Author: Lucy Bryson / Source: Atlas Obscura
Lisbon, Portugal, is renowned for culinary offerings such as salty, charcoal-grilled sardines, the addicting pasteis de nata, and an increasingly innovative fine dining scene. The city’s Chinese cuisine isn’t usually mentioned in the same breath—until you head to the maze-like backstreets of Mouraria and Martim Moniz, where red lanterns dangle from upper-floor windows of apartment buildings.
For those in the know, these are symbols of covert culinary operations.A secretive universe lies within these apartment buildings: Chinês Clandestinos, or “clandestine Chinese.” Clustered in the historic Moorish quarter behind Martim Moniz, these no-frills restaurants are an open secret among a handful of Lisboetas. Often operating out of family homes, they’re typically not official dining establishments, and are often referred to merely by road name and number, such as Rua da Guia 9. New spots come and go, yet some have been operating under the radar in one form or another for decades.
What makes clandestinos special is their exceptional food, a world away from the Westernized Chinese restaurants that have cropped up in the city. Here, crispy frogs’ legs intermingle with chicken. Strips of pork are seared with hot peppers, and eggplant is liberally doused with a bean, ginger, and chili sauce, and then fried so that the sauce both caramelizes and softens it. Ravioli frito de porco (fried pork dumplings) are also a staple across clandestinos.
The cobbled, car-free streets of Mouraria lie in one of Lisbon’s most ethnically diverse areas. It’s a legacy tracing back to 1147, when the crusaders conquered Lisbon and King Afonso Henriques decreed that Muslims remaining in the city should live in these hilly streets beneath the castle walls.
It’s long been the spiritual and literal home of immigrants in Lisbon: Today, many of the neighborhood’s residents are of African and Asian descent.
The Chinese community has an especially strong presence in Lisbon. Around the turn of the millennium, some entrepreneurial Chinese families began running small-scale catering operations. There were no menus, no formal opening hours, and no non-Chinese diners present. But the clandestinos have recently begun to attract a new type of clientele. In large part due to the dramatic gentrification of Martim Moniz square, restaurant owners have suddenly found themselves catering to groups of Erasmus students, new residents, and the occasional traveler who’s heard about these spots.
One June day, I take a stroll around the clandestino epicenter of Mouraria, often known as the birthplace of Fado music, and for the Moorish castle sitting above the steep cobbled streets. With me is the German-born Anna Gruber, an adopted Lisboeta who has been living in the city for over a decade. She now runs the Estrela Park guest house, and runs tours specializing in hidden Lisbon spots. “Many of the clandestinos here are really busy now,” she says, pointing to a recently-opened locale tucked into a yellow apartment building.
We walk along flag-strewn squares to Rua da Guia 9, thought to be one of the first clandestinos to…
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