Date Night

Last night, my husband and I left the kids with some friends and headed out for a date. We drove to the city across the island, which is a very old and historic city. There is a lot to see there. We parked the car and set off on foot. One of the things I've been meaning to blog about is all of the old, crumbling, abandoned houses here. There was a huge earthquake in the early 80's on this island, destroying many of the houses and sending some Azoreans to live elsewhere (like in Canada and the US). Many of these old houses are still here, untouched for the last 20-some years. Portuguese law says that these old, historic houses must not be torn down. They are everywhere- in fact, there is one we can see from our house. Many of them have trees growing out of the windows and pigeons roosting in them. We saw a particularly interesting one last night. It was an old apartment complex with at least 3 different dwellings.

We headed to the city gardens for a nice walk through the trees and flowers.

After that, we headed back to a restaurant we had passed earlier. It was down a tiny side street and it looked nice inside. We read the menu posted on the door and decided to try it. I got the swordfish, and my husband decided to "try something new" and got "baby goatling". My swordfish was a little too fishy, and his goat was gamey. But the potatoes served with both dishes were good. I love the small, yellow, waxy potatoes local to this area. I've tried swordfish a few times since I moved here, trying to get some as good as the stuff I used to eat in Spain, but so far it hasn't really lived up to my expectations. And needless to say, my husband trying goat was a one-time deal! Nevertheless, the food made for some cool photos. **This post and photos are property of http://dishingwithdish.blogspot.com/ **