Dining in Portugal: Piling on the Not-So-Freebies
It started the very first meal we ate in Lisbon. We awoke from our post-flight nap and headed across the street from the very wonderful Hotel Britania (not cheap, but not crazy expensive either, and very comfortable with free wi-fi) to a tiny neighborhood joint. We tentatively peered in the window, and the proprietor waved us in with a friendly gesture. He took us to the back of the restaurant to a little room with three tables and those ubiquitous pretty blue tiles that are on three-quarters of the walls we saw in Portugal. The Portuguese lead the EU and the world in tiling; they even tile the sidewalks. We sat down, and that's when the parade of seemingly free little plates started coming.
My husband and I went to Lisbon for the first time (hopefully not the last) recently. Knowing virtually nothing about the city or, for that matter, Portuguese history and culture at large, we chose the destination on the basis of some vague recollections of positive things heard, the fact that we hadn't been there before and, in light of the trip's brevity, that it wasn't too far away. 
