What to Eat in Porto
Porto is primarily known for its port wine. The most famous dish here is francesinha, which you should try at Café Santiago. For an excellent Portuguese hot dog called cachorrinho, head to the bistro Gazela.
Enjoy your food in Porto!
Cachorrinho: The Portuguese Hot Dog
They call it the Portuguese hot dog, yet it has almost nothing in common with the classic hot dog. Cachorrinho is Porto's beer snack - a sandwich with two sausages and melted cheese, chopped into small bites. The best-known address is the Gazela beer bar, which Anthony Bourdain put on the map in Parts Unknown.
Francesinha: Porto's Most Famous Sandwich
A baked sandwich stacked with ham, sausage and steak, drowned in a spicy sauce of beer and tomatoes: that's francesinha, the pride of Porto. It came about in the 1950s as Porto's answer to the French croque-monsieur, and it's said to be named after Frenchwomen - the spiciest ones its inventor knew. The best ones in town come with a line, Café Santiago's included.
Bifana: The Portuguese Pork Sandwich
A bifana looks modest: a few thin slices of pork in a papo-seco roll. Even so it ranks among Portugal's signature dishes - it spread from the Alentejo countryside to every counter between Lisbon and Porto, and every place keeps its sauce recipe to itself. What the beefy name means, where the sandwich came from and why you shouldn't bite into one straight away at Conga in Porto.
Portuguese Sardines: A Delicacy in a Tin
In Portugal, tinned sardines are sold in shops that look like a perfumery, and people take them home instead of jewelry. Why does the national fish bear the name of a foreign island, why did the Portuguese spend so long denying themselves the credit for canning first, and how do you spot a good tin? And a word of warning when you shop: not every Portuguese sardine has ever swum.
Papas de Sarrabulho: Portuguese Blood Porridge
The Portuguese word sarrabulho means a mess, and it also means a thick pig-slaughter porridge of pork blood, meat and cumin. It's cooked in the north of the country, from Braga to Porto; the south never took to it, and the European certificate went only to its rice sibling from Ponte de Lima. For a traveler from eastern Moravia it brings back prdelačka, the pig-slaughter blood soup they cook back home - only here it smells of cumin instead of marjoram.