Taste Porto

Bacalao for sale!

While in Portugal a few months ago we took part in a Taste Porto food tour.

If you look on Trip Advisor, this tour is very highly rated. If you love history AND food and wine, this is the perfect activity for you. Andre, the guide, will teach you how the city’s culinary scene has been shaped by its vibrant history over several courses in different establishments.

Bolhao Market

If you’re budget travelers like us, you might be wary spending €55 on one activity. What if it’s awful? We were concerned about the kind of value we’d be getting for €55.

We’re generally not big into guided tours; we like to explore on our own. But I have to admit, this tour is not only interesting but also good value for the money you pay. By the end of the day I was so full I could hardly walk (and a bit tipsy from all the wine we drank).

We started at a café specializing in a pastry from a small town in northeast Portugal called Pasteis de Chaves (Chaves being the name of the town). Once it was explained to us, we tasted two types: the traditional pastry of minced, seasoned veal and a sweet version filled with molten dark chocolate. And my mind was blown. But this was just the beginning.

We made our way to Porto’s open-air Bolhao Market (which is well worth a visit in itself) and tasted a sprightly white moscatel galego paired with spicy sardines and bread. The sardines were so good and went perfectly with the wine.

Andre then took us, in a roundabout way so he could explain some of the city’s architecture, to a restaurant called Flor dos Congregados. This restaurant is found down a tiny alleyway and has rustic, traditional Portuguese decor. Very cozy. They specialize in a pork loin and cured ham sandwich which we gobbled down with a glass of Douro sparkling red (tasty!).

Our next stop was for something sweet. I had no idea eclairs were a thing in Porto, but apparently they are! We went to the eclair shop Leitaria da Quinta do Paço where we indulged in both lemon and chocolate, with a massive side of whipped cream.

I was getting full at this point, but we had a good walk through the old part of the city to get to our next and final stop.

Taberna do Largo is an upscale eatery, wine bar and fine food shop in the heart of Old Porto. This place specializes in the very best of Portuguese terroir – the loveliest vinhos verde and Alentejo wines, the ripest sheep’s and goat cheeses; the most perfectly cured charcuterie and briniest olives. We got to taste a little bit of everything and had a few more sips of wine before saying goodbye and heading to our hotel for an afternoon siesta.

Andre is such a fabulous food guide. He is so passionate about his hometown and knows Porto’s food, chefs and restaurants inside and out. He even made dinner reservations for us that evening (talk about going above and beyond). If you’re interested in Portuguese cuisine you need to do this tour!

Pat and Andre

Jewish Quarter, Old Porto

Tip* Don’t throw out the information sheet he gives you – there are several other great restaurants (not on the tour) listed on the back. Use this for lunches and dinners for the rest of your trip.

What’s On My Mind:

• Over the April long weekend we took a gorgeous drive along the Copper Coast from Tramore to Dungavan. I’ve been hearing about The Moorings‘ outdoor patio for some time now. As every Canadian knows, there’s nothing better than beers on a patio on a beautiful, sunny day. This patio didn’t disappoint (and neither did the food or beer).

Scrummy fish chowder & zingy chicken wings at The Moorings

• Breathedreamgo is one of my favourite travel websites. It specializes in travel – mostly to India but also to other areas – and focuses on solo women travelers. Even though I’m married with a bebe I still like to travel alone and I enjoy following the author, Mariellen, on Twitter to see what she’s up to. There’s an amazing giveaway on her website right now: a 14 day food adventure to India, in partnership with Intrepid Travel. You can enter here.
• I know Maeve’s only 8.5 months old, but I think she may have a promising future in hip hop. She poo-poo’s Raffi but goes crazy for Wu Tang. I’m both proud and slightly scandalized.

• The World’s 50 Best Restaurants was announced last night and I wasn’t surprised to see there are still no Canadian restaurants making the cut. As chair of Vacay.ca’s Top 50 Restaurants in Canada I know there’s some pretty amazing stuff happening in Canadian restaurants, from old-school Newfoundland cuisine to fine dining with Aboriginal flair. Maybe more 50 Best judges should visit more often.

Auberge du Pommier, Toronto

My favourite Huevoes at Mildred’s Temple Kitchen, Toronto

• I ate at La Bohème again last Friday. They have some great value prix fixe menus – an early bird for €29 and a Market Menu, which is four courses for €35. The Market Menu had more interesting selections so we went for that. We also indulged in a kir royale made with the chef’s own creme de cassis – amazing. So many fine dining restaurants fail to hit the mark for me – trying to be creative, they get lost along the way. Chef Théze sticks to his French roots and doesn’t mess around when it comes to flavour.

