When I contact Barney Frank’s staff to arrange to meet the US congressman, I expect the suggested venue to be a familiar lunch spot for the politically powerful in Washington. Instead, I receive an e-mail with driving directions to a location 50 miles south of Boston.

So here I am in Sagres, a restaurant in Fall River. The waiters keep up a lively Portuguese patter with diners as they move from table to table. There is no sign of Frank. But there are plenty that I am not in Washington. His staff had said he’d like to have lunch in his constituency, near Boston. I hadn’t figured on a Portuguese place miles away. This could be lunchtime in Lisbon, I’m thinking. Or Frank’s idea of a practical joke. Before I have time to decide, the congressman for the 4th District of Massachusetts arrives, sits down and introduces me to the waiter who’s been explaining the menu to me in English. “This is a journalist from the Financial Times – they’re doing restaurant reviews now,” he jokes.