Porto: a gastronomic wonder

One of the reasons we chose Porto as our first city-break destination (apart from the absurdly cheap airfares) was that a foodie magazine I had recently read declared it one of Europe´s top foodie cities.

As you can imagine, my mind wandered and I had conjured up an idea of each meal I would indulge in while we were there... feasting on local specialities, I would take notes at the dinner table as to how I could recreate the wonders at home. I can safely report, that there has been no such note-taking, in fact, one of the things I will miss least about Porto is the cuisine.


The following paragraphs will detail a few of the gastronomic encounters that took place:

Francesinha (or as I like to think of it, a heart attack waiting to happen)
Take two slices of bread, toast lightly... sandwich between bread: 1 piece of steak, 2 or 3 long salami like sausages (mildly spicy), and two different ham-like products... next cover with cheese and grill until melted... finally, and most importantly, place in a bowl and drown in a mildly spiced gravy. Serve. (sometimes, if you are feeling particularly cholesterol deficient you may like to put a fried egg on the top)

Yes, I tried the Francesinha. I must admit, I did ask for it without the steak, so I was only eating products from one farm animal instead of two... I didn't opt for the egg on top either. For someone who has consisted on a mainly vegetarian diet since arriving in England, it was a bold choice, but it was a Portuguese speciality and I felt obliged to give it a go. I only managed to finish half of it. I can't say that it was absolutely terrible, but I can also quite happily state that I will never have another, or have the desire to have another.

Bacalhau. Sounds exotic doesn't it? It's dried salted cod. Hmmm... yes, so what they have done is take a perfectly good fresh fish... then prepare it so that the diner feels like she (or he) is munching on fish jerky. Not particularly appetising. I had mine with boiled potatoes and egg and a couple of olives and slices of tomato. There is another dish which is called Bacalhau a gomes de sa and it serves the fish with onions, boiled potatoes, scrambled eggs, olives and parsley. Sounds pretty appetising, but after the first encounter with the dried fish, I opted out.

In general, no matter where you go, the cafe under the hotel, the cheap cafe down the side street, the expensive restaurant down on the riverside... the menu is always the same...the prices may change, but basically you are consistently confronted with meat, meat, meat, potatoes, rice... after just four days, I was fantasising about salads and fresh fruit.

Now, before I go, I have to commend the Portuguese on two things they do very well.

The first, blatantly obvious, Port. We had a fantastic tasting session in a little rustic place called Vinologia, located near the river... we were treated to six different types of port, all from small grower/producers in the Porto area. I discovered that there are several different types of Port - the dark reds, tawnys and whites! We got to sample the only organic port that is currently produced and a type which will continue to improve each year until it is opened because of the special bottling process involved. I can't say that Port is my thing, a bit too sickly sweet for me... but this was definitely my foodie highlight!

The other gastronomic pleasure which cannot pass uncommented on is Portuguese pastries. Central Porto is saturated with bakeries. We decided very early on in the stay that Portugal must have one of the highest person:bakery ratios in the world! The thing they specialise in, and they do it very well, is custard-filled pastries... that is custard tarts, which have been baked and kind of resemble a creme brulee in a pastry case... or custard filled doughnuts... or multi-layered custard/pastry towers! We developed an afternoon pastry habit... after a day in the rain, there was nothing we looked forward to more, than taking refuge back in the hotel room for a late afternoon siesta and a pastry fix!

So, in conclusion, if you are looking for all your culinary dreams to come true in Portugal, don't bother... however if you have a sweet tooth for pastries and port... then you'll be in heaven!