Animal Mummies

In 1888 an Egyptian farmer digging in the sand near the village of Istabl Antar uncovered a mass grave. The bodies weren't human. They were feline—ancient cats that had been mummified and buried in pits in staggering numbers. "Not one or two here and there," reported the English Illustrated Magazine, "but […] hundreds of thousands, […] ten to twenty cats deep." Some of the linen-wrapped cats still looked presentable, and a few even had gilded faces. Village children peddled the best specimens to tourists for change; the rest were sold in bulk as fertilizer. One ship hauled about 180,000, weighing some 38,000 pounds, to Liverpool to be spread on the fields of England.


An amazing article in November’s National Geographic Magazine. The rest of the article is here.

Lisbon's Heart

In Luis de Camões Square, in downtown Lisbon, there is this adorable heart. The lights change with the touch of a hand.

Sweet.

Little boat

Little boat in Lisbon's river Tagus.

100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do

Have you ever been to a restaurant alone where the waiter said something like “Are you waiting for someone?” and felt like replying “Thank you so much for that sweet reminder that I came alone to a restaurant today, but NO, I CAME ALONE”?

Have you ever been to a restaurant where the waiter took “an empty plate from one guest while others are still eating the same course”? So have I.

Ever felt like the service wasn’t quite up to what you were expecting?

Well, I discovered this sweet entry in a blog called: “100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do”, by Bruce Buschel, in a blog from the The New York Times. Need I say anything else? Part One here and Part Two here.

A must read.

Chilly Sara

It’s been so cold lately I can actually feel my nose and ears!

Son of a Bitch!

Check ou the name of this blog (not the address, the NAME!)

It seriously pissed me off!

Critic kills Lust

In last week’s culinary review of Time Out Magazine, this precious gem appeared. I am sorry, but it is only in Portuguese but, if you are thinking about learning a new language, you could always choose Portuguese as it will be worth .

It starts off with a warning: “As melhores coisas deste restaurante semi-novo vimo-las logo no primeiro minuto: um bom poiso com vista para a rua da Escola Politécnica, habitado por empregados simpáticos. Se lhe parece uma boa descrição não leia mais, porque a partir daqui... foi sempre a descer.” [The best of this semi-new restaurant were seen in the first minute: a good location overviewing Rua da Escola Politécnica, served with friendly employees. If this sounds like a good description, read no more, because it all went downhill from here.” ]

And after he it goes deeper than Hell. Seriously.

This literary genious – only a genious could waste/spend his time destroying a restaurant with an intelligent, humours and immaginative review - wrote the following: “a massa que envolvia [as bochechas de porco] era qualquer coisa parecida com aquelas que se compram numa loja dos chineses. E não estou a dizer loja de comida chinesa.” ["the dough envolving them [the pork cheeks] looked like something you would buy at a Chinese store. And I am not talking about a Chinese food store."]

Tiago Rio, I LOVE YOU!

No rubber band chopticks

Last week, I went to a japanese restaurant – Origami sushihouse– with some people from work.

I’ve only have sushi once before and didn’t like, but this time I LOVED IT. Truly good. Great atmosphere, service, and food, except form the music, which was everything but Japanese. I think it “matched” the TV, broadcasting some music channel.

But the best thing, really, was that I ate with the Japanese chopsticks, as you can see from the photo. I didn’t need to use the ones with the rubber band on the end, no sir, nor the typical knife and fork, like the waitress kindly told us she could bring. My foot, she would! I ate like a Japanese!

My plate and chopsticks!

Chocolate for the soul

I found a new blog about books. It's called Chocolate para a alma [chocolate for the soul], and they have a fabulous tagline: "reading doesn't fatten". It's a very literal translation, I know, but I don't feel inspired to bo better.

I'll be following them closely, for sure