At this time of year the smell of roast chestnuts is everywhere.For two or three euros you can buy a dozen roast chestnuts off a street seller and fill up your stomach with stodgy loveliness that warms up chilly hands to boot. These days they'll also sell you half a dozen... times are tough.
When you approach the chestnut "cart" the seller gets a sheet of telephone directory paper fashions it into a cone and drops in the chestnuts giving the cone a final twist to seal the heat in.
The chestnut sellers have a wonderful contraption especially designed for roasting the nuts - the design of which has probably not changed much in 150 years - that is oftentimes mounted on the back of a motorcycle. You only see them at this time of year - chestnut season - and I suspect that they've been under lock and key whilst their owners have been selling ice creams over the summer.
Hurrah for little warm parcels of Portuguese autumn pleasure!
