Castle Delicatessen, 387 Norwood Road, Tulse Hill

When I dwell on such things, which is often, I get to thinking that the Portugese bars, cafes and shops that dot South London are the best things about living here. If you're not Portugese, or may be even if you are, these places are portals. Gateways to the imagination. Step into them and you're instantly in another, warmer place.

Castle is a Portugese deli, coffee shop and bar on the alley way up to Tulse Hill. I love this place. Partly it's the delicious cakes, really really strong espressos, and elite-level seafood. I once bought a whole octopus there. They do good clams, too. But in large part it's because of the vibe. Check out the picture - one look at those little machines where you put in a coin and get a plastic toy in a plastic ball and I'm eight years old again, on holiday in a place where the nights are warm as day, and my parents let us eat out - at actual restaurants!- smelling of garlic and cooked chickens till way past bedtime. Proust'd like it.

May be the reason that Portugese places give this kind of rush is because not many people who aren't Portugese really like Portugese food. I mean, I do. You do. But it's not yet won mass appeal. And so may be that means that Portugese places in London tend to be really Portugese. It's not the Anglicised version you get if you go to an Italian deli, or an Indian grocer. Rather, it's a piece of the old country recreated perfectly in miniature. Again, a portal.

Throughout the day and long into the night, people mill about the Castle Deli, drinking coffee, Sagres, chatting. Kids run up and down at the alley way as their parents natter. It's much more than a shop - it's a hub, a place of belonging. It brings life, colour, sun to this grey alley squished up against the railway tracks.

Yes, I'm sure I'm romanticising it. But fuck it, we need these spurs to flights of fancy, to imagining ourselves under a different sky. We need places that make us feel good just by walking past them. We need places where life is just allowed to happen and unfurl and spill out of the doors. You don't get that in Tesco Metro.

The best shop in London, and no contest.