
Many years ago we used to visit Portugal with our sons. As well as visiting the beach, playing tennis and eating ice cream down on the waterfront, a favourite occupation was eating in traditional restaurants. (Let me advise you always to choose the restaurants where the Portuguese themselves eat. In my view, the food is tastier and they are much better value for your money. In short, the posher the food the less good it is!) At this time of the year, starting around St John's night, grilled sardines seasoned with sea salt and accompanied by a crisp green salad is a popular choice of main dish.
In fact, as you can see above, the Portuguese have gone totally crazy about sardines. Those above are stuffed fabric ones but there are ceramic ones too - there's a series of about 50 different designs.
To see more about sardines and a special sardine shop in Porto, click here.
Here are two ceramic sardines I was given as a present. One is painted like a banana. The other has a design of a café with a client, his dog and a waiter!

But what do you do if you want sardines out of season? Or you'd like them flavoured with something other than sea salt? Then why not visit the sardine shop in Porto. There they have more tins of sardines than anyone could imagine.
They even come on a mini ferris wheel and a train.
I've even seen wooden gift boxes of sardines with between three and six cans in motorway service stations. This has always puzzled me. Who drives up to the petrol pump to fill up and says to themselves suddenly, "Oh Goodness! I've forgotten to buy a present for Great Aunt Isabela. What can I get for her?" and then goes into the shop for a restorative coffee and exclaims, "Ah, wonderful! The very thing. A gift box set of tinned sardines. Aunty Isabella will be so pleased!" Well clealry somebody must do!
So should you find yourself worrying about a forgotten present on your way to the airport, just pull into a service station and buy a wooden box of sardines!
Are there any favourite specialist shops that you know and love? Please write in and tell us about ones that you go to. (If you are Portuguese, please feel free to write in your own language. You don't have to write in English. Lembre-se: o que é importante não é a língua mas a contribuição.)

Food still pretty good, however!
Oh and grilled sardines are just as delicious as they always were. Complemented by a crisp salad they rival ambrosia for the fields of paradise - at leas that is how it seems after 4 months of Covid-19 lockdown!
