Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ing—and take in the sights, sounds, and smells of real-world Porto (Mon-Fri 8:30-17:00,
Sat 8:30-13:00, closed Sun).
As you enter, the butchers and fishermen are on the left and right; produce and flowers
(along with cheap eateries serving €3 sardine lunches) are dead ahead. Check out the
butcher section, with half-pigs hanging from the ceiling, and display cases full of unusu-
al specialties...such as
sangue cozido
(coagulated cow blood). Then wander through the
seafood section. If it's springtime, you may see a favorite local delicacy pulled from the
river:
lampreia
(eel). They say eels are so tasty because they dine on the flavorful garbage
in the Douro. The market's old-fashioned sanitary conditions aren't quite up to European
Union snuff, but the EU seems to look the other way.
Around the market are lively shops. At one corner is Casa Horticula, with a wide vari-
ety of seeds. In bakery windows, the big, round, dark
broa
breads, made with corn and
rye, are moist inside and hard outside. The breads with bits of sausage baked in are called
folar.
The cheeses on display are either
ovelha
(sheep) or
cabra
(goat).
Bom-apetite!
(See “Vila Nova de Gaia” map,
here
.)
Just across the river from Porto, the town of Vila Nova de Gaia, or just Gaia (GUY-yuh),
is where much of the world's port wine comes to mature. Port-wine grapes are grown,
and a young port is produced, about 60 miles upstream in the Douro Valley. Then, after
sitting for a winter in silos, the wine is shipped downstream to Vila Nova de Gaia, to age
