Cerveja e tremoços

I'm working hard these days... But I decided to make an exception today (and "exception" is the word, believe me, because I'm coding some Java snippets). So, in order to improve the coding atmosphere, I decided to open a beer and take some pickles:

Like Lucky Strike in "Mad men": It's toasted.

I had heard of them, but I had never tasted'em.

It's easier when you are coding if you have something to eat and drink near you. But coke, chocolat and cookies are not so healthy...

The Sagres Bohemia Reserva 1835 is a limited edition of the Bohemia beer.  It's made for conmemorating the 170th year of the Cervejaria da Trindade and I like it. It would be even better if its colour was completely natural, but it isn't. They added caramel colouring :(

I have no much to say about lupins. They are like beans, they have a thick coat all around them and they are highly salted (not by themselves, but because of the salted water they are in). You must wash them before eating, otherwise you'll get you blood pressure touching the clouds. And damn, they are supposed to be healthier than cookies!

That's all, I'm going to keep myself focused on coding. See you!

Hell, it was about time!

I know... all the week long without showing any signal of life, but it's being hard here... lots of things to do and not enough time for everything.

As a proof, these photographs below have been kept a whole week in the camera until they were processed today:



They belong to last weekend, when Paula, "a minha namorada" :D, came to visit Leiria (and me, of course). For privacy reasons, I'll only show you those photos where neither she nor I are shown. Hope you enjoy Leiria's castle.

The ultimate guide for any galician trying to speak portuguese... (Chapter IV)

"Muito obrigado", Rober:

This time all we get is a mess with verbs... Not much to transcribe here, just one curiosity:

• "pegar", which means hit in spanish is just a verb used in portuguese to refer to the action of holding hands together... This leads us to be able to say that you "hit" your girlfriend in the street without being punished for that! :D

It was really brief this time, wasn't it? ;)

See you!

Pia do Urso

When I was coming back to Leiria, I saw a sign saying something about a sensorial park called "Pia do urso". I didn't know what a "urso" was, so I went there...



By the way, "urso" means bear... ;)  But no bears there, only one, which was made of fiberglass (and cows, donkeys, pigs, rabbits, hens... all off them made of fiberglass) :(

Fátima's sanctuary

It's so close to Leiria that even someone like me has to take a look for free... Now you can share the look I took:

Lost in Leiria

I spent yesterday afternoon walking around Leiria and I took some pictures. Here you are:

The ultimate guide for any galician trying to speak portuguese... (Chapter III)

"Muito obrigado", Rober:

Yes, yes, yes... you already know what comes after the video...

A brief lesson about adjectives:

• "exquisito" doesn't mean tasteful but rare, strange... (but you should write it as "esquisito", with 's', in portuguese...)
• "espantoso" doesn't mean terrible, but terrific...

Some kind of "false friends" in portuguese too, I suppose...

• "borracho" means drunk in galician, but handsome/pretty/beautiful in portuguese.
• "chulo" means handsome/pretty/beautiful in galician, but it only refers to that man behind every whore (a procurer, which would lead me to talk about the spanish term "procurador", but I will not) when you're speaking portuguese. 

Moreover, going on with this topic, a "puto", which is some kind of bad word in spanish, only means child in portuguese... And a "rapaza", a girl in galician, means whore/bitch in portuguese... So take care using that word and change your vocabulary to use "rapariga" instead... But also be careful when traveling to Brazil, where "rapariga" is the word used for whores... You must use "menina" or "garota" there... This seems some kind of words game from hell, doesn't it?

More, more, more...

• "embaraçada", which means embarrassed in portuguese, is pronounced like "embarazada", which means pregnant in spanish... You must use the word "grávida" to refer to pregnant women in Portugal.

All of this leads us to be able to say, in some situations, that a man is "embaraçado", something that would cause laugh if you say it after having crossed the borderline.