Waterford Lamb Rump with Almond Cream at La Boheme

• I have been loving the spring-time weather in Ireland! Warm, sunny and beautiful. It puts you in a great mood. Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Visiting Porto: The Mighty Francesinha

Every city has its quirky signature dish that sets it apart. Chicago has deep dish pizza, Halifax has donairs, Osaka has okonomiyaki and Shanghai has xiaolongbao (you know, those awesome steamed dumplings filled with crab soup). Porto has the Francesinha, a sandwich of epic proportions.

The Francesihna is bad-ass. It’s not a sandwich for sissies. It’s disgustingly massive, full of any kind of meat you could conjure up in your mind. It’s really, really bad for you, which means it tastes amazing. The idea of it leaves you flustered – there’s no way it makes any logical sense.

Whoever invented it (some say it was a guy named Daniel Da Silva who wanted to make a Portuguese-friendly version of a croque monsieur) just threw every kind of available meat into a sandwich with cheese and then smothered it in a tangy, rich sauce.

In other, more simpler words: it’s heaven.

As a Canadian, the best way I can describe a Francesinha is as such: it tastes like poutine, Swiss Chalet sauce and a Montreal smoked meat sandwich had a delicious love child. Any Canadian will agree: this is the best combination of things, ever.

In actuality, the sandwich usually consists of beef fillet, mortadella, cured ham, regular ham, roast pork, cheese and two kinds of sausages. The bread is unremarkable, especially for a country that boasts delicious, crusty loaves, but that said, the bread isn’t supposed to be the star of the show. It just holds all the other, more awesome bits together.

When the sandwich is assembled, it’s covered in more cheese and then broiled to allow the cheese to melt. Then, the whole thing is smothered in a sauce that is usually made with a combination of beer and tomatoes, though each establishment has their own recipe and will never divulge exactly what goes into it. Honestly, it tastes exactly like Chalet sauce.

The best place in Porto to get a Francesinha, we were told, is at Café Santiago on Rua Passos Manuel. The portions here are massive: large triple decker sandwiches surrounded by a sea of crisp French fries. They smother the sandwich in the perfect amount of sauce – nothing is soggy, per se, but everything is covered (and there’s enough sauce left to dip your fries).

A regular Francesinha with fries cost €9.25, while the Francesinha à Santiago (topped with an egg) cost €9.50. It’s good value considering the amount of food you’re getting, but Café Santiago is also one of the more expensive Francesinha joints in town. You can get one at nearly any snack food restaurant for around €5.00. It just won’t be as good.

Francesinha are usually washed down with copious amounts of Sagres or Super Bock (the Portuguese beers of choice). We had our baby with us, so one beer each sufficed. A cold Super Bock with the meaty, salty sandwich is really a match made in heaven.

In the end, the sandwich defeated me. I just couldn’t eat all that meat in one sitting. Pat, on the other hand, seemed like he’d been eating Francesinha all his life and gave me a good smirk over his empty plate.

You win this time, Francesinha, but I’ll be back.

West Waterford Festival of Food

Most non-Irish don’t realize this, but Ireland truly is the land of festivals come spring and summertime. When you’re planning a trip to Ireland, you’re thinking you’ll spend your days drinking in quiet pubs and seeing the Cliffs of Moher. You should definitely still do those things, but also, take a minute and check out festivals.ie. More than likely, there will be some kind of food, music or art festival happening during your visit.

Posing with Mr. Blaa!

With that in mind, this past Sunday Pat and I packed up our baby and headed to Dungarvan for the West Waterford Festival of Food. The festival began last Thursday and ended yesterday, featuring demos from some of Ireland’s most iconic chefs, a massive farmer’s market with hundreds of vendors and lots of great discussion events about food and food culture.

It’s safe to say the weekend was successful. When we arrived yesterday afternoon we were extremely lucky to find a convenient place to park. Grattan Square, in the centre of town, was absolutely chock-full of people, vendors, dogs, babies and stuff.

What kind of stuff? Well, some people were selling plants. Others were selling their baked goods and confections (my favourite were the homemade marshmallows from Cloud Confectionery – Pat tried their lime and ginger crumble while I stuck with vanilla bean). There were entire pigs being roasted on spits, two trucks churning out Butler’s Ice Cream on different ends of the square, a Belgian frites truck (only my favourite all-time kind of frite) and lots of hand-made crafts and art pieces.

Some familiar artisanal products being sold included Badger & Dodo Coffee, Corleggy Cheese, Ballyhoura Mushrooms (I spent all my money on shrooms; I don’t see these guys enough!), Tastefully Yours Chutneys and Wild About Foods (their nettle syrup is one of my most favourite things). We had a great time eating and buying things at the market; it was crowded but still relatively easy to navigate (I was so glad we had Maeve in her sling instead of the buggy).

