Porto and fado

Today was packing day at the apartment. Nancy and Janet headed out to do a bit of shopping, and Pam and Gail needed one more trip to Pingo Doce, so Gail could buy more coffee pods. I planned to get my packing done - a challenge for all of us, since we'd been at the apartment for over a week. I packed for a while, and got bored, so I decided to go find Pam and Gail. They were planning to have lunch at Pingo Doce, since they'd seen a lunch counter there. We laughed when I caught up with them. They'd been meandering around the store for almost 2 hours, and had just put in their lunch order when I arrived.

A grocery store in Portugal is a medley of displays and products we're surprised by. Take the sardine section, for example. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of options. Thank goodness we weren't needing to make any decisions and buy any of them! And, after some experience in Europe, I've always said to look next to the Scotch tape for the eggs. They aren't necessarily refrigerated, nor is most of the milk.


On the way back to the apartment, the 3 of us stopped at the chocolate cafe for one last treat before leaving Porto. We were glad we'd found this place early in our time in Porto, since we stopped there more than a few times over our stay. The Arcadia Casa do Chocolate, on Avenue Boavista, was a nice, little cafe that seemed to be busy at all times of the day or night. It was a great place to stop for a coffee, a dessert, a gelato, or a piece of fancy chocolate candy.

A cafe com leite and a pastel de nata

Back at the apartment, Nancy was teaching Pedro how to make an origami crane. His English had been somewhat tentative before, but he got quite chatty as he and Nancy sat, head-to-head, working on their project.


Marianna wanted to fix us a classic Portuguese dish to try before we left the apartment. She fried some little fritters or hush-puppy-like crispy pillows of dried cod and mashed potato. They're made with bacalhau, dried codfish which has been reconstituted. Lots of restaurants advertise that they serve bacalhau, but I think there are variations in the preparation of it. Those in our group that don't eat seafood didn't like it at all, but tasted it for Marianna's sake. I liken it to canned tuna, and didn't think it was bad at all.
We were headed to dinner and a fado performance at 8:00 that night at Casa da Mariquinhas, an intimate little restaurant on a little alley below the Porto Cathedral. It was pouring, so Nancy asked Marianna to call 2 taxis to pick us up. Taxi #1 arrived, and Janet and Pam took off for the restaurant. The other 3 of us waited and waited for taxi #2, which never showed up. Marianna even came down to the front door to watch for it, calling the taxi company, but getting no answer. Taxis were probably in great demand on this night, since the rain was very heavy.
So, we finally decided we'd just have to get over there by Metro. We dashed through the pouring rain, the 1/2 mile to our metro stop, caught the one headed for Sao Bento, with a change at Trindade, and speed-walked the 1/2 mile or so, still in pouring rain, to the restaurant. We arrived at 8:30. Luckily, dinner orders were still being taken, and the show hadn't started yet.

Build-it-yourself salad served family style

Janet and Pam felt terrible that we three arrived soaking wet, but we still had a nice dinner and enjoyed the intimacy of the little place, and the fado music. There was a man and a woman soloist, and a guitar player and a mandolin player. One singer would perform a few songs, and then take a break. Then the other singer would perform a few songs. They did 3 sets throughout the dinner. We all thought it was the perfect place to experience fado.



We asked our waitress to call 2 taxis for our return to the apartment, and had a nice ride home, seeing parts of town we missed by taking the underground Metro every other time we traveled in the city.