• "meiga" is a familiar word to galician people. It means witch in galician (a good witch, I must say, not a bad one, which would be called "bruxa"), but it's not a name but an adjective in portuguese, meaning warm, loving and affable...

Enough by now, don't you think so? More to come... there are at least seven videos like these three we've already reviewed...

See you!

Beers, beers, beers...

I've to taste'em all!

You may know there are two main beer brands in Portugal: Super Bock and Sagres. And as I'm an Erasmus student... this is gonna be my mission: Taste as many as I can. And write about that, of course... :D

I wrote about the Super Bock Stout before, but I'd like to add some information now... As I'm not an expert, I'll just copy some information from Super Bock website:

In 2003, Super Bock Stout, the other side of Super Bock, was launched. Super Bock Stout is Super Bock's special black beer, produced from special malts (pale malt, caramel malt and chocolate malt), which give it a distinct flavour and aroma, and a long-lasting creamy head.

Super Bock Stout differs from the other black beers on the market because it is richer in extract, more full-bodied and with a more complex (almost fruity), not-so-roasted taste and aroma.

The care taken and the type of ingredients used in the production of Super Bock Stout result in a balance between sweet and bitter, giving it its unique taste - an Authentic Taste. For these reasons, Super Bock Stout is much more than a black beer - it is the other side of Super Bock.

Really cool bottle, it's sweating...

I've also tasted one of the three kind of Super Bock Abadia beer... This is what they say about it:

Super Bock Abadia is characterized by a rich aroma, stronger and embodied, fruited and alive, with a smooth and comforting taste and the most intense colour due to the use of special varieties of Malte

The creative concept of Super Bock Abadia’s packaging takes us to an ancestral environment, keeping the identity of the lettering – in red – over the rosette of Leça do Balio’ Monastery, now with a stylised, simplified, more modern and dynamic image.

The one I drank was the Abadia Gold, as you can see below. I still have to taste the normal one and the Abadia Rubi...

Bad photo taken with phone...

And this is its... let's say "technical sheet":

Name: Super Bock Abadia Gold.
Launched: March 2008.
Market: Beers/Gourmet Beers.
Birth-place: Leça do Balio, Portugal.
Other information: A special beer, fruited and dry, goes perfectly with the soft flavors of fish and shellfish. Surprisingly light and not bitter. Golden and exuberant,  it’s a dry beer, with 6.8 alcoholic percentage. Balanced and light.
Target: For those who like beer.

And last, but not least, something I've also talked about: The standard Sagres beer in "mini" bottles. I'm not gonna talk a lot about this one... I've just found a video and it seems you'll enjoy it more than any description I could make by using words... ;)

See you guys!

The ultimate guide for any galician trying to speak portuguese... (Chapter II)

"Muito obrigado" again, Rober:

What I've learned this time:

• "Carpeta" sounds similar to "carpete", which doesn't mean folder, but carpet... A folder is a "pasta", which means paste/pulp in galician...
• "Prenda" is not any kind of clothes... but it can be, as it means "gift" in portuguese. The word used to refer to gifts in spanish is "regalo", but it means relief in portuguese...

Any trouble so far? Ok, let's keep learning...

• You can also use "oferta" to say gift in portuguese (well, not exactly gift, but any kind of free stuff...), which is shocking for spanish people, as "oferta" means "sales offer" in spanish...
• "The 'coche' and 'carro' problematic": Easy this time... "Carro" means car in portuguese. "Coche" means carriage (typically horse-drawn...). Ok, now flip it over: "Coche" means car in spanish... "Carro" means carriage... Got it? :D
• One funny misunderstanding in this video: "Pila" is the word we use to refer to small batteries, like those inside the remote control of your TVs... But it means "penis" (in a coloquial way, I must say...) in portuguese. You must use "pilha" to refer to batteries...
• Another funny misunderstanding: "Caixón", the galician word for referring to "drawer" is similar to "caixão" when pronouncing... but wait! "caixão" means coffin in portuguese... take care when using that word or you'll seem to be a psycho killer...