There were a few events this weekend I really wish I’d been able to attend. There were seaweed foraging walks on Clonea Beach and hikes out into the Comeragh Mountains. There were so many great kid’s programs that we’ll be taking advantage of when Maeve is older. There was a Middle Eastern Feast hosted by Eunice Power. And there was a Sunday Demo with Rachel Allen featuring the new generation of Irish chefs – all fabulous women (Jessica Murphy, Aoife Noonan & Grainne O’Keefe, to name a few). Next year I’ll have my priorities straight and arrange for some childcare!

As we drove back toward Waterford City, Patrick and I agreed that there couldn’t have been a better host town for a festival featuring County Waterford cuisine. Dungarvan is a hotbed of great restaurants, pubs and people and the festival was all the more special for that reason.

I’ve said this a few times, but I can’t believe more tourists aren’t coming to Waterford during trips to Ireland – we’ve got the beaches, the scenery, the history and the food. Although if you come to Waterford from Newfoundland you may feel like you haven’t left home.

Backpacking with Baby

Going backpacking is a great way to see the world. Everything you need is, literally, strapped to your back, making it easy to move from one place to another. It makes you stop and think “What do I really need? What am I actually going to use?” as you pack, because you have a finite space to fit everything into. It’s not for everyone, but Pat and I have always enjoyed backpacking, having done it around most of Asia and all around Canada and Ireland.

We thought that might change after we had a baby. A lot in our lives changed and we thought the way we travel would change, too. But after spending the last nine days backpacking through Portugal with our seven month old daughter, I can honestly say that backpacking made it much easier on us and was even less expensive than an all-inclusive resort trip would have been. Here’s what we did:

• We packed two 20 kg backpacks. One backpack had my clothes, the baby’s clothes, medicines, toiletries, swimming diapers, my cosmetics and books we never got to read (the joys of parenthood). The other had Patrick’s clothes, the baby’s bedding, a sling for places we couldn’t take a buggy and extra raingear and footwear for all of us. We also packed a smaller backpack with all of the things I would normally have in Maeve’s diaper bag: diapers, wipes, snacks, a sippy cup, nappy sacks, extra clothes, her jacket and sun hat, teething toys and plastic spoons. We used this backpack as our day bag. The only thing of any value we brought along was our Nikon.

• We booked our flights using flight points from one of our credit cards. If you’re getting a credit card and like to travel, make sure you get one that gives you flight points! They are a lifesaver. We paid an extra €40 for Maeve to come along (this was with Aer Lingus).
• We got Maeve’s passport well in advance, but really, once you have the photos and paperwork ready to go you’ll have the passport within 10 working days.

• We bought a cheap, second hand stroller from a charity shop for €10. It was a piece of junk, but had comfortable lining, a hood to protect Maeve from the sun, working straps and it folded up neatly so it was easy to take on the plane.
• Once we arrived in Portugal we would leave our larger bags, strap the baby in her stroller, sling on the smaller backpack and go exploring.
• For things like walking tours, we would use the baby sling instead of the buggy. We used a blanket cover and a hat to protect Maeve from the sun and always picked the shady side of the street for walking. We never had to use sunscreen and she never got sunburn.

• We researched the things we really wanted to see and do beforehand so we had a rough nine-day guideline. We kept things very loosely organized so we could always go back to the hotel for a nap or change plans at the last minute (if you make hotel reservations, try to get a free cancellation policy!).
• As for accommodation, we only booked the first half of our trip as we didn’t know how the baby would travel or how exhausted we would be towards the end. That way we could stay put for a few extra days or, if we were all up for it, visit somewhere new by train.

• We avoided touristy restaurants, which tend to be overpriced, and stuck to cafe breakfasts of coffee and pastry and authentic suppers, which were very reasonably priced (and also baby friendly – most restaurants had high chairs available and the wait staff kept the baby well entertained!). We ate a lot of lovely meals but didn’t indulge in any Michelin Star dining experiences.
• We used the train, tram, bus and subway systems instead of taxis or car rentals. It was cost effective, the baby enjoyed seeing all kinds of random strangers and we got to know our way around more quickly than we would have if someone was chauffeuring us around.

These are just a few things that made our lives a lot easier while we were travelling with Maeve. If she were a different baby then perhaps we would have had a harder time – if she didn’t like strangers and became anxious when placed in a new environment, then maybe we would have had a completely different experience. We lucked out in the baby department I guess; she’s a born backpacker just like mom and dad.

Another great resource for travelling with babies can be found at bibliocook.com – an especially recent article written by Caroline outlines tips for long haul travel with kids. Great reading if you’re planning a trip with your babies!