Eating around Porto on a food tour. Photo / Unsplash
From creamy pastel de nata to football-crazed restaurants, a Portugal food tour with Intrepid Travel offers more than just tasty bites but an immersive peek into Portuguese life, writes Sarah Pollok.
“We don’t need to be hungry to eat some cheese.”
Fernanda Cardoso says this so offhandedly in the hotel lobby that I don’t think to question the Portuguese tour leader. As I soon discovered, she’s right. In Portugal, food is far more than sustenance. It is history and pleasure, politics and communion. So, it’s fitting we spend our first full day on a four-hour food tour of Porto.
Our group of six assemble at the hotel lobby at 10am where our guide Carlota Braga awaits. With long corkscrew hair and fierce winged eyeliner, the bubbly Porto local joined Detours Porto as a university side gig. For an extroverted foodie, it’s not a bad job either.
We waste no time and head straight out along Rua de 31 de Janeiro, towards the Douro River. As we walk, she shares that the river once divided Christian and Muslim populations, and how Portugal’s famous colourful tiles are leftover heritage from Arabic people in the 20th century. Eventually, we join a crowd hustling to get into the city’s central train station. It’s odd to consider tourists stopping by Auckland’s Britomart Train Station, but then again, it’s not a 19th-century building like São Bento Station.
Inside, the waiting pays off. The interior walls are covered in gigantic blue and white tiles, reaching across the ceiling like a Portuguese Sistine Chapel. More than 20,000 azulejo tiles depict historic events and daily Portuguese life in history, from epic battles to ancient festivals.
Alas, this is a food tour, so we don’t linger and head up a street lined with lush green trees that dapple the 11am sun. On Saturday, the streets are abuzz with people enjoying the downtown; families and couples, friends and travellers. Our first proper stop is Manteigaria for arguably one of Portugal’s most iconic food items: pastel de nata. No, the pastries aren’t just a tourist gimmick, Carlotta assures me, locals enjoy them just as much as visitors.
“I’m very picky about the tarts,” she adds. “We often enjoy them with an espresso and, well, if you like, a cigarette,” she laughs. Fortunately, picky is a quality one wants in a food guide. Outside Manteigaria, a crowd stands before the tall glass windows, behind which three white-aproned chefs deftly roll and shape pastry in a mesmerising rhythm. Minutes later, Carlotta appears bearing a tray with a dozen tarts and thimble-like cups of espresso.
“Cinnamon or sugar,” she asks before dusting the tarts. Stepping away from the group, I have a quiet moment with my first Portuguese tart, which is light yet creamy, only slightly sweet and perfectly offset with the nutty cinnamon. It is, quite simply, divine. Slowly savouring it over four leisurely bites, I rush to knock back the espresso and follow the group two metres up the road to Comer e Chorar Por Mais.
“It translates as ‘To eat and cry for more’,” Carlotta translates, hinting at what we’ll enjoy inside. After a few blinks, my eyes adjust to the dim little gourmet deli. Two large glass cases groan with countless varieties of deli meat and giant legs of dried ham, while shelves wrap around the walls, stacked with lemon liquor and tinned sardines, local preserves and olive oil, while dusty bottles of port precariously graze the ceiling.
Circling a barrel-turned table, a sheet of paper is removed to reveal a platter of bites that allow us to travel without moving an inch. On one board is South Portugal (where meats can be air dried by the drier climate) via ribbons of cured black pork (Porco Preto), which comes from the Alentejo region and fed primarily acorns. Another board holds North Portugal (where meat is typically smoked) selections, from chestnut-fed pigs. In the middle, several types of “Amanteigado” sheep cheese (“the best in Portugal”, beams Inês, the warm shop keeper) and chunks of squishy cow cheese. Then, to the side, some juicy black olives, a dish of fragrant olive oil and plate of wheat bread and “broa de Avintes” a dark, doughy, rye bread popular in the North. Grabbing a slice, I dunk it into the oil and it tastes like a sun-soaked olive grove. White wines soon arrive and conversation turns to general culture as we pick at the treats. We chat about university culture in our respective countries and the pagan roots of popular Portuguese festivals.
Plates cleaned, it’s on to Mercado do Bolhão, a market dating back to 1914. “It was renovated during Covid and some say it’s lost its charm,” Carlota says as she guides us through the open-air building, which is roughly the size of two football fields and filled with covered stalls. At the entrance, people eat or relax alongside dozens of tables and bar leaners and lost charm aside, I do enjoy the clean white walls, pristine concrete floors and light floral smell.
Grouped roughly by category, the stalls all sell food either in ingredient form or as a dish. There are dried mushrooms and tiny hot sauce bottles, busy crepe stands and pyramids of colourful sardine tins. If you should want for a bulb of dried garlic, shucked oysters, fresh juice or coffee beans, this is the spot. That most people roam around with full glasses of white and red wine also feels deeply European.
Having gone 30 minutes without food, it’s absolutely time for another bite, and this time we walk up Rua de Santa Catarina and down an unsuspecting alley to a literal hole-in-the-wall joint. Inside Casa Louro, it would be easy to mistake the shoebox restaurant for an FC Porto fan club, decked entirely with the team’s blue and white paraphernalia, from team posters and fake trophies to scarves and jerseys.
“It’s hard to be in the city and not support a football team,” Carlota explains. First up is a small mug of yellow, effervescent ‘Green wine’, which comes exclusively from Minho and is named for the rainy region’s verdant landscape. Strong, tart and chilled, it’s the perfect summer drink according to Carlota, and has become a popular drink in the past two decades. In the 30C heat, it certainly hits the spot. Then come the plates, bearing tiny salted fish, cured pork, broa de Avintes, and my favourite, Bolinhos de bacalhau. A Portuguese speciality, the crispy deep-fried pillows contain a mix of potato, flour and salted cod, which has the most unusual soft yet fibrous texture and briny flavour.
After describing the dishes, conversation turns cultural as Carlota answers our curiosities about life in Porto and the politics. Eloquent yet humble, she describes the current climate and recent history. Like other countries, Portugal recently swung conservative after several years of a liberal Government. Like other countries, rent is expensive and certain jobs are unfairly underpaid. Same trailer different park as they say.
It’s at this point that we make a mistake many do on a food tour; filling up at the second-to-last stop. Thankful for my choice of dress rather than buttoned pants (a crucial food tour outfit choice), we slowly stroll for 10 minutes, towards Praça dos Poveiros, an area known for restaurants that serve quality meals for working-class folk. One of the more popular among locals is Casa Guedes. Once a humble tavern, its pork shoulder and Serra cheese sandwich was so popular amongst students and workers that its set up four more locations, but Carlotta believes the original is the best. “I bring groups here, but I also come here myself,” she says. At 1pm, the shaded outdoor tables beside a lush public park are full, so we opt for air conditioning inside.
Most of us order the specialty, washed down with a cold rosé, and I try the portobello mushroom option with a brioche bun and sautéed vegetables. True to form, the €5.50 sandwich is simple but delicious. A plate of chips arrives, which Carlotta describes as a restaurant’s litmus test. ”You know it’s a good place if they hand-make their chips”, she reveals.
For more information on Intrepid Travel’s 8-day “Portugal Real Food Adventure, featuring Galicia”, visit intrepidtravel.com
New Zealand Herald travelled courtesy of Intrepid Travel.