Rent a private, fully furnished flat in Porto!

Students are again starting their studies in Porto. It’s time for them to find an apartment, or just a room for their short term stay in Porto. I’ve made a selection of flats, studios that are close to faculties and that you can easily share with a friend or rent all by yourself.

All of these apartments are furnished and equipped and all of them have bedlinen and towels. There is heaters for the winter and since the city is small it is easy to get around from any of them. The majority of them have Internet and Cable-Tv for your convenience and all the costs are included.

Please check the page students apartments in Porto for more information on this matter.

In Aguda, a fisher village just south of  Vila Nova de Gaia, the Zizi restaurant has been there for 40 years serving mostly fish and seafood.  A traditional heaven for a set clientele, the restaurant still gives you the feel of the eighties of past century, with simple decorations. The old restaurant lays in front of the ocean bearing an esplanade in the summer on the sand side.

But then again what matters here is the food. The immense menu starts with the daily suggestions (and those are the ones that count) comprises mostly fish. Try the sapateira recheada com caril (a big crab stuffed with curry) , drink a Alvarinho Dorado or Soalheiro if they have and enjoy the view.

If there’s a time of the year to visit Porto, May and June are certainly the best. The city has all sort of events on a breathtaking rythm.
There’s the book fair from the 28th to th 12th of June, there’s the Non-stop cultural party at the Serralves Museum gardens on the last weekend of May, there’s the gastronomical event, Porto Come with 20 of the best restaurants in Porto, there’s Porto’s downtown in Party.

The whole city will be with it’s doors open to several events! Come and enjoy!

It’s that time again, when the city is full of events calling for visitors. The 81st Book fair of Porto is again opening tomorrow, saturday and staying until the 12th of June.
If you can read portuguese, it’s a good time to search for books at a lower cost, and if you are particularly fond of a portuguese writer, just check the programm to see if he or she will be there on an authograph session.
The bookfair will take place in downtown Porto, Avenida dos Aliados from the 29th May to the 12th June and will be open everyday from 12:30 to 23:00pm on weekdays, from 11:00 to 24:00 on Saturday and closing at 23:00 on Sunday.

The Modern Art Museum of Serralves in Porto will open it’s doors again to everyone who wants to Party Nonstop for 40 hours this weekend, th 28th and 29th May.

More info

Porto is getting ready to experience some tasty weeks. It all starts today with the Restaurant week Porto where from the 19th until the 28th May there will be the possibility to enjoy a tasty meal for 20€ while contributing to a social cause.

This event has started in Nwe York and quickly spread to many other big cities, Porto is among them. Several are the good restaurants participating in the event, so if you are in Porto, choose from the nice restaurants and enjoy the taste!

Want to try it at home? Here’s a recipe (one of many!) for 1 sandwiche

Ingredients:
For the sauce
* 2 large onions, coarsely chopped
* 2 garlic chopped
* olive oil – about 2 cl
* 2 cl of meat broth (knorr or similar diluted in the water will do)
* 2 laurel leaves
* 1 beer
* 1 cl whisky/ brandy/Port
* 2 cl tomato paste
* Piri piri hot sauce/tabasco/ or chillies (depends on how hot you like it)
* salt and ground pepper to taste
* 2 tablespoons flour/cornstarch ( if the sauce is to liquid)
For the sandwiches:
* 2 slices of ham,
* 2 slices mortadella
* 2 fried fresh sausages
* 1 fried steaks
* 2 slices of bread
* 4 slices of cheese (edam, gouda, not too strong in taste but easily melting )

Heat up a little bit of olive oil with chopped onions and garlic. When they are golden add tomato pulp and laurel leaves, beer, the piri-piri or chili pepper (chopped for extra spicyness), meat broth. Let it simmer for a little while and add the beer, and the whisky or brandy.Take the laurel leaves and puree all the sauce and if it is still too liquid add a bit of cornstarch to make it thicker. that’s where you could add the floor (or cornstarch) to make it thicker. Make sure it is good of salt and pepper, and there you are one possible sauce recipe. I fact you can (and should) develop it to meet you taste (add more spiciness or take it away). Add a bit of fish soup, to give it a richer taste…

The sandwich:
Put on top of one slice of bread the fried steak (hot, not cold!) the sausages cut in the middle and hot, the ham slices, the mortadella and a slice of cheese. Cover with the other bread slice and caver it all with the cheese. Take the sandwich to the oven to melt the cheese and pour the hot sauce over it. If the cheese is a good melty type then it maybe enough just to pour the hot sauce and it’ll melt underneath.

It’s that time of the year again, when students put books aside and plunge in a week of celebrations. Firstly it’s the nearing end of the academic year and with it time for graduations. For many it’s the end of their time as students. For all other it means the next year is on and from freshman they will go until senior. Here some of the most important moments of this week.
Saturday – The serenade in front of the Sé:

Sunday – Blessing of the students case ( a huge open air mess where Porto’s bishop blesses the students ). Takes place in front of the townhall.
Monday – Charity
Tuesday – Cortejo (one of the highlights in town: downtown is closed to traffic as all the students parade, in last years reaching to over 100 000)

Sunday – Garraiada (mock-up bull fight) takes place in Póvoa de Varzim
the During this week they will celebrate with several important moments that ending of academic life.
During all of the week there are concerts at “Queimodromo” next to Parque da Cidade.

The burning of the ribbons (queima das fitas) is an old students’ tradition in Portugal that goes back to the 19th century. Although it was stoped during the late sisties as a form of criticism it started again after 1974.

Rui Paula is a well known Chef in Portugal. After starting the DOC Restaurant in Régua, he brings now his unique food to Porto in a beautiful setting: the newly rebuilt Palácio das Artes in Ribeira.
This upscale restaurant serves delicious food creations and you can choose each course or be tempted by one of the menus. I suggest you choose the Show cooking area, where you can see as the Chef and his assistants prepare all the starters and you may easily talk to the Chef.

Contacts:
Largo de São Domingos 18
Palácio das Artes
4050-545 PORTO
Tel.: 222014313

A lovely small restaurant, right in the center of Porto, where there used to be a very old “tasca” from 1935 called Minhota as you can still see in the tiles on the wall.

More info