MmePerdu

Now you know what I'll be doing at 6:00 on Sunday, Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown Porto. It's a place people seem to either love or not, according to reports posted here. So I'm looking forward to this one, 6 Pacific, 9 Eastern. I think I'll be one who likes it a lot and I trust Tony, just off-beat enough.

Bedar

What channel ?

MmePerdu

Oh, sorry, CNN.

socaltraveler

I have it set the tv machine to record. We were in Porto at the end of May, as a kickoff to our days in the Douro. It was a nice enough city, and I am also curious to see where AB goes, and eats.

socaltraveler

I have it set the tv machine to record. We were in Porto at the end of May, as a kickoff to our days in the Douro. It was a nice enough city, and I am also curious to see where AB goes, and eats.

MmePerdu

I don't have record capability so I'm going to sit right there at 6 and watch. Not a hardship. I've been thinking about Portugal for a long time and am particularly curious about Porto.

MinnBeef

Thanks Mme Perdu for posting. Porto is on my first draft itinerary next year and this should be helpful research.

MmePerdu

Salaam alaikum, MinnBeef!

willit

We were in Portugal earlier in the year, and our host in Lisbon drove us past the Cervejaria Ramiro saying "This is the best seafood restaurant in Lisbon - but you can't get near it since
Anthony Bourdain featured it on his TV show. I'm interested to see what he says for Porto.

MmePerdu

My kind of place! Will shoot for Portugal along with UK in the spring! Maybe make my way north from Porto to Spain & take a ferry to England. Have wanted to see Frank Gehry's museum in Bilbao, among other things.

Lois2

Tony seldom has steered me wrong...have eaten in his places and explored his cities (except Asia) and he does seem to like the places that are a bit edgy which is my style. We loved Lisbon and may try Porto...the show was as usual not without its stupid stuff but that fado music brought me back to Alfama and Lisbon.

suec1

willit - well maybe don't feel too bad! we went to Ramiro and did not enjoy it very much - mostly because we could have used some help making our choices and the waiters did not have the time or language capability. So we should have been better prepared.

For those of you heading to Porto - Anthony did not show an experience that we had that was one of the best meals of my life. Fresh grilled whole fish at casual outdoor sidewalk area down near where the cruise ships dock (the port?) There was a whole string of these places with big grills - whole fish, olive oil, lemon juice. No one filets it for you but it comes easily off the bone - delicious and so cheap. I was sort of surprised Anthony did not go there - he went to a fancy joint instead but did show fish baked in salt - also good but much more expensive!

MmePerdu

He did spend time on his private entertainments not available to us rabble, but interesting nonetheless. I just liked the low-key feel and while I know I wouldn't want to completely bypass Lisbon, I've always imagined that Porto would be a great hangout sort of city.

socaltraveler

We were in Porto last month; except for the shots of the river and the skyline, I think we were in different places. His perspective was interesting, as usual. I could have done without the graphic pig to plate scenes, it seemed to go on forever.

DebitNM

bookmark for May 2018 trip

amarante

A note to future travelers to Porto: Most of the places where Bourdin went to eat are not actually in Porto! I have not seen the episode, but I have been reading about it in on the web, and you will definitely need a car or taxi to eat in most the places where Bourdain went to eat. Where he want to drink port and sample cheese in the "new" city of Vila Nova de Gaia is right across the river from "old" Porto, and you can walk there or take public transportation.

Porto is a beautiful, beautiful, unique city and I hope the pictures showed that. But it is a very poor city, and most of the food in the old city itself is not very good. Almost all the people who have money to eat in good restaurants do not live in Porto centre but in the suburbs, which is why Bourdain went there. Inside the city there are modern restaurants that cater to tourists who want fancy meals, and while they are not bad, they are not likely to impress you if you are the kind of "foodie" who goes to destination restaurants in New York or San Francisco or London.

A lot of the food inside Porto is of very low quality, cheap and fatty fast foods. I also read on the web that Bourdain ate a "Francesinha", which seems obligatory to many tourists but even at its "best" it's a soggy mess of gravy, cheese, fried white bread and poor quality meat. There are fish-fry places that line the riverbank (on both sides) that mainly cater to weekend-break British tourists who mainly come for the drinking and don't want to spend a lot on food, and it can be pretty obnoxious. Grilled fresh fish is a longtime staple of old Porto (and visiting the actual fish market near the cathedral is quite poignant) but in the tourist-joints, it's a real crap shoot about what kind of meal you'll get in terms of quality.

Port wine is reason enough to go to Porto but the historic city is a world treasure. If you want to stay in the historic center to explore it, which is fantastic, you need to be realistic about the food due to Porto's history. It has been poor and largely abandoned for a very long time now. It's only tourists who have the money to dine out, and a lot of those tourists can't or don't want to pay what it costs to run a quality restaurant. I wish I could say the native fast food and taverna food is great, but it's not.

Anthony Bourdain is a very entertaining TV character who makes travel look "manly" or "sexy" to many people. But I'm not sure you will get the best experience of food or travel if you try to follow in his footsteps. It's a fantasy, and the places he goes to have real histories that are often at odds with the story he tells or how he behaves in a locale.

MmePerdu

"It's a fantasy, and the places he goes to have real histories that are often at odds with the story he tells or how he behaves in a locale."

I think anyone who has traveled independently for any length of time is aware that this is true for us all, including himself, that one rarely gets much beyond a very edited or romantic version of "real histories" or authentic food. There's a point at which most of us cease to delude ourselves on that score. Despite that awareness I keep going and try to find an experience that includes some adventure, enough of an education to make it interesting and as much comfort as I require.

I doubt many of us actually aspire to literally "follow in his footsteps", but I'm entertained by him and any glimpse I can get of the places he goes is a plus. Not unlike reading novels set in places we may be dreaming of, it's not real life, we know it, it's entertainment, and for an hour it's enough for me.

amarante

Actually Bourdain has been to Porto before and has a long relationship with it. He considered buying a house there and, as rumor has it, marrying a local.

So he entertaining show is more knowingly constructed and scripted to be successful with an audience than is readily apparent to many, I think -- and how could it so entertaining if one saw the strings being pulled? I've nothing against entertainment, but I wouldn't elevate Bourdain the status of a novelist.

It seems to me people do want to literally "follow in his footsteps" in many cases when it comes to food. I just wanted to caution that you'll need a taxi in this case to do so (and a willingness to leave Porto behind) and: watch out for that Francesinha.

I will also add a note of real disagreement in that I think it is not hard to find authentic food experiences in Portugal even as a brief or first time visitor. Portugal like other European countries has worked very hard to preserve its food culture and overall culture in the face of much adversary, perhaps just because of this adversity. It's not a "delusion" to find this in Portugal if you go beyond the areas set up for tourists. I don't know how much comfort you require, authentic Portuguese hospitality is typically quite gracious & spacious.

There is no need to dismiss other people's experiences of historic Portugal and its food (and wine!) as a "delusion" or"romantic", as if this were the more sophisticated view. It's simply not. Portugal has a couple of well-known tourist ghettoes, but the rest of the country is very easily accessible if one is interested.

MmePerdu

Oh, my. Too intense for me.

Macross

I find him very entertaining and like the places he goes. I did a lot of his NI trip. Same with Rick Steves. I am a tourist. I go places many would not here in central Fl.

I really like his 24 hour layover shows.