I love finding the best foodie spots when I go away and I was especially looking forward to exploring Porto. I covered five things you need to try in Port last week, but I also discovered a great way to eat like a local. Let me introduce you to the Porto Eating Europe Tour.
Eating Europe are walking tours in a number of cities in Europe where you are taken around the city by a local guide, who takes you to their favourite food and drink spots. The beauty of this is that you are likely to find places that you might normally have walked passed and they also talk you through the city as you venture to each spot on the tour. It is also a great way to meet like minded people and, if you are travelling solo, a lovely afternoon with a group of people you wouldn’t normally have met.
I don’t want to spoil the Porto Eating Europe tour too much but I’ll talk you through the highlights. The tour is actually in Vila Nova de Gaia and not Porto, but this was perfect for me as I had spent the day before exploring the Porto food spots! The two areas are very similar but I loved discovering the hilly cobbled streets and old world feel of the houses.
We met at breakfast and headed for a local bakery where we ate the local delicacy Pastel de Chaves and sweet pastries with coffee. The pastel de chaves are like pasties with a flaky pastry and so delicious! The cafe was seriously busy though and traditional to the area, meaning there are no tables or seats. Locals order their pastries and coffee, then eat them at the counter before heading out to the rest of their day. It was really busy when we visited so we headed out and down to our next stop.
We visited the oldest functioning wine cellar of Real Companhia Velha for a tour and a tasting. Having toured Cockburn the day before, it was really interesting to see a different port company and how they produce their port. Exclusive to the Eating Europe tour is a tour of the owner’s private collection, which is housed in behind this old looking door. Some of the port dates back to the 19th century and the bottles are covered in mould! It was such an amazing experience and one that we would not have been able to do on a normal tour of the port house.
Our guide Beatriz then took us to a traditional restaurant where we tried alheira, sausage that was originally made when Jewish people arrived in the city during the 2nd world war. The city recognised that they needed to make a sausage without pork and alheira was born. This is made with game and breadcrumbs so a lot softer than a traditional sausage but no less delicious. The ribs are salt baked so crisp on the outside yet the meat still falls of the bone. They are just delicious.
Onto a local deli where we tried salt cod, a popular dish in Porto, with chickpeas and egg. The owner showed us the giant cod head that the meat had been cut from – I’m not sure you can get more authentic than that.
More francesinha followed and we watched our food being cooked individually in the clay oven. The sauce was a bit blander here and the steak well cooked, so it wasn’t as nice as the version I mentioned in my post last week, but it was still delicious. Anything in bread and smothered with melted cheese is a winner in my eyes.
We ended the tour at a local food market, which reminded me very much of Mackie Mayor in that there are lots of different food and drink suppliers to choose from and then you sit with friends to enjoy their wares. It was a lot bigger with more choice and this treat was out of this world. Brigadao sell small sweets that are very similar to truffles but softer in texture. We ate them with cups made of chocolate and filled with Ginginha, a sweet cherry liqueur that I immediately bought a bottle of having tasted it.
We had a great day with Beatriz touring Vila Nova de Gaia and learning all about the food and people of Porto. It really is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the city from the eyes of a local and I’ll be booking onto Eating Europe tours in the future. You can catch them in loads of European cities.Have a look at their website to see if they have a tour for your next trip.
