PORTO IS THE SECOND-LARGEST CITY IN PORTUGAL,

situated at the mouth of the Douro River about three hours north of Lisbon. The best view of the city might be from Vila Nova de Gaia, on the south bank of the Douro — there you can appreciate how Porto has built up from the waterfront along the steep banks of the river, red-tiled roofs sprawling across the hilly terrain, punctuated by the spires of ancient churches and cathedrals.

To the east lie the rocky hillside vineyards of the Douro Valley, while to the west are the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. With strong connections to both, Porto has always been defined by its position as a centre of trade. In the time of Roman settlement of the Iberian Peninsula Porto was just a tiny trading post, but by the 15th century the city had grown to be a bustling port and ship-building centre. It was here that Prince Henry the Navigator, son of the Portuguese king Dom João I, was born, and where his many ships set off to explore the unknown during the Portuguese Age of Discovery.

Being so close to the sea, it should come as no surprise that many traditional dishes from Porto focus on fish and seafood. One of the staples of the Portuguese diet is salted, dried cod called bacalhau, which is incorporated into a wide variety of dishes. One Porto specialty is Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá, a salted cod casserole made with potatoes, eggs, onion and olive oil. It’s the kind of hearty meal that tastes like Portuguese comfort food, and proved to be a fine way to refuel after a long day of walking around the hilly city.

Many local restaurants and bars serve fried fish cakes as snacks or appetizers, usually made from cod or other similar fish, which go very well with a cold beer. My favourite of these fritters, called pataniscas, are a mixture of cod, flour, eggs, garlic, green onions and parsley. I’ll sheepishly admit, a simple plate of pataniscas from the Hotel Teatro was one of the finest things I ate on this trip.

Just as the menus of Porto are influenced by the ocean, they also find inspiration from the sunbaked hills of the Douro Valley to the east. Beef, goat and poultry make their appearances, while pork is the most prominent meat. Portuguese love of sausages should not be underestimated, from smoke-cured linguiça to fresh sausages like chipolata and chouriço. The best meals we ate tended to embrace both land and sea. Perhaps my favourite of these was a dinner at Restaurant DOP, the Porto sibling to the award-winning Douro Valley DOC Restaurant run by Chef Rui Paula (a judge on the Portuguese edition of Master Chef). The octopus ( polvo) was lightly charred and perfectly grilled, while the pork ribs were so delicate that they seemed to melt in my mouth.

As a playful take on the local love of sausage, the meal included a course of poultry sausage called alheira. The story goes that during the Portuguese Inquisition in the 16th century, the Jews of Portugal were forced to hide their religious beliefs for fear of persecution. Since Judaism prohibits the consumption of pork, the Jews stood out among the pork-sausage-loving Christian majority. Thus alheiras were created as an elaborate deception — a new kind of sausage, made from meat other than pork, which Jews could hang prominently from their smokehouses.

That meal, as many others do in Porto, ended with a tasty glass of port. Any visit to the city would not be complete without checking out the many port wine cellars located just across the river in Vila Nova de Gaia. Most of the dozen-or-so producers of port based here offer tours of their cellars, after which visitors can enjoy a tasting of some of their fine offerings. On our second afternoon in town we headed over to the cellars of Taylor Fladgate, one of the largest and oldest port wine houses. Founded in 1692, it has a charmingly oldfashioned quality, not the least because they still use treading (stepping on the grapes with feet) in creating much of their port. They’re also the only port brand that uses its own team of coopers, recycling old wooden barrels as much as possible. The oldest barrel still being used in their Douro Valley operations is from 1864!

After a sunny afternoon of drinking port in a beautiful garden, we stopped for a late lunch on the Douro River waterfront. Here is where I became acquainted with one of Porto’s more famous culinary creations — the Francesinha sandwich. Nearly every restaurant in the city claims to have their own secret recipe for the Francesinha, but the basic form generally consists of ham, steak or roast beef, and two types of sausage — usually smoke-cured linguiça and a fresh sausage like chipolata — between two slices of bread. This meaty pile is then covered in melted cheese and smothered in spicy tomato gravy. The sausage was fresh and savoury, the steak medium but not overdone, and most importantly, the gravy was hot and full of flavour (with a great kick from Piri Piri hot sauce). I don’t know how the poutine purveyors of Canada have not caught on to this delicious mess, but it can only be a matter of time.

While sloppy sandwiches have their appeal, one of our best meals took place in one of the many tiny eateries tucked among the low-rise buildings and narrow cobblestone side streets of Porto. This is where we found O Caracas, a family-run restaurant serving home-cooked meals. No need for a menu, just three choices for the day. We started with the hake, which was fluffily breaded, tender, flaky and fresh. It was followed by juicy steak, served rare, and a heap of rice with green beans on the side. The food was fantastic, but was it wrong that we hungrily devoured the bread? It certainly was the best and freshest we’d tasted in Portugal. Finally, we didn’t have much room for dessert, but it was impossible to refuse the offer of fresh cherries alongside rich chocolate mousse profiteroles.

Well stuffed, we wandered back to our hotel for a peaceful slumber, appetites defeated by the industrious kitchens of Porto. When it comes to the cities of Portugal, you’ll often hear variations on the expression: “Porto works, Coimbra studies, Braga prays and Lisbon plays.” Porto may work hard at what it does, but visitors reap the benefits.