Eat , and cry for more

Shop where the locals do

Every morning, as the sun begins to strike Porto’s stone streets and azulejo tile façades, young and old head out for their daily retail ritual. Eschewing the one-stop shop, they fill their bags with produce from the central market, Mercado do Bolhão, and the tiny grocery stores, mercearias, that populate surrounding streets. Each has its specialty, and the oldest, Mercearia do Bolhão, smells of smoked meat and coffee, with a base note of spices (www.merceariadobolhao.com) A few doors up Rua Formosa is century-old A Pérola do Bolhão (‘the pearl of Bolhão’). Inside, owner António Rodrigues Reis maintains a statesmanlike position at the till, while his son António Alves dos Reis serves customers, filling the crammed shop with joyful laughter when a pensioner buying its prized nuts cracks a joke.

António the younger looks a little like Picasso in his prime, and confesses that he’s more fired by presentation than produce. “I am an artist and a sculptor, so my passion is for the creative side of the business,”