Time Out Market

We finally concluded our guided tour of Sintra. I was surprised to have visited at lot more places than I thought we would. I think it helps if you don’t expect anything and just go with the flow. The thing is, preparing too much for a trip is that you kind of lose the wonder of visiting a place for the very first time. This guided tour was a refreshing change from knowing exactly what you will be visiting. Our tour guide, Antonio, was a wonderful companion and kept us engaged the whole time. It is nice to have your own transportation especially if the weather is too warm.

As per agreement, our tour guide drove us not to Lisbon but to the neighboring municipality of Cascais. It is a seaside town which reminds me of some expensive European places where everyone seems to own a yacht. I was kind of hoping that we would grab a bite somewhere but everyone else wanted to go back to Lisbon and look for a place to eat there. It is probably a better idea since there was a train leaving Cascais for Lisbon soon.

The train to Lisbon was uneventful, it was only then that we realized how tired we were. Some of us slept all the way through but I needed to keep an eye out to make sure we don’t miss our stop. We got off at the Lisbon train station Cais do Sodré. It was already dark by the time we got there so it was a little difficult for me to get my bearings. Fortunately, there was a famous eating place here in the vicinity and that is the Time Out Market. Some friendly folk pointed out the place and I was surprised to see how large the place was.

I initially didn’t understand the name of this market, since I just might be mishearing something. Time Out Market is a massive food hall where famous chefs have setup shop to serve people in a food court style environment. Time Out is actually a lifestyle magazine which I have seen elsewhere in the world. It was one of those free magazines which I would pick up but never read. It seems they have a Time Out here in Lisbon. There were so many stalls for us to choose from but I ended up getting fried chicken which turned out to be peri-peri chicken. The chicken was wonderfully fried and the chili oil was very tasty as well. I realized that this was my first taste of peri-peri chicken here in Portugal and I really liked it a lot. I think I was focused on seafood too much that I forgot about this once. It only goes to show you the variety of food that is on offer here in Portugal. My companions had grilled fish and some had roasted pork. Each one of them were very happy with the choices. I think this Time Out Market is a must visit for any food lover.

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