Till this day the town retains much of its recent historical charm, featuring many cobbled streets, old houses and very colorful bougainvilleas. Nowadays the highest point of the town is dominated by the parish church.

The town of Porches is a great place to explore one of the characteristic features of Algarve house architecture, elaborate chimneys. In the past the chimney used to signal the status of the house owner and was also used as a type of signature of the builder.

You may not expect it from such a rather small town, but there are quite a few very good restaurants which focus on evening dining, so much so that booking in advance is advisable during the busy summer months. Obviously there are also many cafes and snack bars, as well as a small market.

The area around the town has been known for hundreds of years for its clay pits and in the past the place produced some very large terracotta pots which you can see dotting the townscape. These were used to store wine, water and olive oil. Unfortunately the industry declined during the 19^th century due to imports of cheaper and lighter pottery and china, however the town was put back on the map back in the 1060 by the Irish artist Patrick Swift. His revival of the ancient Algarve style of pottery decoration sparked renewed interest in pottery in the town and nowadays Porches pottery is well-known across the continent. Besides the traditionally decorated pieces, Moorish decorations are also used and everyday items featuring these designs are created too.

The closes beach is divided into two by a 100-meter long tunnel, which you should check the tides before going into.

This region of the Algarve is quite limited, it acts as sort of a natural borderline between the Algarve and the Alentejo region to the north, and as we’ve seen with the other parts of the Algarve, this part of Portugal has also adapted its gastronomy to the most easily accessible ingredients, but it did this without losing the marvelous flavors of the south.

This region is very well-known for its use of pork and as such there are some very widely appreciated pork dishes in the region, the home-made sausages are also well regarded, and even something as simple as the gruel made from corn-meal is a bit special because it is made using the water in which the morcelas – the earlier mentioned blood sausages – were prepared in, and of course with all of this pork just lying around their dark-coloured smoked ham is something to die for.

There’s a hunting season in this region, and during said season you can also find a very delicious hare soup on the menu alongside stewed partridge.

All of the above and more can be found while adventuring through this, relatively narrow, part of the Algarve, but what it maintains in common with the other regions is the particular flavor, a special type of aroma typical to Algarve cuisine thanks to the combinations of the very many different condiments, herbs and spices that naturally grow in the region on the whole.

When you add to these the very close proximity of the very healthy olive oil which is produced immediately to the north in the Alentejo region, then you get a much better idea of the tastes that you should expect.

Explore as much of the Algarve culinary map as you wish with the help of our Algarve car hire services.

The ‘Barrocal’ region’s menu is a quite varied one, because it has relatively easy access both to the fish of the coast, and the livestock of the north, as well as the locally grown vegetables, so combinations of fish, beef and vegetables are the norm here.

This region is what one might usually associate with Portuguese rural cuisine, dishes that are pretty much guaranteed to whet one’s appetite when there’s talk about broad beans cooked in the Algarve style or cherry-coloured chicken, chick-pea stew or Algarve cabbage stew, just to name a few.

One can take a gastronomical tour of the region while at the same time visiting some interesting sights and taking in the landscape and sheer variety that extends to all areas of life, especially the culinary part.

This great variety is what gives Algarve cuisine its own particular type of aroma, which is quite literal, because it arises from the many different condiments and spices that are native to the region and whose use has been honed over the centuries by the cooks of the region to deliver sometimes subtle differences in taste.

The subtle taste comes from a constantly changing combination of olive oil and locally grown herbs such as oregano, penny-royal, rosemary and coriander.

One can say that the Algarve is a place that produces simple and practical dishes, however this doesn’t mean that they can’t be rich and flavourful, quite the contrary, however the best way in which one can experience as much of this simple variety as possible is with the help of our Algarve car hire service.