Money, Drugs, and Seafood

We have seen and sampled many wines from Esporão, and they've been great.  We weren't sure exactly whether Esporão was a winery or a broker or what, though.  They make wines all over Portugal and also olive oil, beers, and they are involved in tourism.  We went to their website and found this English-subtitled "mission statement".  It's the most refreshing and non-BS mission statement we've ever seen.  It seems to have a Portuguese spirit.  And you can enjoy the bassoon duet too.

Gerrit has been worrying about what happens to our euro income from our US-based investments (in dollars) if the incoming administration's plans to weaken the dollar transpire.  On the face of it, a weakened dollar would reduce the euro purchasing power of our investments.  For example, if the investments had a great +10% year but the dollar slid relative to the euro by -10%, the gain in euro purchasing power from all those shrewd dollar investments would be wiped out.

But never fear, there is a good explanation of how to mitigate currency fluctuations as an American expat here.  This general idea was also suggested to us a little while ago by our financial advisor.  It involves investing at least partly in euro-based funds like ETFs.  There is even a significant tax advantage for American taxpayers to do this through a US-based brokerage rather than investing directly in European companies or funds.  Weakening the dollar can have benefits for American exporting firms too, so you can optimize your overall investments by keeping some of them in dollar-based securities too.

Gerrit thought maybe we would have to liquidate our US investments and reinvest in European securities, but fortunately we won't have to do that.

He also called our Seattle bank to verify the procedure for wiring our house purchase funds to a Portugal escrow, in about a week if all goes well.  Wiring large amounts of money internationally turns out to be simple, cheap, and straightforward, and we're all ready to go.

Pat got her Social Security benefit started, since we won't have as much interest-producing capital after we buy the house.  By "started" we mean we'll start seeing it by maybe March.

And on the new-home front, Gerrit made contact with several lift installation companies and sent them some sketches of what we have in mind.  There is a long daunting staircase leading from the house entry level to the upper floor living area, so soon we will want a lift to haul groceries (and ourselves) up and down.  The stairs also don't have railings, so we need to line that up shortly too, like as soon as possible.  Our new neighbor and housekeeper Inês is a local and has worked for the former owners for years, and she should have some good handyman references.  By the way, "handyman" in Portuguese is "faz tudo", or "does everything".  Some websites have a category for "marido de aluguel" (husband for hire), too.  Only for the difficult, no-fun part, we assume.

You may already know about Portugal's liberalized drug policies.  In 2001, the country decriminalized the personal use and possession of all drugs.  Drug-related deaths, HIV infections, and incarceration have all significantly declined as a result.  We haven't seen any evidence of drug use other than the occasional cannabis shop, but of course we haven't been to the darkest alleys of Lisbon either.  A news item we saw today describes a free street-drug testing service here.  The article says "This service enables individuals to verify the contents of their substances, identifying unexpected compounds or adulterants, thereby facilitating informed decision-making and enhancing safety."  Wow.  Think of all the deaths in the news due to fentanyl in heroin or bad batches of meth.  Portugal's attitude is pretty much the opposite of a "war on drugs", and it has been working for 24 years.

The US has far and away the highest death rate for drug use in the world: 21.3 per 100k.  Portugal ranks 0.64, not the lowest in the world but close.  And speaking of death, what about all the fatty meat and fries they scarf down over here?  Death by coronary heart disease clocks in at US = 73.5, Portugal = 39.3.  Both are pretty low on the worldwide scale, but we think Portugal is only about half the US because wine must cut fat.  (joking...)  Death by violence?  US = 6.0, Portugal = 0.76.  You can have your own morbid fun here.

Last night, Tuesday Jan 7, we had our first big splurge dinner here in Portugal.  It was a fabulous seafood feast in Matosinhos, just north of Porto, about a half hour from our apartment.  Matosinhos is renowned for the best seafood in Portugal and has been raved about by Anthony Bourdain, Mark Wiens, and other food writers as some of the best in the world.

Pat made reservations at Os Lusíadas where we had the Misto Epopeia ("Mixed Epic"), an enormous platter of the best seafood we have ever tasted.  But did we take a picture?  We did not, because we are the world's worst bloggers.  However, we did find these normal-blogger and stock photos of the place, showing the restaurant and something similar to the feast we were served.  (The exact meal depends on what is fresh for the day.)  Also, here is a segment in a Mark Weins video where he is served the same thing we ordered.  (This video was our inspiration to visit Os Lusíadas, by the way.)

It was unbelievable.  Crab, crayfish, lobster, shrimp, scallops, barnacles, whelks, clams, and more, all of it as fresh, briny, and delicious as you can possibly imagine.  There was a crab shell filled with the most incredible "crab butter", a mysterious creamy blend of seafood flavors which was rich, complex, and indescribably delicious.  We savored each bite as the flavor changed and evolved in our mouths.  Stunning!

Similar to our feast

Seafood galore at Os Lusíadas

This photo shows another specialty of Os Lusíadas: sea bass flame roasted in a mound of salt at your table.  It makes fajitas look pretty lame!  The salt forms a crust which seasons and seals juices in the fish, while the flames give it a grilled look and flavor.  Next time we'll try it.

Service was outstanding.  We ordered vinho verde, which should be enjoyed cold, so ours was kept aside in a chilled bucket while waiters whisked by to refill our glasses to only an inch every few minutes so it didn't warm up in the glasses.  And a shellfish extravaganza like this results in piles of shells, which were attentively removed as we ate.  Everyone spoke English, but we both tried to practice a little Portuguese too.

We were literally the first patrons in the restaurant, which is pathetically American.  We had reservations for 7:00, which is about the earliest the Portuguese begin to think about dinner, but we got there even earlier due to good traffic and parking and sheepishly took a table in the empty place.  A little while later a family with two of the sweetest and best behaved young boys joined us nearby, and as we enjoyed our feast the place did start to fill and warm up with happy patrons.

(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click outside a photo when you're done.  Also, you can click on the bold underlined phrases to play the audio.)

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