the same dishes again? Gladly. Though I’d be keen to try something new and continue to expand my knowledge of the varied tastes and flavours that comprise modern Portuguese cuisine. This really is a cracking little restaurant.

(Keen on Portugal? Why not continue to explore via Madeira Shop on Swan Street. Or if you like piri-piri you can find Peri Peri Chicken on Wilmslow Road in Rusholme. And of course the nationwide chain Nandos – found in the Printworks, the Arndale Centre, near Oxford Road station, and in Fallowfield – specialises in peri-peri chicken. But as they are a South African chain, founded by Portuguese emigrants from Mozambique and Angola I may well try to shoe-horn that into a different country write-up…)

From journal Around the World in 80 Meals! (part 1)

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