This was a day trip from Porto. It only took us about 40 minutes with the metro to reach Matosinhos, a small city north of Porto. The day couldn’t have been better as we had a perfect blue sky and it was a gorgeous 18 degrees celsius outside.

I guess Matosinhos has the largest cluster of restaurants per square foot, which includes approximately 600 or so restaurants that specialize in a number of various cuisines. However, this city is especially renowned for its fresh seafood and fish. 🐟

Our first stop was to visit the local Mercado municipal market. It is a two-storey market with the first floor entirely devoted to fresh fish and seafood.

As we started heading upstairs we could hear the distinct sound of “Cock a doodle do”! Could it be roosters!

Oh yes, Portuguese people have a whole different take on freshness!

“I got it fresh from the market” has a slightly different meaning here!

These Portuguese women enjoyed showing off to us their fresh produce!

The lady on the right kept saying “ bela canadense, bela canadense“. The one on the left gave me a big hug. I think they like us Canadians 😊

We then started out exploring the town and came upon this beautiful beach area called Praia da Matosinhos. We took some time to enjoy this wonderful beach & weather. It had very few people wandering on it today but I guess in the summer months it’s packed.

So let’s play!

Of course, we could not have left our p’tite nappe champêtre behind on this gorgeous day. We had a little picnic of fresh fruits, yogurt and nuts.

We then made our way to Rua Herois de França where we were met with the mouthwatering smell of charcoal fish on the barbecue. This was a sight to see!  Most of the street was lined up with restaurants that had their own little outdoor wood-burning barbecue areas for barbecuing their fish. What a great idea! Most of the restaurants offer both indoor and outdoor seating.

We had a number of people recommend to us O Valentim as a restaurant of choice. Alfredo had mentioned it to us as well. So we decided to try it out. Oh yes, by the way, be careful as there are two Valentim restaurants on this street one is O Valentim and the other M Valentim.

The other restaurant he mentioned and others had mentioned as well was O Gaveto. So I think with all these local recommendations we received on both of these restaurants either one would be fine. It would be interesting to see if the prices are similar.

Our menu choice was the wonderful barbecued fish. Can’t get any better than this! It absolutely melted in your mouth. The olive oil was as tasty as the fish so much so that we were soaking pieces of bread in it. 🤪

The BEFORE,

and two hours later…😊

This wonderful fish was accompanied by a bottle of local um vinho branco.

When leaving the restaurant I got to chat in my opinion with the “REAL CHEF“! This was the guy who barbecued our fish to perfection.

"obrigado, Estava uma delícia"

All good things must come to an end, but this relaxing day in Matosinhos will be one to remember.

 

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