Food Tours · Tour

Twelve Petiscos Before Noon, Starting on the Aliados

Almost every food tour in Porto runs in the evening. This one runs in the morning, which changes what you see as much as what you eat: the market is being stocked rather than picked over, the cafés are full of people on their way to work, and the city is doing its own business rather than performing. Three hours, eight guests, starting on Avenida dos Aliados. Breakfast comes first, in a place that has not changed its fittings in decades and serves the same thing it always has. Then the Bolhão market, and the bulk of the tour: ten to twelve petiscos sampled from stalls around the hall. Petiscos are the Portuguese answer to tapas and the comparison undersells them, because they are less about small plates than about what a counter has ready. Twelve of them is a full meal by any measure. The drinking is a short tour of the region in itself: a glass of vinho verde, young, faintly fizzy and grown just north of here; a glass of port; a local beer; and coffee or tea. Up to eight travellers, guided in Portuguese, English, French or Spanish. Bottled water is not included. Not suitable for gluten-free, vegetarian or vegan diets, or recommended for pregnant travellers. The walk begins and ends in the same place on the Aliados.