Wined, dined and rested.

Ok, so what do we NOT expect to find in deepest Streatham? How about the most charming little Portuguese café?

We were of course lucky to be here on a sunny Sunday morning, but what a glorious surprise to find this Portuguese café in Streatham, a district of south London which has seen a discreet trickle of young professional couples moving in to it over the past few years.

We were staying with one of those couples and had wandered out on Sunday morning to give them some space; we had heard from them about the amazing Portuguese custard tarts available nearby, but as we approached a building on a corner its pebble dash did NOT make us think “Aha, here it is – a little piece of Portugal in south London”.

Then we spotted the eclectic mix of tables and chairs on the pavement, the bunting flapping cheerily in the breath of breeze and fairy lights strung up, ready to add a glow to a London winter’s afternoon. And that name above the door – Carvalho’s.

The place just exudes jovial welcome, from the youngster who served us to the hearts decorating the specials board, and this welcome radiates from Maria whose café it is and whose gentle smile lights up the tiny kitchen which is just crammed full of jars, pots, spices, homemade cakes and…. Portuguese pasteis de nata, among other things.

They even have exhibitions of art on the walls ; you wouldn’t have thought they had enough wall space, but somehow it works.

I’m not suggesting that guacamole and poached egg on sourdough is unique to this café; indeed, it is ubiquitous, but here it comes with the Maria touch of magic, and I need to give a special shout-out to the coffee which is excellent.

Plus, as a guacamole pedant, having lived in Mexico for some years, I find it tear-jerkingly nice to be given avocado toast with no mashed avocado in sight. **RANT ALERT** –  what is wrong with people who have this aberrant desire to take a fork to avocado and then make guacamole with it???? Did they have an unhappy childhood? Were they once bitten by a rogue avocado? WHY? Why would you MASH the poor things? The resultant slime bears NO relation to a real, fresh, tingly guacamole. Cut into small dice, people, like all the other ingredients. And please don’t leave out the chile, that is the WHOLE POINT of it….. Grrrrrr.

Breathe out. And in. OK, rant over.

We sat at a little table outside and had a delicious and leisurely coffee sitting in the sun,

… and yes, we DID in fact have the inevitable avocado on sourdough (it was truly good) because we ARE cool hipster people who managed to ignore briefly our concern about air miles. It was delicious, and served with Maria’s charming smile.

We were surrounded by a wonderful collection of people who clearly were regulars – young families, a young couple in hoodies, shorts and flip flops who brought their little dog (who was given a bowl of water), and shortly before we left a police car pulled up – gasp, is this a hold-up? Will they yell “get under the tables” and rush in guns blazing? Nope, they parked as near as possible and two policemen sauntered over and into Maria’s to have breakfast after their Saturday night shift.

What a lovely place this is! If you have the chance, go and find it – it’s on Natal Road, only a stroll away from Streatham and Streatham Common stations. Say hi to Maria for me and tell her I’m missing her pasteis de nata…..