As I've mentioned, sardines (fresh and canned) are very popular in Portugal so we decided to see how canned sardines are made. Some of the best seafood in the world comes from Matosinhos and the 103 year old Conservas Pinhais factory still makes their products by hand. Each day they turn out 28,000 handmade cans of sardines while other manufacturers whose process is fully automated turn out 1 million a day. The buyers go down to the docks in Matosinhos each morning to hand select the fish which is then brought to the factory where the journey begins. The fish spend some time in a salt water bath before being deheaded and placed on the cooking racks. Unlike many of the other companies, Pinhais cooks the fish on racks before they are placed in cans. Most of their competitors place the fish in the cans and then cook inside the cans.
After a tour of the old offices and getting a little more of the history, we suited up with hair net, booties and paper coat to go on to the factory floor. There are 120 people that work at the factory and 110 of them are women. As with many other workers I've noticed on my visits to Portugal, the team at Pinhais takes great pride in their work. Without missing a beat in their tasks, several of them would wave and say "bom dia" as we entered their space.
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| Cork Floors |
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| All throughout the factory you see religious statues and references |
After our tour, we tried our hand at wrapping a tin. They have two different types of wrappers: paper and cellophane. Fortunately for us, we were given the paper as it is easier to use for newbies. To be like the professionals, you need to only use two little pieces of tape on the ends.
Our reward for a hard day's work on the factory floor. Along with sardines we had some tapenade, bread and a nice Vinho Verde.
Almada 331 is a small hole in the wall that turns out some amazing food! Elaine found it in the fall and became friends with the owner, Fernando. If you're sensing a theme that Elaine has met lots of people since moving here in the spring of 2021, you are correct!
Ana, one of my colleagues from Meetings & Incentives Worldwide, lives in Porto so we got together for dinner. I had to leave dinner and head back to the apartment to work (working evenings Portugal time is a small price to pay for the ability to be able to spend a month here!) so I left LuLu with the girls and clearly she did not miss me!
From all over the city and over in Gaia, you can see Clérigos Church and Tower (Igregja e Torre dos Clérigos). Last summer my apartment was a block away so it was my landmark as I was learning my way around town. It is a beautiful church and apparently from the top of the tower you get a great view of the city. Not a fan of climbing narrow winding 18th century steps with hundreds of others in the summer heat so the next time I'm here in the fall or winter, I'll give it a try. Immersive experiences are big here and in the evenings they have Spiritus at Clérigos where they have a sound and light show in the main chapel. I really enjoyed it last year and brought LuLu over to check it out...she liked it too.
It is pretty common to see students from the University of Porto busking around town to raise money for expenses, charities and competitions. Instead of wearing jeans, sweats and even pajamas like US college students, Portuguese students wear suits to school and some even wear capes.
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