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Guest Blog Post from Porto, Portugal

My friend and colleague Justin Bradley provides this report from Portugal:
Porto, Portugal is known for port wine, architecture, and seafood. Down near the Douro river is a plethora of seafood restaurants and wineries just begging you to come inside (literally, there was a guy outside one restaurant practically begging all passersby to come in :) ).
Ora Viva is a small restaurant in this area best known for their octopus dish. This dish, in this restaurant, came highly recommended by several people including my driver from the airport. So I tried it.
In typical European fashion, the restaurant opens for dinner...somewhat late (6:30 p.m.). The inside is very fun! Hanging from the ceiling are money bills from many different countries.
The walls are stone with money tucked in all the crevices.
I'm not a huge fan of seafood. I think it's the textures that get me. But I dove in and got the octopus as per the recommendation. It really was delightful! They told me there's is particularly good because of the way they prepare it -- so it's nice and tender, not slimy and chewy. And he was right! The only chewy part were the suckers ![octopus_suckers](octopus_suckers), about which I assume nothing can be done. It had carrot slices, potatoes, cabbage, and the sauce had strong garlic and onion flavors. All together it really was fantastic!
Of course one cannot go to Porto, Portugal and pass up the chance to experience fine port wine. So I ordered a Taylor's 20 year tawny port wine to go with a slice of "grandmother's cake". The cake was delightful, with mild lemon custard on top, a layered chocolate and pinenuts middle, and a ribbon of chocolate on top. The wine was very sweet, brownish red in color, nice legs, a wonderful smell, and had that old, properly-aged taste that you just don't get with anything less than 10 years old. Overall, I'm a whiskey guy, so my knowledge may not properly transfer to tasting wine. But even so, it had a concoction of flavors that made for a delightful experience, including a nice long finish that kept giving. I highly recommend Ora Viva, they say it's the best octopus you'll ever eat!!
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