Are you having fun with Coco?

More to come... see you!

The ultimate guide for any galician trying to speak portuguese... (Chapter I)

"Muito obrigado", Rober:

What I've learned from this video:

• "Jantar", which is pronounced like the galician word "xantar", doesn't mean lunch, but dinner.
• "Almoço", which is similar to the galician word "almorzo", means lunch, not breakfast.
• "Azeite" is used just for referring to olive oil. All the other kind of oil are called "óleos".
• "Salsa" means parsley, so if you want some sauce with your meal, then you must ask for "molho".
• "Xamón", the word we use to refer to ham, can be confused with hashish because of its pronunciation ("chamon" in portuguese). You should ask for "presunto" to avoid trouble with police...
• Following this kind of drug misunderstanding, you may ask for a "dose", but all you'll get will be a serving (maybe a serving of "xamón" :D)
• "Vaso" means vase, you know, to keep your flowers wet. If you ask for a "vaso" of water you'll get some laughs instead of "a glass of water".

I hope you enjoy learning portuguese with Coco me.

See you!

The ultimate "HowTo guide" for coffee in Portugal

So you guys wanna have some delicious coffee? Then you should come to Portugal!

Their secret must be the raw material they use, as they import it mostly from Brazil.

So you need to know how to ask for the kind of coffee you usually drink. Here you are some of the typical names:

If you want simply an expresso coffee you can ask for a "café". A great coffee with great fragrance. You must pay attention if you're at Lisboa, where this kind of coffee is known as "bica" among natives. So if you want to be part of them, you may ask for "uma bica, si faz favor". But if you are visiting Oporto, you should ask for a "cimbalino", keep that in mind. You'll get an intense coffee, but a bit small...

If you want a bigger one, with double quantity of water, you need to ask for an "abatanado" or maybe a "café cheio". If you ask for a "café curto" you'll get an even smaller but intenser expresso coffee.

And if you want some kind of american coffee, you know, those which are made by litres, you'll find it by using the word "carioca".

All of this gets worse when you want a coffee with some milk. You can ask for a "pingado" and receive an expresso coffee with a drop ("pinga") of milk. Or maybe you've asked for a "galão", in which case you'll receive just the opposite: A big glass of hot milk with a standard expresso coffee dropped into it.

Maybe the "galão" is too big for you... Maybe you want some more coffee into it... Then you should ask for "galão obscuro" if you want it darker or "meia de leite" if you want it darker and normal size.

And last, something we, Galician people, really love: "Café con cheirinho", a kind of coffee with marc liquour (they call it "bagazo")

Hope you've learned how to ask for your favorite coffee today... I did indeed.

See you!

Tasting...

Just a few words to describe what I've been tasting until now:

"Bacalhau com natas":
One of the more than 500 different recipes that portuguese people have for cooking codfish. This one is like a pasty mixture of cod, mashed potatoes, white sauce (bechamel) and pepper, with melted cheese all over it and some decorative black olives. They also add some vegetables in some restaurants...

Bacalhau com natas

"Pasteis de nata":
I had the pleasure of tasting some of these when they'd been just cooked. They were still warm and, yes, I could be eating thousands of them, because they were really delicious. A little bit too sugared, but you know, I'm a greedy guy (golosón, golosón...)
Its taste can be compared to a croissant dough after a few seconds into the microwave oven and then filled with yummy pastry cream.

Pasteis de nata / Pasteis de Belém

There is a place in Lisbon which is famous for doing the best "pasteis de nata" all over Portugal. By the way, these "pasteis de nata" are also know as "pasteis de Belém", and you can read about their history here.

"Super Bock Preta":

As I had said before, this is a kind of stout (dark beer, like Guinness, but without so dense foam). It's ok, it's nice. I'm not an expert but I liked it. I still have a couple of them in the fridge besides some other different ones for tasting...

Mini Super Bock Preta

More news coming soon, see you!