Cake: spoon or fork?
The great hunt for the best bolo de bolacha continues. Because of a combination of factors, we found ourselves having lunch in Amarante today and because our favourite lunching venue was closed for its regular day off, we went to Zé de Calçadas. We tried to remember how long it had been since we last sat on that veranda overlooking the river and though we could remember the occasion and who was there, we couldn’t put a date to it. Fifteen years ago? Twenty? Curiously, we both agreed that we were sitting in the same place as we had the previous time, when both my sister and mother were with us.
It gave us cause to consider what makes places change. Zé de Calçadas had become a bit more upmarket in its menu and I speculated that the opening of our favourite (but temporarily closed) restaurant, Pobre Tolo, might have been a bit of a game changer. Until they came along some ten years ago, most local eateries would have been content to offer the same worthy but unadventurous traditional menus and our memories of eating at Zé’s in the dim and distant past seemed to suggest just that: admirable but cautious meals. But today it was different and the menu showed clear signs of being challenged by the fool from down the road – so I plumped for bocheca, pig’s cheeks slow cooked with alheira and I’m really glad I did. What a treat.
But the really big treat was yet to come. The bolo de bolacha was served in a glass bowl, which seemed to me a very odd thing to do. No no no, was my first reaction and tapped my spoon on the side of the bowl with some irritation. However, my reaction after I’d dipped the spoon into the bowl and taken a bite was quite definitely yes yes yes. Of course, that immediately led me to the difficult question of what criteria I was actually using to judge these things . I quickly decided that, like any good conspiracy theorist, what I was using most was an emotional reaction. However, I was able to say that both the texture (a difficult mix between silky soft with slightly yielding bits) and the sweetness (not too much but nicely balanced with the coffee flavour) were spot on. And suddenly the bowl and spoon rather than plate and fork made perfect sense and I instantly gifted it with multiple stars. Yummy yum yum.
