Gastronomic Porto

The city of Porto and the surrounding Douro Valley is slowly transforming into Portugal's new culinary capital

- Sasha Gonzales

The food of Portugal is best described as hearty and comforting, with a focus on rich, bold flavours and local and seasonal ingredients. Mediterranean influences abound, in the form of seafood like octopus and prawns, olive oil, garlic, and spices like saffron, cinnamon, chilli and black pepper. You’ll also find plenty of preserved foods, from salt cod and tinned sardines to chourico, a type of pork sausage that’s similar to the Spanish chorizo.

Over the last several years, top Portuguese chefs have challenged themselves to turning these traditional and well-loved ingredients into stylishly modern dishes that taste as refined as they look, and yet are still distinctly Portuguese. They must be doing something right—at the end of 2016, Portugal bagged nine new Michelin stars in a total of 23.

But the country’s dining scene extends well beyond the capital, Lisbon. Foodies are now flocking to other parts of the country for exceptional dining experiences, particularly the wine producing region of Douro Valley and the city of Porto.

PORTUGAL'S WINE COUNTRY

The Douro Valley in northern Portugal is beautiful all year around. Even in winter, the historic wine producing region—24,000 hectares of it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001— looks scenic, with the terraced grape vines taking on a mysteriously dark hue and transforming the lush green valley. If you’re lucky, you might even chance upon some snow. The end of the year is also when the Douro Valley’s most full-bodied wines taste deeper and richer, making them the perfect companions to the season’s hearty and intensely flavoured dishes.